Ben Railton Profile picture
Aug 18, 2019 9 tweets 4 min read Read on X
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."

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More from @AmericanStudier

Jun 3
There's been a lot of coverage recently of the 100th anniversary of the 1924 Immigration Act, & rightly so, as it represented & extended the worst of America. But we're also amidst the 100th anniversary of another, quite distinct landmark law--the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.
The Indian Citizenship Act had plenty of complexities & debates, including significantly varied perspectives from Native American communities (as I'll highlight later in the week). But it was also without question a real & vital step toward a more inclusive & equal US.
Like all such laws, the Citizenship Act was also the product of activism, work, & contributions from countless individuals (along with those communal voices & debates). So this week I'll blog about a handful of key figures to whom we owe the Indian Citizenship Act.
Read 16 tweets
Apr 2
Of the many falsehoods at the heart of the current attacks on education, perhaps the most pernicious is that white students—or any students—will feel bad if they learn all the layers of our history. In truth, such education can help them feel something genuinely vital: empathy. +
As I write in my new @SatEvePost Considering History column, there’s no more important goal, of every form of education & communal conversation about our hardest shared histories, than empathy.

saturdayeveningpost.com/2024/04/consid…
@SatEvePost That column was inspired by a visit to @Ctr4CHR & its powerful special exhibit on #CivilRights Movement sit-ins, one I got to experience alongside my older son as part of a college visit weekend in Atlanta which made it extra meaningful on all these levels!
Read 7 tweets
Feb 22
When I gave book talks on my Chinese Exclusion Act book, one of the questions I was asked most frequently was “Why do we see these periodic surges in xenophobia & anti-immigrant legislation in US history?” A quick thread:
To be clear, those attitudes & prejudices are always present in America, as one half of the defining battle between exclusion & inclusion that I traced in my book We the People:
rowman.com/ISBN/978153812…
But at the same time, there’s no doubt that our history features periods in which those anti-immigrant narratives become especially widespread &, most importantly, lead to xenophobic & exclusionary national policies & laws (like the Chinese Exclusion Act).
Read 15 tweets
Jan 21
Here it is, my 162nd #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below & enjoy, all! #twitterstorians
First, a reminder that I’m now also sharing these threads on my newsletter:

americanstudier.substack.com
Starting with a ton of great work for #MLKDay2024, including @SilasLapham on why we can’t whitewash King’s words:
interminablerambling.medium.com/on-martin-luth…
Read 51 tweets
Jan 8
100 years ago this week, the renamed & rebranded Columbia Pictures was launched. It would become one of Hollywood’s most iconic & influential film studios over the rest of the 20th century.
So this week I’ll AmericanStudy a handful of stages to Columbia Pictures’ history, starting with today’s post on 3 1910s & 20s origin points, including Hollywood gossip, Vaudeville, & the first feature film! #FilmTwitter

americanstudier.blogspot.com/2024/01/januar…
Vaudeville comedians helped Columbia Pictures take off, & it was the 1934 signing of an up-and-coming comedy trio that really took the studio to a new level. Between 1934 & 1957, The Three Stooges made 190 comedy shorts for Columbia, an average of 8 films a year!
Read 15 tweets
Sep 22, 2023
50 years ago this week, President Nixon appointed Henry Kissinger—already his National Security Advisor—as Secretary of State. Kissinger had long been controversial on the global stage as the mastermind of the brutal & illegal war in Cambodia, but +
+ it was another controversial & catastrophic global event, one that took place just two weeks before Kissinger’s appointment as Secretary of State & which bore his influence very fully, that truly embodied his, Nixon’s, & America’s most consistent & troubling foreign policies.
I’m talking about Chile’s 9/11, the September 11, 1973 coup that overthrew its democratically elected President Salvador Allende & replaced him with a brutal & dictatorial military junta--& that was aided & abetted before, during, & after by the US government & military.
Read 6 tweets

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