US History
I have always had a nudge to know about US History. I mean almost all that I knew is that the British were once there, they harmed native Indians and the civil war abolished slavery.
My trigger to finally learn about it was after watching the Hamilton musical (sadly on Hotstar, not live). I came across this beautiful web series. It took me 2 weeks before I realised that the host John Green is the John Green from Fault in Our Stars fame! 🌟
Its a 48 part, 10-hour series which I saw in increments everyday
Its interesting to contrast the tense, violent, racist America of the last 2 centuries with the country today. The roots of Hamilton’s Wall Street, what’s common between the ivy leagues 🏛, wars were fought over whiskey 🍺, Mexico used to include California, Texas etc too, why the French gifted the statue of liberty 🗽, the increasing wealth disparity, immigration waves..
And in light of the civil unrest triggered by George Floyd’s death, it is eye-opening to know how ingrained racism was in the 19th and 20th century America. Did you know that not only the legislature, but even the supreme court once upheld the law to serve “the broad dominant purpose of preserving the purity and integrity of the white race”. The US constitution when drafted counted a slave as 3/5ths of a person for legislative representation!
There are also some parts that reminded me of India’s freedom struggle. For example we had a salt tax forced upon us, while America had the tea tax. Both boycotted British products, both were the world’s biggest cotton plantations for the British (which interestingly played a major role in US’s civil war, and the civil war gave way for the rise of the city of Bombay!)
Episodes 32-34 were a nice revision of the intro to macroeconomics class I taught earlier this year. If you just want a sneak peak, you’ll probably enjoy episodes 37-40 (WW2 +Cold War) and episodes 46-49 (recent history)
