Learning History: The USA

Our "Learning History" project has concerned itself with foreign textbooks, but we should remember that there is a major problem in the US. This was evident at a conference on history textbooks held at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.  A lead speaker was Gilbert Sewall, director of the American Textbook Council. It has just issued a report which is available at the Center's website: www.eppc.org.  This suggests that there is a formal link between the Center and the Council. Other speakers were John Tierney of the Institute if World Politics and  John Fonte of the Hudson Institute. World history textbooks are a fast growing field. The speakers stressed the shortcomings of history textbooks.  Pressure from the Islamic lobby was denounced.  Its stronghold is the Council on Islamic Education, based in Orange County, California, It has an "aggressive" representative in Washington, DC. It promotes for example the idea that jihad is spiritual struggle, not terrorist violence.  Ed Jajko could enlighten us about the word jihad.  There was no mention of the Jewish lobby, which undoubtedly has more clout that the Islamic one.  Here is a simple test: How many textbooks in their discussion of the creation of the state of Israel mention that President Roosevelt assured King Saud that the US would not vote in the UN for its creation, but on his death President Truman reversed the decision, allegedly after receiving $2 million from a Jewish businessman?  This "doublecross" is at the root of Arab resentment against the US. There is a big argument about the use of BC and AD in textbooks. Presumably those promoting BCE and CE are anti-Christian.

Another topic discussed was the influence of muilticulturalists who omit basic facts of history in order to include their agenda. Feminists are doing the same thing. A cult figure has become Hildegard of Bingen, about whom I had a fuzzy recollection.  A Google search revealed that an enormous amount is being written about her. Wikipedia has an article about her too long to quote, so I settled for the Britannica. Saint Hildegard, also called  Hildegard of Bingen,  byname  Sibyl of the Rhine  born 1098, Böckelheim, West Franconia [now in Germany] died Sept. 17, 1179, Rupertsberg, near Bingen; traditional feast day September 17. German abbess and visionary mystic. Hildegard was born of noble parents and was educated at the Benedictine cloister of Disibodenberg by Jutta, sister of the count of Spanheim, whom she succeeded as prioress in 1136. Having experienced visions since she was a child, at the age of 43 she consulted her confessor, who in turn reported the matter to the archbishop of Mainz. A committee of theologians subsequently confirmed the authenticity of Hildegard's visions, and a monk was appointed to help her record them in writing. The finished work, Scivias (1141–52), consisted of 26 visions that are prophetic and apocalyptic in form and in their treatment of such topics as the church, the relationship between God and man, and redemption. About 1147 Hildegard left Disibodenberg with several nuns to found a new convent at Rupertsberg, where she continued to exercise the gift of prophecy and to record her visions in writing.

A talented poet and composer, Hildegard collected 77 of her lyric poems, each with a musical setting composed by her, in Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum. Her numerous other writings include lives of saints; two treatises on medicine and natural history, reflecting a quality of scientific observation rare at that period; and extensive correspondence, in which are to be found further prophecies and allegorical treatises. She also for amusement contrived her own language. Though her earliest biographer proclaimed her a saint and miracles were reported during her life and at her tomb, she has not been formally canonized. She is, however, listed as a saint in the Roman Martyrology and is honoured on her feast day in certain German dioceses.

RH: I am, as usual, bewildered.  If she was never canonized, how can the Roman Martyrology list her as a saint, but so honored only in certain dioceses? If she died a natural death, why is she listed as a martyr?  From what I know of Bay Area feminists, she us a most unlikely figure to be chosen as a feminist icon.  I would appreciate clarification.