Errata file

Errata
The “History 7b: Introduction to U.S. History” lectures you are hearing are live, unedited, and unrehearsed. Listeners have drawn my attention to a few points of fact which should be clarified, here listed by lecture title.

The Meaning of Whiteness: I refer to the German who devised 5 racial classifications as Blumenthal, his correct name is Johann Friedrich Blumenbach.

World War II: The Pacific Front: While I like the symmetry of comparing the European front of WWII to the Pacific Front and also to the “Domestic Front” of the Cold War (lecture 26), many listeners, a fair number of veterans among them, have informed me I should be speaking instead of the “Pacific Theater.” Several listeners thought I used the terms “battleship” and “destroyer” too loosely; in the future I may follow one listener’s suggestion to use “warship” as “a more acceptable generic term.”

World War II: The Good War? As might be expected, I have also received many emails regarding my treatment of WWII and the decision to drop the atomic bomb. For a more extended discussion of these points, see Edward T. Linenthal and Tom Engelhardt’s fine book, History Wars: The Enola Gay and Other Battles for the American Past. My discussion of the racial aspects of the Pacific Theater draws upon John Dower, War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War.

Some listeners have also wondered why I devote so much time to Japanese internment compared to other parts of the conflict. I’m always eager to present a local angle on history when I can, so some of this focus comes from having taught this course in California, where internment remains a living experience for many of the state’s residents. This course was also designed to meet Berkeley’s “American Cultures” requirement, so the contrasting experiences of different racial groups are given particular consideration throughout the course.

Rise and Fall of Richard Nixon: The Democratic Presidential candidate in 1972 was George McGovern not Eugene McCarthy.

The Religious Right: In part of the lecture I lay out the five basics beliefs that mark Fundamentalist Christianity, but mix up my terminology. An important part of fundamentalism is belief in the virgin birth of Jesus, which I mislabeled as “Immaculate Conception.”

One listener writes in to clarify: “The term ‘Immaculate Conception’ refers to the doctrine that the Virgin Mary was conceived free from all stain of original sin. In your lecture you said it refers to the virgin birth of Jesus (this is a common misconception). Evangelicals don’t ascribe to the Immaculate Conception but (obviously) do believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.” The five fundamentals should thus be: divinity of Christ, virgin birth of Christ, validity of biblical miracles, redemption of sinners, and inerrancy of the Bible.

Pronunciation of nuclear. Some listeners are vehement about my pronunciation of “nuclear” as “nu-cu-lar,” which I share with our former president George W. Bush. I do like how this time-stamps my lectures as a product of the Bush presidency, but I am careful nowadays to use the more traditional “nu-clee-ar.”