Al Carroll is Associate Professor of US, American Indian, and Latin American History at Northern Virginia Community College, and a former Senior Fulbright Scholar in Indonesia. His books are
How should we as a nation change the constitution? Even asking the question gets angry and outrag... more How should we as a nation change the constitution? Even asking the question gets angry and outraged responses. This is so even though parts of it are poorly thought out, anti-democratic, and have done tremendous damage to the nation. There are two obvious ways to deal with that. One is to challenge the holy stature of the constitution. Write the true history, which most historians and political scientists already know is not a noble one, but one of elitists hijacking a popular revolution. The other solution is to keep what is best about the old constitution while adding to it. Propose a new constitution and a new constitutional convention, but make one of the first proposals to keep the best of the old document. The original document is not about rights and all about power, who has it and how they can wield it, and that it will always remain in the hands of elites. The amendments are what most rightly revere. Keep the amendments, and amend the original document of power to spread the power to the mass of people, and add more amendments to limit the power of elites.
This is an edited collection, with introductions and background, of first year university student... more This is an edited collection, with introductions and background, of first year university student essays on their family members who survived colonialism, genocide, and war. Essayists have family backgrounds on wars in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, El Salvador (two), India (two), Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Vietnam. Those with family members who experienced colonialism are from Ethiopia, Namibia, Palestine, Puerto Rico, and South Africa. There are genocide survivors' accounts from Cambodia, Greece, Poland, and Rwanda. The collection includes accounts from American Indian students, Navajo, Pawnee, and Quechua. Appendices include essay guidelines used by students and a sample release form.
This book is a collection of first generation immigrant students and American Indian students rec... more This book is a collection of first generation immigrant students and American Indian students recounting their family members' lives surviving colonialism, border wars, civil wars, genocide, and revolutions. These include accounts from Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cambodia, El Salvador, Iran, Pakistan, Palestine, Poland, Puerto Rico, Rwanda, South Korea, and Vietnam, and three Native accounts, Navajo, Pawnee, and Quechua.
The common perception of Latin American militiaries is as sources of repression and using violenc... more The common perception of Latin American militiaries is as sources of repression and using violence to maintain the old social orders. While largely true, there is also an equally long tradition of subordinate peoples, including indigenous ones, of using the military as an avenue to effect social cnange. Both Hugo Chavez and Ollanta Humala are former officers that fit squarely within a long tradition of Latin American populist leftist military leaders. Evo Morales was an enlisted man but also utilizes the military in a similar fashion. All three are indigenous, with Chavez also of pardo ancestry. This book examines the long history of indigenous veterans in Bolivia, Peru, and Venezuela. It investigates how Latin American elites seek to use the military to break indigenous resistance within national borders and assimilate indigenous peoples within the militaries themselves. It also discusses how Natives often contest that assimilation and utilize the military for their own purposes. Chavez, Humala, and Morales all challenge the old social order of their nations, and how they do that is greatly shped by their experience as indigenous veterans, both for better and for worse.
Famed as the Native flag raiser at Iwo Jima, Ira Hayes' life has been the site of competing narra... more Famed as the Native flag raiser at Iwo Jima, Ira Hayes' life has been the site of competing narratives for the meaning of his time in service, post service adjustment, and early death. This work examines contemporary media accounts, his portrayal in the Flag Raising Monument, Hollywood films The Sands of Iwo Jima, The Outsider, Flags of Our Fathers, and various versions of “The Ballad of Ira Hayes.” Native honorings of Hayes include several memorials, his image on Navajo Nation medals awarded to Navajo Code Talkers, the American Legion post on the Pima reservation, an Akimel O'odham powwow, and many Native artists paintings. This work examines both Anglo-American stereotypes about Hayes, and Anglo-American attempts to self-critique their stereotypes. This book will also examine how Native representations either contest or ignore entirely those same Anglo-American representations.
As far back as colonial times, Native individuals and communities have fought alongside European ... more As far back as colonial times, Native individuals and communities have fought alongside European and American soldiers against common enemies. Medicine Bags and Dog Tags is the story of these Native men and women whose military service has defended ancient homelands, perpetuated longstanding warrior traditions, and promoted tribal survival and sovereignty.
