So, let us speak of slavery. The American republic inherited slavery from the British empire, in much the same way that it inherited its fiscal poverty, its lack of manufacturing capability, and its primitive infrastructure. We expected to overcome all of these . . . Continue reading →
1619 Project
Oxford Historian Carwardine: 1619 Project “Preposterous” And “Tendentious”
As well as the essay I have read your interviews with James McPherson and James Oakes. I share their sense that, putting it politely, this is a tendentious and partial reading of American history. I understand where this Project is coming from, . . . Continue reading →
Fredrick Douglass: America Is Not Irredeemable
Where Douglass may have raised a few eyebrows was in his conclusion where he challenged the common northern abolitionist belief that the U.S. Constitution itself was pro-slavery and should be discarded. When Douglass initially escaped slavery, he had accepted this view, but . . . Continue reading →
National Association Of Scholars: Revoke Pulitzer Prize For 1619 Project
The Project as a whole was marred by similar faults. Prominent historians, most of them deeply sympathetic to the Project’s goal of bringing the African American experience more fully into our understanding of the American past, nevertheless felt obliged to point out, . . . Continue reading →
Stephens On The 1619 Project
The 1619 Project is a thesis in search of evidence Continue reading →
The 1619 Project Is Bad History And Boring
Thus to speak of America’s “founding” at all is necessarily to speak of what makes Americans a “people.” When Abraham Lincoln said that the nation was “conceived in liberty” four score and seven years before the dedication of Gettysburg Cemetery—that is, in . . . Continue reading →
Wilfred McClay: The 1619 Project Is Historically False And Morally Corrosive
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,” . . . Continue reading →
Another Salvo (This One From The Left) Against The 1619 Project
On a hot, drowsy August Saturday, a copy of the New York Times Magazine devoted entirely to something called The 1619 Project landed on my doorstep, and immediately grabbed my attention. It took me little time to comprehend the project’s purpose, or . . . Continue reading →
The 1619 Project Privileges Narrative Over Facts
According to a significant number of scholars of American history, one of the most serious weaknesses in the self-described 1619 Project, which argues that racism and slavery was a central motivation for the origin of the American Republic, is that it is factually inaccurate. Continue reading
New Resource Page: Resources On The 1619 Project
The 1619 Project, a product of the New York Times, now a television series on Hulu, is a deeply flawed re-telling of American history. It is not simply that one disagrees with the conclusions of the 1619 Project—historians often disagree about conclusions—what . . . Continue reading →