Why the Reckoning Is a Historian’s Protest

History is written by the victors, but what happens when the victors want to erase their own record? That’s the question that drove me to write The Reckoning: A Definitive History of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Other Absurdities.

As a historian, I’ve watched the establishment attempt to sanitize the most destructive period in modern American history in an attempt to make the people forget the lockdowns, the school closures, the economic devastation, and the authoritarian overreach that characterized 2020-2022. I refuse to let them succeed.

The Book They Don’t Want You to Read 

While politicians and health officials have moved on, pretending their policies were necessary and effective, I’ve documented the chain of decisions made since the start of the pandemic and how they worsen our lives today.

This is not about fantastical conspiracy theories, but rather a rigorous historical analysis of policies that failed by their own stated metrics while causing immeasurable harm. The book exposes how lockdowns killed more people than they saved, how school closures destroyed a generation’s educational prospects, and how unelected bureaucrats seized unprecedented power.

The establishment hates The Reckoning because it provides the academic backbone missing from pandemic discourse. They can dismiss angry social media posts or emotional testimonies, but they can’t ignore 400 citations from peer-reviewed studies, government data, and official documents.

A Historian’s Duty to Preserve Truth 

The same officials who imposed devastating lockdowns now claim they were following “the science” while suppressing any evidence that contradicts their narrative, and now they mean to use their power to erase the truth.

However, as a historian, I have a duty to preserve not only truths of the far past, but also those of my own time, exposing some convenient lies in the process. The Reckoning shows how a virus with a sub-0.2% fatality rate became the excuse for the largest peacetime restriction of civil liberties in American history.

Without this historical record, future Americans will only know the sanitized version where lockdowns were necessary, schools had to close, and questioning experts was dangerous misinformation. This is how we ensure that the truth survives.

The Research That Changed Everything 

Writing The Reckoning required diving deep into government documents, scientific studies, and policy analyses that mainstream media ignored. What I found was damning evidence of institutional failure on every level.

The book reveals how the CDC manipulated data to justify lockdowns that their own studies showed were ineffective. It documents how school officials kept children out of classrooms despite knowing the devastating educational consequences. It exposes how media outlets suppressed legitimate questions while amplifying government propaganda.

Each of the 400+ endnotes represents a piece of evidence the establishment wants forgotten. Together, they build an overwhelming case against the policies that destroyed millions of lives while enriching the already wealthy.

Why I Chose to Write This Book 

Living in Los Angeles during the peak hysteria gave me a front-row seat to authoritarianism in action. I watched freedoms disappear overnight and saw how quickly Americans accepted unprecedented restrictions on their daily lives. The experience taught me that our constitutional order is far more fragile than most people realize.

As both a veteran and historian, I felt compelled to document what I witnessed. The Reckoning represents my contribution to the accountability that never came. While no officials faced consequences for their disastrous policies, future generations will at least know what really happened.

The book also serves as a warning. The authoritarian impulses revealed during the pandemic didn’t disappear when the emergency ended. They’re waiting for the next crisis to justify even greater restrictions on liberty.

The Academic Foundation 

The Reckoning distinguishes itself from other pandemic critiques through its scholarly rigor. My background in military history and undergraduate studies at NYU provided the analytical framework necessary to examine this period objectively.

The book applies historical methodology to recent events, treating the pandemic response as a case study in institutional failure. It analyzes how fear, groupthink, and political opportunism combined to produce policies that violated basic principles of public health and constitutional government.

This academic foundation makes The Reckoning impossible to dismiss as partisan rhetoric. The evidence speaks for itself, documented with the same standards required for peer-reviewed historical scholarship.

A Book for the Future 

The Reckoning isn’t just about the past. It’s a roadmap for understanding how democratic societies can descend into authoritarianism during manufactured crises. The book shows how emergency powers become permanent, how dissent gets criminalized, and how institutional capture enables widespread abuse.

Future Americans facing similar crises will need this historical precedent to resist the same manipulative tactics. The Reckoning provides the intellectual ammunition necessary to challenge official narratives and demand accountability from those in power.

The book represents my protest against a system that prioritizes narrative control over truth-telling. As a historian, I have a duty to preserve uncomfortable facts that powerful interests want erased. The Reckoning fulfills that duty.

Written by Thomas Beckett Kane. Have you read?
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