Distorting history invites an uneasy future

Those who dismiss the facts of the past are vulnerable to lies today

Plymouth Rock, where many Americans believe our nation’s history began. (Photo by Thomas Hawk)

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Ask an American to name the first European settlement in what became the United States, and you’re likely to hear about the Pilgrims’ landing at Plymouth Rock in 1620, or maybe the English colony established in Jamestown in 1607. Both answers are wrong, but don’t feel bad if those were your choices. Even most history professors won’t be able to name the place.

Here the real story, then, so you can impress your friends: In 1526, a Spanish magistrate named Lucas Vásquez de Ayllón landed a ship at what’s now called Winyah Bay, on the coast of present-day South Carolina, and named the settlement San Miguel de Gualdaupe. While the precise site isn’t clearly identified, it’s somewhere in what is now the little county-seat city of Georgetown, named, ironically, for King George III, the villain of the American revolution. Its Spanish origin is all but forgotten.¹

Maybe the elevation of England’s role in our sense of the nation’s heritage is just because, as the saying goes, history is written by its winners. It was the English, of course, whose settlement of North America in the 17^th and 18^th centuries gave rise to what’s now the United States. But the lack of understanding of our nation’s real history is reflected in the myths we tell ourselves about who we are and what’s most important to us today.

The omission of Spain’s settlement of South Carolina in our sense of America’s past is just one distortion of what really shaped the country. The historian Steven Mintz, whose 14 books have ranged across the social and cultural history of the nation, notes that our fixation on the eastern seaboard and immigration from Europe has tended to erase the identity of entire groups of Americans – including millions of people who immigrated from Mexico, China and Japan. In the same way, our attention to the Industrial Revolution’s role in the east and midwest has undervalued the impact of large-scale mining and agriculture during the 19^th century in the southwest.²

And, certainly, our sense of the westward migration of the European settlers’ descendants was until recently depicted as a heroic effort to civilize a wilderness that had been controlled by dangerous natives – people confusingly referred to as Indians, because Christopher Columbus mistakenly believed that he had landed in 1492 on the shore of South Asia, which he referred to as “the Indies.” Only recently have we begun to pay attention to the vibrant cultures that existed on this land before the immigrants brutally established their dominance.

Why does all of this matter? Because understanding our history gives us a grounding for moral contemplation of where we stand today. And because truth matters, and failing to honor the truth of our past makes us susceptible to devaluing its worth in charting our future.

We’ve always been more likely to trust the credibility of those who deal with the past than people who interpret the present – that is, we’re more respectful of a historian than a politician or a journalist. There’s good reason for that. Our views of history surely aren’t as clean of bias as we might have imagined or as we were taught, but the process of scholarship tends over time to flush out distortions. Now, though, as politicians increasingly inject their contemporary views into the teaching of history, we have even more reason to be suspicious.

So is it coincidence that Florida’s attack on the College Board’s African American Studies Advanced Placement course, which has drawn a lot of attention in recent weeks, happens to fit the political framework of Gov. Ron DeSantis? The Republican governor and likely presidential contender often brags that he is standing up to what he calls “wokeness.” You have to wonder, then, if it’s really in defense of historical scholarship that Florida’s education officials – who report to the governor – have insisted that the AP curriculum drop what the state described as “discriminatory and historically fictional topics,” including Black Lives Matter, Black feminism and queer studies.³

But the Florida imbroglio is only the most visible of countless efforts across the nation to cleanse public schools of teaching that departs from the traditional Eurocentric view of American history.

We are nearing a point where our schools will be obligated to teach not what academic experts view as the most accurate view of history, but what politicians consider the most palatable to their constituents, and the most useful for their political careers. A history that diminishes the role of non-Europeans in America would suggest not only that some current Americans matter less than others, but also that we care less about truth than about convenience.

And if we can’t agree to accept the best efforts of scholars to understand our past, it’s no wonder that we grapple to find common ground on what our priorities ought to be going forward.

