It took me awhile to find it but here is the first episode of Stone's Untold History.
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com.br/2012/11/atomic-history-what-your-teachers-didnt.html It covers from Japan's very early invasion of Manchuria to the Battle of Stalingrad in one hour. That's a lot of territory with a lot of background history that is skipped. It's only been in the last decade or so, I've tried to fill in blanks including a two volumn set on just the German Eastern Front. So there is plenty to pick at but it's not worth the detail. And Stone is not covering anything that wasn't known provided you changed focus from a direct US WWII movie script, and opened your mind to the Chinese and Russians. Stone will probably not get into the all the complications of the US-UK struggles with the Chinese Nationalists and marginalizing the Communists. In my remembered school histories the Russians and especially the Chinese are merely blank spots. There were a few mentions of southern China, Burma, and very distant US airfields. As for Russia I had no idea at all of the relative numbers. Stone uses the figure of 27 million Russian dead. These are tremendous numbers I only came across sometime in 1990s. I am trying to remember how the disappearence of Russia and China was accomplished. Probably maps. They both cover so much land area that the maps and illustrations simply left off the edge. In the Pacific that's pretty easy. A focus on Europe and the Mediterranean neatly obscures the Russian front until the very end. If the US public seems to be at the bottom of the charts on knowledge of history, the runner up has to be geography. Stone also concentrates on the internal conflicts between the US and British, FDR and Churchill which is usually left out until recently. On the downside, Stone uses a lot of war propaganda film which we've all seen for decades. The effect is nothing that is visually unknown or not already imprinted. It seems to me the more important question is to wonder at the uniformly reactionary reviews and responses. What is this really about? Maybe that will become clearer in later episodes. As far as I can tell the reaction is coming from a string of neoconservative writers and all the usual sources that backed up Bush, Obama, and so on. I still haven't answered what is their trip? Yeah paid for propaganda for the US Incorporated. CG _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
