#history

Remove yourself, sir! ↗

— David McCullough

#david-mccullough #funny #history #john-adams #funny

Unwed white girls who became pregnant in the postwar years were considered psychologically disturbed but treatable, whereas their black counterparts were presumed to be biologically hypersexual and deviant. Historian Rickie Solinger demonstrates that in the 1950s an unwed white girl who became pregnant could go to a maternity home before her pregnancy showed, deliver the baby and give it up for adoption, and return home to her community with no one the wiser. (White parents concocted stories of their daughters being given the opportunity to study for a semester with relatives.) She could then resume the role of the "nice" girl. Unwed pregnant black girls, on the other hand, were barred from maternity homes; they were threatened with jail or termination of welfare; and they were accused of using their sexuality in order to be eligible for larger welfare checks. Politicians regarded unwed pregnant black girls as a societal problem, declaring--as they continue to declare today--that they did not want taxpayers to support black illegitimate babies, and sought to control black female sexuality through sterilization legislation. ↗

— Leora Tanenbaum

#double-standard #history #politics #racism #segregation

Religion has caused more misery to all of mankind in every stage of human history than any other single idea. ↗

— Madalyn Murray O'Hair

#caused #every #history #human #human history

They say it is a wide road that leads to war and only a narrow path that leads home again. ↗

— Bob Massie

#proverbs #war #home

History consists of a corpus ascertained facts. The facts are available to the historian in documents, inscriptions and so on, like fish in the fishmonger's slab. The historian collects them, takes them home, and cooks and serves them in whatever style appeals to him. ↗

— Edward Hallett Carr

#home

How do I define history? It's just one fucking thing after another" - Rudge ↗

— Alan Bennett

#humor #humor

History has spurts and then is steady, and then maybe even backing up a step, and then forward again. ↗

— Alan Bean

#backing #even #forward #history #maybe

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it in summer school ↗

— Josh Stern

#forget #history #humor #school #summer

A man who don't know history, he don't know anything. ↗

— Edward Johnston

#inspirational #inspirational

Each of us lives with a sword over his head. There are those who can ignore its shadow and those who cannot. Those who cannot are not necessarily better than those who can. But they are the creators of the special myth of their time, because any myth is the creation of the very few who cannot bear reality. ↗

— Murray Kempton

#activism-inspiration #american-history #ethics #myth #revolution