President Biden’s State of the Union address, marked by jeering and catcalls from Republican members of Congress, made it clear both how divided Americans are and how coarse our political culture has become over the past quarter century. A survey released this week by the Pew Research Center puts that into perspective.

If you look at the numbers in the aggregate, the Pew study might seem to suggest Americans agree on what’s important: 75 percent of U.S. adults say that strengthening the economy should be the top priority for Biden and Congress to address this year; and seven other issues, including reducing health care costs and defending against terrorism, draw from 57 to 60 percent support as being the most important topics for the government.

But if you link how the issues are viewed to political preferences, you see the fault lines: While 71 percent of Republicans say reducing the deficit should be the government’s top priority, only 44 percent of Democrats say that; and while 59 percent of Democrats prioritize dealing with climate change, that draws the support of only 13 percent of Republicans. About half of Democrats say race relations ought to be prioritized by the federal government, but only 13 percent of Republicans agree. Immigration, by contrast, is a priority issue for almost twice as many Republicans as Democrats.⁴

Those priorities reflect our varied understanding of the nation’s history and our respect for truth. Experts agree, for example, that America needs immigrants to solve its persistent labor shortage, but opportunistic politicians play upon ethnocentrism and racism to resist the immigration law reform that would solve that problem.⁵ We understand that racism – that is, a system of advantage based on race – is real in America, as so many measurable factors reveal, but any attempt to redress racism runs into political opposition because it would require a shift in resources toward traditionally disadvantaged people.⁶ And it’s clear that human-caused climate change is already being felt – in more intense storms, drought that imperils huge expanses of land and global species extinction – even as politicians refuse to take the dramatic steps that would be needed to bring the change needed because it would disrupt the financial advantage of those who help them stay in power.

Yet we seem no more able to face up to the realities of what must be our current agenda than we are willing to embrace to the truth of our history. The great English writer George Orwell observed, “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”⁷ We need to be as clear-eyed about what might solve today’s pressing issues as we are about understanding what came before. Those who are willing to delude themselves about the facts of their past, after all, are likely to be equally dismissive of the necessary course for their future.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Miguel_de_Gualdape

2. https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-gamma/viewing-us-history-through-different-lens

3. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/09/florida-college-board-african-american-studies-course-00082083

4. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/02/06/economy-remains-the-publics-top-policy-priority-covid-19-concerns-decline-again/

5. https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/22/economy/immigration-jobs/index.html

6. https://news.stanford.edu/2020/06/09/seven-factors-contributing-american-racism/

7. https://blogs.baylor.edu/david_a_smith/2015/08/18/george-orwell-on-destroying-history/

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HEAR MORE FROM REX SMITH

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NEWSCLIPS FROM THE UPSTATES

Dispatches from our common ground *

Wherein each week we look around what we call the nation’s Upstates — those places just a bit removed from the center of things — to find illumLinating news and intriguing viewpoints, which you might not otherwise see.

This week, we share reporting published here:

• Gadsden, Ala. (The Gadsden Times, gadsdentimes.com)

• Lake Elsinore, Cal. (Palm Springs Desert Sun, desertsun.com)

• Topeka, Kan. (Topeka Capital-Journal, cjonline.com)

• Concord, N.H. (Portsmouthj Herald, seacoastonline.com)

NOTE: The complete “Newsclips from the Upstates” section, and The Upstate American Midweek Extra Edition, are available only to paid subscribers. Thanks for your support!

ALABAMA

Legislators move to bar teaching “divisive concepts”

Republican state legislators have reintroduced a bill that would ban teaching in Alabama schools of “divisive concepts,” including racism, sexism and oppression. The bill, which is similar to one that failed when it passed only one house last year, would apply to public school classrooms in kindergarten through college, according to reporting by Jemma Stephenson of Alabama Reflector. The bill would allow educational institutions to “discipline or terminate” those who knowingly violate the act. The state House Democratic minority leader described the bill as “government overreach,” and added that that it is “the same pig as it was before — it just has lipstick on it.”

