3 ms·
The Canadian writer Malcolm Gladwell has a podcast called "Revisionist History" http://revisionisthistory.com/ http://revisionisthistory.com/ in which he drills
by OliverJones 8y ago
The Canadian writer Malcolm Gladwell has a podcast called "Revisionist History" http://revisionisthistory.com/ http://revisionisthistory.com/ in which he drills into particular episodes of US history.
I find it interesting, even though I don't have the academic historical chops to independently assess its accuracy.
Example: In the episode called Miss Buchanan's Period of Adjustment, Gladwell explains that Brown v. Topeka Board of Education (the famous school integration case) had a severe consequence. It caused a large fraction of African American schoolteachers and educators to be thrown out of work. He points out that teaching was a major source of 1930s-1950s knowledge-work employment for African Americans was teaching in segregated schools. Quite a few Euro-American school boards obeyed the ruling admitting African American students, but did not employ the teachers from thew schools they left.
http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/13-miss-buchanans-period-of-adjustment http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/13-miss-buchanans-per...
- tpurves 8y agoYou have to be careful with Gladwell. His primary gift, is that is he is an incredible storyteller. Take him as entertainment not as a historian or scientist. He goes for surprising and unexpected simple reasons for everything, often by cherry-picking individual facts or annecdotes.
- cujo 8y agoDo you have any particular instances of him getting it wrong. I often here this concern, but I'm yet to find someone that can point to a moment and say he got it wrong.
- chuckgreenman 8y agoThis article from the Columbia Journalism review is level headed but tough, and brings in a few specific examples: https://archives.cjr.org/the_observatory/the_gladwellian_debate.php https://archives.cjr.org/the_observatory/the_gladwellian_deb...
- paulcole 8y agoThe problem with Gladwell is that he shoots an arrow and then draws a bullseye around where it landed.
- acdha 8y agoIf you want something by historians, try http://www.backstoryradio.org/ http://www.backstoryradio.org/ or http://www.pastpresentpodcast.com/ http://www.pastpresentpodcast.com/ too
- throw2016 8y agoBut why were these teachers not hired in other schools? Given segregation would give rise to exactly these kind of scenarios it reflects a severe lack of planning on desegregation and a system unwilling to desegregate, and betrays yet another instance of continued discrimination with black teachers paying the price.