On this edition of Your Call, Yale Professor of Philosophy Jason Stanley discusses his new book "Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future."
Stanley pulls examples from Nazi Germany, colonized Kenya, and the Jim Crow South, as well as contemporary Hungary, India, and Israel to lay out the playbook Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans are using to erase history and attack the education system. If Trump can control education, he can control the historical record, which is key to instituting an authoritarian regime.
Stanley writes, "One lesson the past century has taught us is that authoritarian regimes often find history profoundly threatening. At every opportunity, these regimes find ways of erasing or concealing history in order to consolidate their power. Why is this? What does history do that is so disruptive of authoritarian goals?"
He says his new book is a global call to action for those who wish to preserve democracy—in America and abroad—before it is too late.
Guest:
Jason Stanley, Professor of Philosophy at Yale University, and author of six books, including "How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them" and "How Propaganda Works"
Resources:
LitHub: How the Far-Right Uses Educational Takeover to Impose Its Agenda
The Guardian: Why fascists hate universities
The Guardian: Israel has destroyed or damaged 80% of schools in Gaza. This is scholasticide
The Post and Courier: Education groups question how PragerU materials are now allowed in South Carolina classrooms
