The story of America is one of disinformation. It is born through that. A state born of an idea relies on the myth making of the nobility of that idea. The actual history of this nation is so blood soaked and is so not one of freedom and independence for all, but maybe for, you know, landed gentry. That's why education winds up being the battleground that it is. And that's why I think having conversations like the one we just had with Professor Madley are fundamental to what we do here on this show.
In this extended interview, we speak with UCLA Associate Professor Benjamin Madley about his book, "An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe," and discuss how newspapers, tracts, and paperbacks were an essential element in assisting and priming the public for the genocide of California's native population.
Prof. Madley's work was instrumental in our research for previous Citations Needed episodes - namely, "Episode 158: How Notions of 'Blight' and 'Barrenness' Were Created to Erase Indigenous Peoples" and "Episode 172: The Foundational Myth Machine - Indigenous Peoples of North America and Hollywood" - so we were thrilled to dig even deeper into his work on this special News Brief.