Why the Reckoning Is a Historian’s Protest

Editorial Team
7 Min Read


Historical past is written by the victors, however what occurs when the victors wish to erase their very own report? That’s the query that drove me to write down The Reckoning: A Definitive Historical past of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Different Absurdities.

As a historian, I’ve watched the institution try to sanitize probably the most damaging interval in trendy American historical past in an try to make the individuals overlook the lockdowns, the college closures, the financial devastation, and the authoritarian overreach that characterised 2020-2022. I refuse to allow them to succeed.

The E-book They Don’t Need You to Learn 

Whereas politicians and well being officers have moved on, pretending their insurance policies had been mandatory and efficient, I’ve documented the chain of selections made for the reason that begin of the pandemic and the way they worsen our lives immediately.

This isn’t about fantastical conspiracy theories, however moderately a rigorous historic evaluation of insurance policies that failed by their very own acknowledged metrics whereas inflicting immeasurable hurt. The ebook exposes how lockdowns killed extra individuals than they saved, how college closures destroyed a technology’s academic prospects, and the way unelected bureaucrats seized unprecedented energy.

The institution hates The Reckoning as a result of it supplies the tutorial spine lacking from pandemic discourse. They will dismiss offended social media posts or emotional testimonies, however they’ll’t ignore 400 citations from peer-reviewed research, authorities information, and official paperwork.

A Historian’s Responsibility to Protect Reality 

The identical officers who imposed devastating lockdowns now declare they had been following “the science” whereas suppressing any proof that contradicts their narrative, and now they imply to make use of their energy to erase the reality.

Nevertheless, as a historian, I’ve an obligation to protect not solely truths of the far previous, but in addition these of my very own time, exposing some handy lies within the course of. The Reckoning exhibits how a virus with a sub-0.2% fatality fee turned the excuse for the most important peacetime restriction of civil liberties in American historical past.

With out this historic report, future Individuals will solely know the sanitized model the place lockdowns had been mandatory, faculties needed to shut, and questioning specialists was harmful misinformation. That is how we be certain that the reality survives.

The Analysis That Modified Every thing 

Writing The Reckoning required diving deep into authorities paperwork, scientific research, and coverage analyses that mainstream media ignored. What I discovered was damning proof of institutional failure on each stage.

The ebook reveals how the CDC manipulated information to justify lockdowns that their very own research confirmed had been ineffective. It paperwork how college officers saved kids out of lecture rooms regardless of realizing the devastating academic penalties. It exposes how media retailers suppressed legit questions whereas amplifying authorities propaganda.

Every of the 400+ endnotes represents a chunk of proof the institution desires forgotten. Collectively, they construct an awesome case in opposition to the insurance policies that destroyed thousands and thousands of lives whereas enriching the already rich.

Why I Selected to Write This E-book 

Dwelling in Los Angeles in the course of the peak hysteria gave me a front-row seat to authoritarianism in motion. I watched freedoms disappear in a single day and noticed how rapidly Individuals accepted unprecedented restrictions on their day by day lives. The expertise taught me that our constitutional order is much extra fragile than most individuals understand.

As each a veteran and historian, I felt compelled to doc what I witnessed. The Reckoning represents my contribution to the accountability that by no means got here. Whereas no officers confronted penalties for his or her disastrous insurance policies, future generations will at the least know what actually occurred.

The ebook additionally serves as a warning. The authoritarian impulses revealed in the course of the pandemic didn’t disappear when the emergency ended. They’re ready for the subsequent disaster to justify even higher restrictions on liberty.

The Tutorial Basis 

The Reckoning distinguishes itself from different pandemic critiques by way of its scholarly rigor. My background in navy historical past and undergraduate research at NYU offered the analytical framework mandatory to look at this era objectively.

The ebook applies historic methodology to latest occasions, treating the pandemic response as a case examine in institutional failure. It analyzes how concern, groupthink, and political opportunism mixed to supply insurance policies that violated primary rules of public well being and constitutional authorities.

This educational basis makes The Reckoning unimaginable to dismiss as partisan rhetoric. The proof speaks for itself, documented with the identical requirements required for peer-reviewed historic scholarship.

A E-book for the Future 

The Reckoning isn’t simply concerning the previous. It’s a roadmap for understanding how democratic societies can descend into authoritarianism throughout manufactured crises. The ebook exhibits how emergency powers develop into everlasting, how dissent will get criminalized, and the way institutional seize allows widespread abuse.

Future Individuals going through comparable crises will want this historic precedent to withstand the identical manipulative techniques. The Reckoning supplies the mental ammunition essential to problem official narratives and demand accountability from these in energy.

The ebook represents my protest in opposition to a system that prioritizes narrative management over truth-telling. As a historian, I’ve an obligation to protect uncomfortable info that highly effective pursuits need erased. The Reckoning fulfills that obligation.


Written by Thomas Beckett Kane. Have you ever learn?
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