[yawz]

My best nonfiction read was The 1619 Project. It's a heavy read, but I highly recommend it. The runner up would be Christian Livermore's We Are Not OK.

Best fiction read was Tim Winton's Breath or (there's probably some recency bias at play here) Sebastian de Castel's Traitor's Blade.

I also read a few comic books. I love the East of West series (at least the first three books).

[Georgelemental]

"The 1619 project" purports to demonstrate that the primary motivation behind the American Revolution was to preserve slavery in the 13 colonies. But this conclusion is false, not supported by the evidece. And, interestingly, some of the best rebuttals of it were published by the World Socialist Web Site, a Trotskyist publication:

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/09/06/1619-s06.html

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/11/14/mcph-n14.html

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/11/28/wood-n28.html

[ploppyploppy]

> My best nonfiction read was The 1619 Project. It's a heavy read, but I highly recommend it. The runner up would be Christian Livermore's We Are Not OK.

lmao

[yawz]

Wow! Immediately downvoted, on the topic of books?!? I wonder which one triggered such a negative reaction.

[quesera]

Many people consider The 1619 Project to be politically-biased fiction.

I have no opinion myself (haven't read the book, don't know much beyond the official grade school history curriculum), but some of the criticisms come from superficially reasonable people.

If you take the book content to be meaningful, you should at least survey the criticisms. Of course you'll want to ignore the virulently anti brigade, which is numerous, very loud, and insufferably stupid.

Did not downvote. I think this is what the downvoters meant. As a reader, you deserve an explanation, IMO.

[than3]

Well, all I'll say is, it is not surprising.

Subversive content in general tends to get that reaction from intelligent people and that book is more rightly considered propaganda than actual history.

If you understand what propaganda is, what its goals are, and can recognize it easily you probably wouldn't have been blindsided.

[sidmitra]

I don't know why you were downvoted, but your comment made me google some of the books to see if there's something to the recommendations. I don't know what the 1619 project is; but the first few google links are all adverts like

> What Is The 1619 Project? - The 1619 Project And Socialism

> 1619 Project Debunked - What parents should know.

So i assume there's a certain section that disagrees with the book so much that they're paying for ads to counter it! Maybe there's an answer lying there. i.e. it triggers the left versus right debate and hard!

[than3]

From what I heard, there have been a number of historians that aired concerns of factual issues pre-print who were ignored, and its marketed as a history book despite not being a history book.

One of the goals of propaganda is to cause disunity.

The idea being you divide people and conquer. You force people into psychological states where there are two minorities where some people don't react, and some who react violently at shadows, and it allows a smaller third group to do things that couldn't normally be done. That's the gist of it. You get them to that point by corrupting social norms, and other factors that make up individual and national identity. Its quite evil, and often uses sophisticated techniques that are designed to work on psychological blindspots we all have, the only defense for that type of material, is to limit exposure and view that material with critical thought and attention.

Obviously this kind of content would be harmful to any children younger than 12 as they would lack the developmental faculties needed to discern lies from truth and just accept what is provided.

[Georgelemental]

American conservatives (myself included) generally dislike the book, for its incorrect account of the motives behind the American Revolution. But interestingly, many old-school economic leftists also disagree with it, as by incorrectly chalking up every historical injustice to "white supremacy", it obscures the economic forces that were the real driving factors. Some of the best rebuttals were published by the World Socialist Web Site, which is Trotskyist.

[JoyfulTurkey]

I seem to recall a bit of controversy about the 1619 Project when it first came out?

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/03/06/1619-proje...

[codeslave13]

Wow people can disagree with me?