Reddit reviews A Renegade History of the United States

> The practice created caricatures of black people, mocking and dehumanizing the community and perpetuating racist stereotypes since.

In A Renegade History of the United States there's an interesting chapter that goes into blackface and minstrel shows. Using the words of some of the more popular performers of the time, he makes the case that it was actually a form of (albeit twisted) homage.

In early America, society was extremely repressed. Modesty, virtue, sobriety, chastity, etc... were what was expected of you. Slaves (and later freed blacks) were not really considered part of society, so they weren't held to the same standards. They would dance, and sing, and drink, and have children out of wedlock, etc.... and it wasn't frowned upon because those rules didn't apply to them.

Minstrel played on those aspects of black life... and the argument is that it was so popular because it represented a life they saw value in but couldn't participate themselves. Counter-intuitively, black life represented freedoms that white people could not enjoy, and they had to vicariously do so through minstrel.

It's an interesting take, given the modern day interpretation of it being solely a tool for dehumanization and subjugation.

Organized crime historically played an amazing role in supporting and promoting many things which we would consider mainstream today. Many early jazz musicians played in mob-run establishments or were otherwise supported by organized crime. As another example, the Stonewall Inn (along with a number of other gay bars) was essentially a front for organized crime, and that connection helped to spark the raid which led to the Stonewall Riots and ultimately the gay liberation movement.

Numerous other examples can be found in A Renegade History of the United States, though he by no means dwells on organized crime-- it just pops up here and there.

As far as I know the bloke's an Ancap, and while he doesn't go into it in this interview, his book Renegade History of the United States does bash syndicalism, liberation theology, the New Deal, etc, for espousing the same puritanical work ethic that imposes order on society.

Have any of you comrades read it, or know of him? If so what do you think?

Personally I think he makes decent points when it comes to making a case for the lumpenproletariat or renegades and their role in shaping not just the United States but many other societies. I think he also has a point on how we overtly, or implicitly espouse the notion of puritanical work ethic, rather than embrace debauchery, laziness, and so on, when they're acceptable parts of human nature.

Another book about the early history of the US is Thaddeus Russell's A Renegade History of the United States which definitely had some unpalatable ideas about the concept of slavery but I found interesting in how engrained the rebel spirit is found within the culture of the US.

same one quoted in the post

https://www.amazon.com/Renegade-History-United-States/dp/1416576134

Ok then, i hate to keep throwing "is this accurate?" questions at you guys but there's another book I've been wondering about for a while now. it's called a A Renegade History of the United States ( i couldn't find a wiki page for it. so guess an amazon page will have to do for now.) to me it seems like another crappy "what they didn't teach you in school" book and i haven't really seen it mentioned on this sub.