Drawing on a rich array of archival records and oral traditions, Al Carroll offers the most complete account of Native veterans to date and is the first to take an international approach, drawing comparisons with Native veteran traditions in Canada and Mexico. He debunks the “natural warrior” stereotype as well as the popular assumption that Natives join the military as a refuge against extreme poverty and as a form of assimilation. The reasons for enlistment, he argues, though varied and complex, are invariably connected to the relative strengths of tribal warrior traditions within communities. Carroll provides a fascinating look at how the culture and training of the American military influenced the makeup and tactics of the American Indian Movement in the 1960s and 1970s and how, in turn, Natives have influenced U.S. military tactics, symbolism, and basic training.
relationship between his work and McCarty’s. On another matter, the author on page 95 uses a phot... more relationship between his work and McCarty’s. On another matter, the author on page 95 uses a photograph of a stagecoach from his own collection and identifies it as Cape Willingham’s Mobeetie and Las Vegas Mail Line. Actually, this is a February 1879 picture of Eli Bates and F. C. Taylor aboard a San Antonio and El Paso Mail Line Celerity coach at Concho Mail Station in Benficklin, Texas. This photograph has been previously published in a number of books, including those by Wayne Austerman and the Tom Green County Historical Preservation League. These two points aside, Tascosa is a lively, entertaining study that makes an important contribution to our understanding of Texas’s nineteenth-century ranching and Old West history. Texas Tech University Press has produced a handsome book. The sophisticated, mood-setting cover design is eye-catching. Tascosa is also blessed with numerous photographs, many of them from the Haley Library in Midland, that help the reader get an authentic period feel for the people, the town, and the surrounding Panhandle region. The book’s impressive footnotes are an extra bonus and should not be overlooked as they are an engaging read unto themselves.
Though he is unlikely to win, a Trump presidency fits the textbook definition of fascism: appeals... more Though he is unlikely to win, a Trump presidency fits the textbook definition of fascism: appeals to irrationality, totalitarian, extreme bigotry and nationalism, intolerance of dissent; defense of capitalism at the expense of democracy. Trump also would likely start disastrous wars, expel minorities, start his own Redshirt militia, kill and torture thousands, and be overthrown by the military.
The mass murder of nine Blacks by Dylann Roof was white supremacist terrorism, and had little in ... more The mass murder of nine Blacks by Dylann Roof was white supremacist terrorism, and had little in common with random mass shootings in schools, etc. This act may have been preventable. Commentators like Bill O'Reilly succeeded in shutting down a federal task force investigating right wing domestic terrorism.
Ten simple numbers show why the Confederacy and its flags never represented all or most southerne... more Ten simple numbers show why the Confederacy and its flags never represented all or most southerners, or the South. Instead, most southerners stayed loyal to the US.
Ranking presidents often becomes a popularity or recognition test, often very partisan. This pape... more Ranking presidents often becomes a popularity or recognition test, often very partisan. This paper proposes the most just way to judge presidents is by how many lived or died because of their actions.
Nixon's opening to China is often considered his greatest achievement. What is generally ignored ... more Nixon's opening to China is often considered his greatest achievement. What is generally ignored is that it happened because of his refusing to condemn Bengali genocide, and even trying to block India from stopping it.
This is a counterfactual essay examining what would have happened had a failed assassination atte... more This is a counterfactual essay examining what would have happened had a failed assassination attempt against GW Bush in Tbilsi Georgia been successful.
This paper examines not only Clinton's refusal to act to stop Rwandan genocide, but his administr... more This paper examines not only Clinton's refusal to act to stop Rwandan genocide, but his administration's efforts to actively block other countries and the United Nations from taking action. This genocide could have been halted with as little as 5,000 troops, saving the majority of Rwandan lives. This work examines Clinton's motives and his continuing popularity in spite of this, his greatest failure.
