Dissenting opinions: Selected essays

by Page Smith

This book is a burr in the cuff of American consciousness. The barbs surrounding its vegetable core stick and cling to one's socks as one moseys around the badlands of the American heartland. Page Smith will never be ''in power.'' And perhaps that is good; he has little respect for power and would probably misuse it. He doesn't even teach anymore, having left his post at the University of California at Santa Cruz in protest against a bungled tenure review (not his own). He has nothing to lose. As the author of ''The People's History of the United States,'' Smith is well known for his ability to write history as story. The monographic approach - in which one masters and is mastered by an obscure but limited area of ignorance called one's ''specialization'' - is not for him. In an essay (included here) called ''Students Don't Study History - They Are History,'' Smith attacks those who think of history as facts and dates (he admits he is always forgetting facts and dates); rather he wants historians to make students ''conscious of themselves as historical beings.'' Starting with the students' own ethnic backgrounds is one of his suggestions. It is not hard to see why timid high school teachers avoid doing history this way.

215 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Charles Page Smith, who was known by his middle name, was a U.S. historian, professor, author, and newspaper columnist.
A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Smith graduated with a B.A. degree from Dartmouth College in 1940. He then worked at Camp William James, a center for youth leadership training opened in 1940 by Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, a Dartmouth College professor, as part of the Civilian Conservation Corps. Smith was awarded a Purple Heart for his service as a company commander of the 10th Mountain Division of the United States Army during World War II. (wikipedia)

Reviews

[QOH · Rating 4 out of 5]

While a few essays are embarrassingly dated, Smith is entertaining and sharply critical of establishment, well, everything. His critiques of education are the best in the collection.

[Jacob Dennon · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a UCSC student, it's cool to learn about some history from these Essays. I think there's a lot of great things in here. It's hard to read this book and still be apathetic afterwards