Thread by @AmericanStudier

Obviously some (well, a good bit) of the criticism of the #1619Project is white supremacist bigotry, full stop. But it seems to me another substantive factor is our collective reliance on celebratory, uncritical patriotism, & a related problem given a clear diagnosis in 1873:

In that year, the Harvard prof & reformer Charles Eliot Norton was on a steamship voyage from England to the US, & Ralph Waldo Emerson was on the same journey. They talked a lot, & Norton noted that even in old age, Emerson maintained his "inveterate & persistent optimism."

Norton acknowledged (this was in letters describing their convos) that such optimism was pleasant in an "such a character as Emerson's," but called it a "dangerous doctrine for a people," as it is "at the root of ... much of our unwillingness to accept hard truths."

I quoted Norton as part of the intro to my last book, History & Hope in American Literature: Models of Critical Patriotism. For too long, perhaps indeed always, American patriotism has been defined largely as the celebratory, uncritical, Emersonian optimism kind.

Again, some of that is overtly white supremacist to be sure. But some is also an equation of optimism w/patriotism, & thus a parallel equation of criticism w/unpatriotic attitudes. We still, desperately need more consistent models & visions of an alternative, critical patriotism.

In both their historical subjects & their scholarly & journalistic voices, the #1619Project, @nhannahjones, & her colleagues have set out to offer precisely such models of critical patriotism. As I continue to think & write about that topic, I'm taking inspiration from them.

@nhannahjones & in the aggrieved responses of so many, here & elsewhere, I see w/renewed clarity the unwillingness of so many Americans to accept (or even acknowledge) hard truths. Lots of work to be done, but it's being done, & I'm excited to see where it goes & contribute a bit as well.

@nhannahjones PS. I've written a good deal about my vision of critical patriotism on my blog, including these series:
americanstudier.blogspot.com/2016/07/july-4…
americanstudier.blogspot.com/2019/04/april-…
americanstudier.blogspot.com/2015/04/april-…

@nhannahjones PPS. Also apropos of this thread and of the need for the kind of critical patriotism modeled by the #1619Project, here are the concluding paragraphs of my new book, We the People. We have to find a way to oppose #MAGA without giving in entirely to "America was Never Great."