Bio:

 History isn't what happened, but a story of what happened. And there are always different versions, different stories, about the same events. One version might revolve mainly around a specific set of facts while another version might minimize them or not include them at all.
      Like stories, each of these different versions of history contain different lessons. Some histories tell us that ourleaders, at least, have always tried to do right for everyone. Others remark that the emperors don't have the slaves' best interests at heart. Some teach us that this is both what has always been and what always will be. Others counsel that we shouldn't mistake transient dominance for intrinsic superiority. Lastly, some histories paint a picture where only the elites have the power to change the world, while others point out that social change is rarely commanded from the top down.

       Regardless of the value of these many lessons, History isn't what happened, but the stories of what happened and the lessons these stories include. The very selection of which histories to teach in a society shapes our view of how what is came to be and, in turn, what we understand as possible. This choice of which history to teach can never be "neutral" or "objective." Those who choose, either following a set agenda or guided by hidden prejudices, serve their interests. Their interests could be to continue this world as it now stands or to make a new world. 
      We cannot simply be passive. We must choose whose interests are best: those who want to keep things going as they are or those who want to work to make a better world. If we choose the latter, we must seek out the tools we will need. History is just one tool to shape our understanding of our world. And every tool is a weapon if you hold it right.

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Email: thedirectorate@historyisaweapon.com.

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Blog Page: 
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Letter to President Washington

By: by Big Tree, Cornplanter, and Half-Town (Seneca, 1790)

Source: Drake, Samuel. Biography and history of the Indians of North America, from its first discovery. Boston, B. B. Mussey, 1848.

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Who Is Your Mother? : Red Roots of White Feminism: Red Roots of Wh...

By: by Paula Gunn Allen

Sinister Wisdom Vol 25, Winter 1984.

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Letter of Francisco de Montejo Xiu

By: by Francisco De Montejo Xiu; Juan Pacar

Letter of Francisco de Montejo Xiu to the King, April 12, 1567 from Yucatan.

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"With Such People I Want No Peace"

By: by Francis S. Drake

SOURCE: Francis S. Drake. The Indian Tribes of the United States. Volume 2. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott and Co., 1884. 34.

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Crime As Social Control

By: by Christian Parenti

Citation: Social Justice Vol. 27, No. 3 (2000): 43-49.

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Looking Back : Radical Criminology and Social Movements: Radical C...

By: by Gregory Shank

Social Justice Vol. 26, No. 2 (76), 25th Anniversary Commemoration (Summer 1999)

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An Interview with Christian Parenti : The War on the People: The W...

By: by Suzi Weissman

SUZI WEISSMAN, An editor of Against the Current and host of "Beneath the Surface" on KPFK radio in Los Angeles, interviewed Christian Parenti for the program broadcast November 15, 1999. We present an edited excerpt here.

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Prison Labor, Slavery & Capitalism In Historical Perspective

By: by Stephen Hartnett

Original Publisher unknown. Reprinted on History Is A Weapon website.

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Masked Racism : Reflections on the Prison Industrial Complex: Refl...

By: by Angela Davis

Published in ColorLines New and published by Race Forward, The Center for Racial Justice Innovation.

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Remembering the Real Dragon : An Interview with George Jackson May...

By: by Ward Churchill, Editor; J.J. Vander Wall, Editor

Interview by Karen Wald and published in Cages of Steel: The Politics Of Imprisonment In The United States (Edited by Ward Churchill and J.J. Vander Wall)

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An Open Letter to My Sister, Angela Y. Davis

By: by James Baldwin

In 1970, Angela Y Davis was arrested and charged with aggravated kidnapping and first-degree murder. Davis’ gun was used in a violent hold-up of a California courtroom. She was subsequently acquitted of all charges. On November 19,1970, James Baldwin wrote an open letter to Angela Davis.

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Social Insecurity : The Transformation of American Criminal Justic...

By: by Anthony M. Platt

Social Justice Vol. 28, No. 1 (2001): 138-155.

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"You Cannot Kill the Working Class"

By: by Angelo Herndon

Angelo Herndon's "You Cannot Kill the Working Class," helped educate Northerners about the injustices in the Southern legal system. Herndon (1913 - 1997) was born into a mining family and as a teenager he joined the Communist party. In 1932 he was arrested after he helped organize a peaceful, interracial march in Atlanta, Georgia. He was tried before an all-white jury for violating an obscure Georgia insurrection law, and sentenced to eighteen to twenty years on a chain ...

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Fannie Henderson Witnesses Southern Lynch Law

By: by Michael Keith Honey

Published in Black-Workers Remember: an oral history of segregation, unionism, and the freedom struggle by Michael Keith Honey, pg. 20-23.

In the absence of a strong protest organization in the African American community, the police in the 1930s and 1940s were happy to demonstrate their power by victimizing many hapless individuals. And yet individuals did resist. Ms. Henderson, for example, acted against her powerlessness to stop a grisly lynching by becoming an official witness to it. Her friend Mary Alexander made the choice that many people would: she hid herself from direct knowledge of police crime an...

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The Challenge of Prison Abolition : A Conversation: A Conversation

By: by Angela Y. Davis; Dylan Rodriguez

"The Challenge of Prison Abolition: A Conversation" A dialog between Angela Y. Davis and Dylan Rodriguez , Social Justice, 27:3=81 (2000:Fall) p.212

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Opening Up Borderland Studies : A Review of U.S.-Mexico Border Mil...

By: by Jose Palafox

Palafox, J. (2000). Opening up borderland studies: A review of U.S.-Mexico border militarization discourse. Social Justice. 27. 56-72.

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Slavery and Prison : Understanding the Connections: Understanding ...

By: by Kim Gilmore

Article published in the Social Justice: Critical Resistance to the Prison-Industrial Complex, Vol. 27, No. 3 (2000).

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Prison Nation : Driven by fear, the US has surrendered to "Carcera...

By: by Sasha Abramsky

This article is an edited excerpt from his upcoming book, Hard Time Blues: How politics built a prison nation, published by St. Martin's Press in January, 2002.

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Race, Prison, and Poverty : The Race To Incarcerate In The Age Of ...

By: by Paul Street

Paul Street, “Race, Prison, and Poverty: The Race to Incarcerate in the Age of Correctional Keynesianism,” Z Magazine (May 2001), p. 26.

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Dark Connections : Empire abroad, prisons at home: Empire abroad, ...

By: by Paul Street

Street P. Dark Connections: Empire abroad, prisons at home. Z Magazine 2003; January: 41-45.

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