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Annales d’histoire

“I was just reading something last night from the state of California that … seven or eight of the California system of universities don’t even teach an American history course [Rick Santorum said at a campaign stop]. It’s not even available to be taught.”

MSNBC talk show host Rachel Maddow on her Monday broadcast called the Santorum statement “100 percent untrue” and “hysterically wrong.”

She then read from the University of California, Davis, course calendar naming several courses from the Davis catalog and the classes’ instructors.

Courses include “History of the United States,” “The Gilded Age and Progressive Era” and “War, Prosperity and Depression, 1917-1945.”

Davis officials said they were pleased with the unexpected exposure.

“We were thrilled that a national TV audience was able to see the breadth of our course offerings in a very important subject,” UC Davis spokesman Barry Shiller said Tuesday.

All campuses teach multiple American history courses.

Margaret Soltan, April 4, 2012 7:07AM
Posted in: How We Learn

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6 Responses to “Annales d’histoire”

  1. MattF Says:

    Yeah, but… it’s not real American history.

  2. AYY Says:

    Santorum described what he was reading, not what he claimed to know from first hand knowledge.

  3. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Yes, and we want a president who reads something completely false (or something he misunderstands – because of his hatred of universities, or because of poor reading comprehension) and then announces it to the nation as true.

  4. Alan Allport Says:

    Rick’s a lifetime subscriber to that reliable source, The Something From the State of California News.

  5. JND Says:

    I am probably more sympathetic to Rick Santorum than most who will read this post.

    Still — the claim is so outrageous! Even if he did read it, shouldn’t he have had judgment enough to check it before repeating it?

  6. DM Says:

    Margaret, Santorum talks to people who do not care about facts. It’s pointless to prove him wrong — these people do not watch Rachel Maddow’s show, because she’s a damn LIBERAL, plus a lesbian (thus a pervert).

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