Take David Barton, who believes the framers of the Constitution were Christian zealots just like him who sought to establish a theocracy, or Newt Gingrich, who insists the welfare state “is incompatible with human nature because it does not view American citizens as individuals with inherent dignity and rights,” or Dinesh D’Souza, who alleges that “the cultural left” was “responsible” for the attacks of 9/11 and calls the Democrats a “fascist” party. Meanwhile, the hard-right, pro-Trump writers of history who attract a mass audience peddle crude propaganda riddled with falsehoods. The racist would-be tyrant with the adoring right-wing base clearly knows little and cares less about what actually happened in the America he imagines was so great. But liberal and left-wing scholars have dominated the field for decades they write nearly all the respected monographs, while the late Howard Zinn’s ardently damning A People’s History of the United States has sold well over 2 million copies since it was first published in 1980. They want to persuade readers that the nation’s past supports their convictions about the present. The first is their marginality in the profession itself. president, Calvin Coolidge, about to milk a cow (Library of Congress)Ĭonservative scholars who try to make sense of U.S. By not giving the battle against racism and for equality its due, Wilfred McClay’s Land of Hope fails to explain how and for whom power was and continues to be wielded in America.
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