American History

I've always loved History and America History was my favorite subject in school. As an adult I've continued to read history books and not just American history. I will read history about anywhere at anytime.

Yesterday was President Biden's first day in office and I saw that this morning he disbanded the 1776 Commission and withdrew their recently published report. I was delighted. The 1776 Commission was created by former President Trump in September 2020 to support his view of "patriotic education". The project was created in response to the New York Time's 1619 Project which conservatives hated because it explored American history from an African-American perspective and criticized the Founding Fathers as mostly slave owners. The 1619 Project was journalism with "aims to reframe the country's history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the United States' national narrative". The project explored the deep roots of slavery and racial injustice in America.

Trump's commission was made up of conservative political appointees with no background in US history. They quickly put together a report that came out on Martin Luther King Day that was strongly criticized by historians as "pseudohistory" with no basis in actual American history. Trump had planned to use the report to pressure schools across the country to change their history classes to reflect his view and wanted all national parks and federal historical sites to include his nationalist "patriotic education". They wanted to write the definitive chronicle of the founding of America but reads like a right wing manifesto that excuses slavery and justifies racist policies. This was also part of Trump's attacks on critical race theory and the concept of systemic racism in America. The report rails against socialism and called progressivism, accusations of racism and and identity politics "challenges to American principals". It criticized affirmative action and called it "preferential treatment". This commission and report was a sop to white supremacy and his racists supporters and has been strongly criticized by scholars of American history.

This was to be a central program of his second term in office. Today President Biden disbanded the commission which was supposed to work for two years and pulled the report from the White House website. This was one of the many executive orders issued immediately upon taking office.

I'm so happy the trump years are over.