The History We Want vs. the History We Have 0
Sam Osherson mediates of the gap between history and reality in the tales (white) Americans tell themselves about American history. Here’s a bit:
Yet if you’ve been paying attention lately, there’s been some disturbing news. Professor Jill Lepore’s recent history of the United States, These Truths, for example, is organized around our country’s involvement with slavery from before we were even the United States, a “deep and dark” relationship, in which Jefferson, Madison, and George Washington owned slaves even while they wrote in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal” and have an inalienable right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”