In economics, both orthodox Communism and Libertarianism are equally wrong, callous, and dangerou... more In economics, both orthodox Communism and Libertarianism are equally wrong, callous, and dangerous examples of ideological blindness, a set of principles taken to an extreme that caused many people to die. Both are more alike than either set of fanatics (as both set of true believers are) would want to admit. Both fall back on the same defense of "there has never been a true or pure form"of their system. Both systems clearly failed. Communism only lasted 70 years in the first nation to have it, and killed tens of millions with purely man made famines and extreme repression. Libertarianism and its influence on US conservatism takes the greatest share of blame for extreme economic inequality, the Great Recession, and most financial elite crime waves of the past 30 years.
How should we as a nation change the constitution? Even asking the question gets angry and outrag... more How should we as a nation change the constitution? Even asking the question gets angry and outraged responses. This is so even though parts of it are poorly thought out, anti-democratic, and have done tremendous damage to the nation. There are two obvious ways to deal with that. One is to challenge the holy stature of the constitution. Write the true history, which most historians and political scientists already know is not a noble one, but one of elitists hijacking a popular revolution. The other solution is to keep what is best about the old constitution while adding to it. Propose a new constitution and a new constitutional convention, but make one of the first proposals to keep the best of the old document. The original document is not about rights and all about power, who has it and how they can wield it, and that it will always remain in the hands of elites. The amendments are what most rightly revere. Keep the amendments, and amend the original document of power to spread the power to the mass of people, and add more amendments to limit the power of elites.
This is an edited collection, with introductions and background, of first year university student... more This is an edited collection, with introductions and background, of first year university student essays on their family members who survived colonialism, genocide, and war. Essayists have family backgrounds on wars in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, El Salvador (two), India (two), Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Vietnam. Those with family members who experienced colonialism are from Ethiopia, Namibia, Palestine, Puerto Rico, and South Africa. There are genocide survivors' accounts from Cambodia, Greece, Poland, and Rwanda. The collection includes accounts from American Indian students, Navajo, Pawnee, and Quechua. Appendices include essay guidelines used by students and a sample release form.
This book is a collection of first generation immigrant students and American Indian students rec... more This book is a collection of first generation immigrant students and American Indian students recounting their family members' lives surviving colonialism, border wars, civil wars, genocide, and revolutions. These include accounts from Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cambodia, El Salvador, Iran, Pakistan, Palestine, Poland, Puerto Rico, Rwanda, South Korea, and Vietnam, and three Native accounts, Navajo, Pawnee, and Quechua.
The common perception of Latin American militiaries is as sources of repression and using violenc... more The common perception of Latin American militiaries is as sources of repression and using violence to maintain the old social orders. While largely true, there is also an equally long tradition of subordinate peoples, including indigenous ones, of using the military as an avenue to effect social cnange. Both Hugo Chavez and Ollanta Humala are former officers that fit squarely within a long tradition of Latin American populist leftist military leaders. Evo Morales was an enlisted man but also utilizes the military in a similar fashion. All three are indigenous, with Chavez also of pardo ancestry. This book examines the long history of indigenous veterans in Bolivia, Peru, and Venezuela. It investigates how Latin American elites seek to use the military to break indigenous resistance within national borders and assimilate indigenous peoples within the militaries themselves. It also discusses how Natives often contest that assimilation and utilize the military for their own purposes. Chavez, Humala, and Morales all challenge the old social order of their nations, and how they do that is greatly shped by their experience as indigenous veterans, both for better and for worse.
Famed as the Native flag raiser at Iwo Jima, Ira Hayes' life has been the site of competing narra... more Famed as the Native flag raiser at Iwo Jima, Ira Hayes' life has been the site of competing narratives for the meaning of his time in service, post service adjustment, and early death. This work examines contemporary media accounts, his portrayal in the Flag Raising Monument, Hollywood films The Sands of Iwo Jima, The Outsider, Flags of Our Fathers, and various versions of “The Ballad of Ira Hayes.” Native honorings of Hayes include several memorials, his image on Navajo Nation medals awarded to Navajo Code Talkers, the American Legion post on the Pima reservation, an Akimel O'odham powwow, and many Native artists paintings. This work examines both Anglo-American stereotypes about Hayes, and Anglo-American attempts to self-critique their stereotypes. This book will also examine how Native representations either contest or ignore entirely those same Anglo-American representations.
