Listen to the Rain

I agree entirely. I think too often the popular understanding of history and why terrible things happen comes down to taking particular historical figures and saying that it's because they're evil (bad understanding) or crazy (worse understanding). It completely removes them from our own worldview. Like, how could the Germans go along with the Nazis? Obviously the Nazis were kitten-killing evil, so either the Germans were evil or they didn't know.

I can see this now in how the Polish government treats Jewish victims of the Shoah from Poland as Poles when it's convenient to claim that Poland is an underdog, despite that many Jewish survivors were turned away with nothing or even murdered by their neighbors when they returned to their former villages and tried to reclaim their property.

Or, to hit closer to home, I expect most Americans don't know that our own countrymen sold postcards of lynchings.

History in school is generally an overview, but I think a little more depth on some subjects is warranted. I'm going to blame standardized tests for making history cover the entire world over and over and over again. They're just teaching to the test because it's legally required.