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Author Johansen, Bruce E. (Bruce Elliott), 1950-

Title Debating democracy : Native American legacy of freedom / Bruce E. Johansen ; with chapters by Donald A. Grinde, Jr., and Barbara A. Mann ; foreword by Vine Deloria, Jr.

Imprint Santa Fe, N.M. : Clear Light Publishers, ©1998.

Copies

Location Call No. OPAC Message Status
 Axe Special Collections Reitz  973.0497 J599d 1998    ---  Lib Use Only
Description 221 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
text txt rdacontent
unmediated n rdamedia
volume nc rdacarrier
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents What the hell is this? -- Clio, clan mothers, and collegial cacophony: memoirs of my misspent youth in Iroquois history / Donald A. Grinde, Jr. -- The coyotes form a collective -- To whom shall we listen? -- A horror story of political correctness -- Expanding the scope of permissible debate -- You've made a cliche of it.
Summary "American founding fathers would readily acknowledge our debt to the Iroquois Confederacy for many democratic ideas and governing principles contained in our constitution. For some Americans, however, this notion represents a perverse--even wicked-- attack on our national identity and denial of our European racial, cultural, and intellectual heritage. For years, academic gatekeepers used their power to suppress publication of works supporting the "influence theory." When this effort failed, nearly two decades of furious debate followed. Ignoring historical records, outraged academic critics and media gurus resorted to misrepresentations and personal attacks on scholars like Bruce Johansen and Donald Grinde to discredit the Iroquois influence theory, pronouncing it "a new barbarism," "a fantasy," "a fraud," and "a horror story of political correctness." Historian Bruce Johansen traces the issues and conflicts, exposing the machinations of the academic establishment, the struggles over public school curriculum, and the power of the Eurocentric intellectual elite to influence public opinion. Right-wing media gurus who picked up the story have linked Iroquois and other multicultural influences to every ill besetting contemporary American society from the rise in teenage pregnancies to the fall in Scholastic Aptitude Test scores. Historian Donald Grinde describes his experience as a Native American scholar daring to confront the white academic establishment on its own ground and discusses issues surrounding the controversy that have troubled the Indian community. Barbara Mann's epilogue examines Eurocentric assumptions of racial, cultural, and intellectual superiority that continue to govern education and scholarship, affecting the ability of non-Europeans to participate in our society"--Back cover.
Subject Iroquois Indians -- Politics and government.
United States -- Civilization -- Indian influences.
United States -- Politics and government -- To 1775.
United States -- Historiography.
Civilization -- Indian influences. (OCoLC)fst00862924
Historiography. (OCoLC)fst00958221
Iroquois Indians -- Politics and government. (OCoLC)fst00979422
Politics and government (OCoLC)fst01919741
United States. (OCoLC)fst01204155
Chronological Term To 1775
ISBN 0940666782 (cloth)
9780940666788 (cloth)
0940666790 (paper)
9780940666795 (paper)

 
    
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