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Busting the myth of ‘manifest destiny’
CARLOS MARTINEZ recommends a book which ruthlessly exposes the concept of US exceptionalism
PIC CAP Founding-fathers fantasy: The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth by Jennie A Brownscombe

American Exceptionalism and American Innocence: A People’s History of Fake News, from the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror
by Roberto Sirvent and Danny Haiphong
(Skyhorse, £19.99)

 

THIS important work of Marxist sociology and history relentlessly unpicks the foundational myths of the United States which, with their accompanying ideology of exceptionalism and innocence, act as a “cultural drug” that serves to pacify and deceive the masses.

[[{"fid":"17418","view_mode":"inlineright","fields":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"class":"media-element file-inlineright","data-delta":"1"}}]]Picking up the historical baton from Howard Zinn, its authors Roberto Sirvent and Danny Haiphong expose the extraordinary violence and cruelty that accompanied the colonial settlement of the Americas and the establishment of the United States.

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