The 400th anniversary of the first landing of enslaved Africans at Jamestown could have been a great and unifying moment for America. It could have reinforced the assertion of African American scholar W.E.B. DuBois that “before the Pilgrims landed we were here,” meaning that people of African descent have always been a part of American history, and helped all Americans to see that their climb toward equality and dignity is a vital strand of that history. But instead the New York Times’ 1619 Project took its bearings from the opposite view: that there has never been a place for African Americans in that larger American history, because racism was embedded in the American DNA at the beginning. Such a view is both historically false and morally corrosive, as Peter Wood demonstrates in this superb, well-researched, fair-minded, and surprisingly elegant book. Anyone who cares about these matters will need to read it. All Americans ought to.
Wilfred McClay | Blankenship Chair in the History of Liberty, University of Oklahoma | On Peter W. Wood, The 1620 Project: A Critical Response To the 1619 Project (New York: Encounter Books, 2020)
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- The 1619 Project Is Bad History And Boring
- Stephens On The 1619 Project
- National Association Of Scholars: Revoke Pulitzer Prize For 1619 Project
- Princeton Historian Rebukes 1619 Project: The Facts Still Matter
- Oxford Historian Carwardine: 1619 Project “Preposterous” And “Tendentious”
- Guelzo: “The 1619 Project Is Not History; It Is Ignorance“
R. Scott Clark
R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.
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I think the headline may need some punctuation, such as Wilfred McClay on The 1619 Project: “Historically False and Morally Corrosive.” As the headline stands now I got the initial impression that it was McClay whose words were false/corrosive.
It did need correction.
Thank you.
Sorry for the confusion.
No problem!