CALIFORNIA

Officials move to limit human impact on poppy bloom

In 2019, fields of poppies erupted into a rare and beautiful “super bloom” in an area of Southern California, drawing so many onlookers that officials described it as a “nightmare.” Freeways were stopped, tourists dislodged boulders in an effort to get Instagram-ready shots and injuries resulted that required rescue. This year, according to reporting by City News Service in the Palm Springs Desert Sun, another bloom is emerging — and while it seems unlikely to be as lush as four years ago, officials are preemptively shutting down the area as a safety precaution. Officials are hoping that a live camera of the bloom in Walker Canyon will substitute for people attempting to visit the closed area in person.

KANSAS

State moves toward barring diversity training for social workers

A state legislative committee has approved a ban on requiring training on diversity, equity and inclusion for social services professionals. Jason Tidd reports in the Topeka Capital-Journal that the ban, which would be imposed as a part of the state budget, would apply to the board that licenses psychologists, social workers, marriage and family therapists and addiction counselors. The ban was approved on a 5-4 committee vote, but opponents suggested it may be stripped in subsequent consideration because the legislature doesn’t usually make policy decisions in spending bills. Besides, said one opponent, “Having health care providers that are culturally competent and are aware of the communities that they are serving is important.”

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Debate focuses on gender-specific bathrooms in schools

Legislators in recent years have argued about services for transgender students, and now a legislative committee is considering a bill that would require that multiple-stall school bathrooms be restricted to a single sex. According to reporting by Ethan DeWitt of New Hampshire Bulletin, a non-profit, independent newsroom, the bill would bar multi-stall facilities that are gender neutral. The bill has drawn opposition from students and parents of trans students. A spokesman for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Sam Hawkins, said, “School, a crucial and developmental everyday environment, would become a place where a child can no longer fully live in accordance with their identity. Where these numbers of affirming environments decreases, we expect anxiety, depression, and suicide will likely increase.”

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ENDNOTE 02.11.23

Gratitude for good fortune

As I have crawled into bed over the past couple of nights — beneath a warm comforter, in a home secure from the chill outdoors, lying down next to someone I love, and with a full belly and high hopes for what I face in the morning — I have thought of the awful disaster in Turkey and Syria, of those with no homes and nearly no reason for much hope. And then I have thought of those who are suffering through the warn in Ukraine, and then of the countless other people around the globe less fortunate than I am — all unknown to me, but every one of them 99.9 percent my genetic match.

I did nothing to deserve most of the comfort that I have. Oh, sure, I have worked hard and tried to be a good person, but the relative ease of my life compared to the misery of so many others who I am sure have worked as hard as I have and tried their best to do good — well, there is no real explanation for the contrast in our lives. I was blessed by a quite fortunate birth: in a wealthy nation, to a loving family, with the many advantages that faced a white American male born in the middle of the 20th century. And I am grateful.

In this context, it’s hard for me to understand so much of the selfishness that surrounds us, and the resentment of people who, like me, have a lot presented to us. So much of political dialogue in America sounds like nothing so much as childish whining. Certainly, I understand and share the wish of many of my fellow Americans to be able to pass along the blessings of this country to those whom we love. But building a wall around what we have seems like the wrong sort of construction. A better project, I would think, might be to build instead a bigger table — one that accommodates more of those who share the star stuff that is our heritage. Don’t you think?

Thank you for reading, and for joining me in looking at *our common ground, this America. If you’re a paid subscriber, special thanks to you — and in the middle of next week, you’ll get The Upstate American Midweek Extra Edition, exploring the creation of the essay here. And if you’d like to learn how to write op-eds and opinion essays, please join our class through. The Memoir Project, by clicking the link on this button:

-REX SMITH

@rexwsmith