As far back as colonial times, Native individuals and communities have fought alongside European ... more As far back as colonial times, Native individuals and communities have fought alongside European and American soldiers against common enemies. Medicine Bags and Dog Tags is the story of these Native men and women whose military service has defended ancient homelands, perpetuated longstanding warrior traditions, and promoted tribal survival and sovereignty.
Drawing on a rich array of archival records and oral traditions, Al Carroll offers the most complete account of Native veterans to date and is the first to take an international approach, drawing comparisons with Native veteran traditions in Canada and Mexico. He debunks the “natural warrior” stereotype as well as the popular assumption that Natives join the military as a refuge against extreme poverty and as a form of assimilation. The reasons for enlistment, he argues, though varied and complex, are invariably connected to the relative strengths of tribal warrior traditions within communities. Carroll provides a fascinating look at how the culture and training of the American military influenced the makeup and tactics of the American Indian Movement in the 1960s and 1970s and how, in turn, Natives have influenced U.S. military tactics, symbolism, and basic training.
relationship between his work and McCarty’s. On another matter, the author on page 95 uses a phot... more relationship between his work and McCarty’s. On another matter, the author on page 95 uses a photograph of a stagecoach from his own collection and identifies it as Cape Willingham’s Mobeetie and Las Vegas Mail Line. Actually, this is a February 1879 picture of Eli Bates and F. C. Taylor aboard a San Antonio and El Paso Mail Line Celerity coach at Concho Mail Station in Benficklin, Texas. This photograph has been previously published in a number of books, including those by Wayne Austerman and the Tom Green County Historical Preservation League. These two points aside, Tascosa is a lively, entertaining study that makes an important contribution to our understanding of Texas’s nineteenth-century ranching and Old West history. Texas Tech University Press has produced a handsome book. The sophisticated, mood-setting cover design is eye-catching. Tascosa is also blessed with numerous photographs, many of them from the Haley Library in Midland, that help the reader get an authentic period feel for the people, the town, and the surrounding Panhandle region. The book’s impressive footnotes are an extra bonus and should not be overlooked as they are an engaging read unto themselves.
Though he is unlikely to win, a Trump presidency fits the textbook definition of fascism: appeals... more Though he is unlikely to win, a Trump presidency fits the textbook definition of fascism: appeals to irrationality, totalitarian, extreme bigotry and nationalism, intolerance of dissent; defense of capitalism at the expense of democracy. Trump also would likely start disastrous wars, expel minorities, start his own Redshirt militia, kill and torture thousands, and be overthrown by the military.
The mass murder of nine Blacks by Dylann Roof was white supremacist terrorism, and had little in ... more The mass murder of nine Blacks by Dylann Roof was white supremacist terrorism, and had little in common with random mass shootings in schools, etc. This act may have been preventable. Commentators like Bill O'Reilly succeeded in shutting down a federal task force investigating right wing domestic terrorism.
Ten simple numbers show why the Confederacy and its flags never represented all or most southerne... more Ten simple numbers show why the Confederacy and its flags never represented all or most southerners, or the South. Instead, most southerners stayed loyal to the US.
Ranking presidents often becomes a popularity or recognition test, often very partisan. This pape... more Ranking presidents often becomes a popularity or recognition test, often very partisan. This paper proposes the most just way to judge presidents is by how many lived or died because of their actions.
Nixon's opening to China is often considered his greatest achievement. What is generally ignored ... more Nixon's opening to China is often considered his greatest achievement. What is generally ignored is that it happened because of his refusing to condemn Bengali genocide, and even trying to block India from stopping it.
This is a counterfactual essay examining what would have happened had a failed assassination atte... more This is a counterfactual essay examining what would have happened had a failed assassination attempt against GW Bush in Tbilsi Georgia been successful.
This paper examines not only Clinton's refusal to act to stop Rwandan genocide, but his administr... more This paper examines not only Clinton's refusal to act to stop Rwandan genocide, but his administration's efforts to actively block other countries and the United Nations from taking action. This genocide could have been halted with as little as 5,000 troops, saving the majority of Rwandan lives. This work examines Clinton's motives and his continuing popularity in spite of this, his greatest failure.
In economics, both orthodox Communism and Libertarianism are equally wrong, callous, and dangerou... more In economics, both orthodox Communism and Libertarianism are equally wrong, callous, and dangerous examples of ideological blindness, a set of principles taken to an extreme that caused many people to die. Both are more alike than either set of fanatics (as both set of true believers are) would want to admit. Both fall back on the same defense of "there has never been a true or pure form"of their system. Both systems clearly failed. Communism only lasted 70 years in the first nation to have it, and killed tens of millions with purely man made famines and extreme repression. Libertarianism and its influence on US conservatism takes the greatest share of blame for extreme economic inequality, the Great Recession, and most financial elite crime waves of the past 30 years.
The latest domestic massacre in the news is no longer unusual. It is not even by itself, with sev... more The latest domestic massacre in the news is no longer unusual. It is not even by itself, with several other mass shootings also happening recently. What is striking about these shootings is that they no longer bring much outrage, for gun control opponents have in place a series of myths filled with blindness and lack of understanding on the history of firearms in US history.
Two recent terrorists in the past weeks point out the long persistence of right wing terrorism in... more Two recent terrorists in the past weeks point out the long persistence of right wing terrorism in America. The shooting of three people at a Jewish center by Frazier Glenn Miller, a longtime KKK leader, is rightly called a terrorist act by the media. Conspicuously, few are calling him a white terrorist or a Christian terrorist, though that is how he describes himself and the motives for his terrorism.
Politics and history are far too important to leave to professionals. All people have the right t... more Politics and history are far too important to leave to professionals. All people have the right to control their own fates, to not die before their time from unneeded wars or other preventable deaths, and to not be asked to approve of atrocities done in their name, often in secret. They should be able to seek out knowledge of such matters and not see control of their lives handed off to elites.
This was our own experience regarding the difference between the "Galactic Plane" and t... more This was our own experience regarding the difference between the "Galactic Plane" and the "Galactic Equator". The information we'd found in several online sources indicated that they're identical. We knew this to be wrong, so we searched further, and found the article 2 from ...
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Books by Al Carroll
This book examines the long history of indigenous veterans in Bolivia, Peru, and Venezuela. It investigates how Latin American elites seek to use the military to break indigenous resistance within national borders and assimilate indigenous peoples within the militaries themselves. It also discusses how Natives often contest that assimilation and utilize the military for their own purposes. Chavez, Humala, and Morales all challenge the old social order of their nations, and how they do that is greatly shped by their experience as indigenous veterans, both for better and for worse.
Drawing on a rich array of archival records and oral traditions, Al Carroll offers the most complete account of Native veterans to date and is the first to take an international approach, drawing comparisons with Native veteran traditions in Canada and Mexico. He debunks the “natural warrior” stereotype as well as the popular assumption that Natives join the military as a refuge against extreme poverty and as a form of assimilation. The reasons for enlistment, he argues, though varied and complex, are invariably connected to the relative strengths of tribal warrior traditions within communities. Carroll provides a fascinating look at how the culture and training of the American military influenced the makeup and tactics of the American Indian Movement in the 1960s and 1970s and how, in turn, Natives have influenced U.S. military tactics, symbolism, and basic training.
Papers by Al Carroll
This book examines the long history of indigenous veterans in Bolivia, Peru, and Venezuela. It investigates how Latin American elites seek to use the military to break indigenous resistance within national borders and assimilate indigenous peoples within the militaries themselves. It also discusses how Natives often contest that assimilation and utilize the military for their own purposes. Chavez, Humala, and Morales all challenge the old social order of their nations, and how they do that is greatly shped by their experience as indigenous veterans, both for better and for worse.
Drawing on a rich array of archival records and oral traditions, Al Carroll offers the most complete account of Native veterans to date and is the first to take an international approach, drawing comparisons with Native veteran traditions in Canada and Mexico. He debunks the “natural warrior” stereotype as well as the popular assumption that Natives join the military as a refuge against extreme poverty and as a form of assimilation. The reasons for enlistment, he argues, though varied and complex, are invariably connected to the relative strengths of tribal warrior traditions within communities. Carroll provides a fascinating look at how the culture and training of the American military influenced the makeup and tactics of the American Indian Movement in the 1960s and 1970s and how, in turn, Natives have influenced U.S. military tactics, symbolism, and basic training.