WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCE ON AMERICAN HISTORY?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Oh good.
We're seeing "a coordinated attack on our heroes."
"Wise people learn from the past.
Unwise people bury the past."
But somehow, denying the negative is not burying the past.
Right.
So....people who are acknowledging the past are "rewriting" it.
And there is no place for learning or progress or change.
Right.
I'm not going to make it through this, folks.
Loud and pompous BS with a heavy dose of projection.
My head will explode.
Mary Grabar is now talking....
Attacking Howard Zinn, I assume.
As "fake history" -- ooh, and plagiarized too.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
A John Adams moment on your July Fourth -- which has become a Thomas Jefferson kind of day, rather than a John Adams kind of day.
Adams tho't he'd never get credit for his Revolution work. In 1790, he said:
The History of our Revolution will be one continued Lye from one End to the other. The Essence of the whole will be that Dr Franklins electrical Rod, Smote the Earth and out Sprung General Washington.
Adams on not getting credit for his Revolution work, continued:
He thought people would think that: Franklin smote the earth & out sprung Washington, who Franklin "electrified...w/his Rod, & thence forward these two conducted all the Policy Negotiations Legislation & War."
OK.
I've been holding off on this for a bunch of reasons, but it feels as tho it's time.
Many of you may know of the wonderful early American historian Richard Bernstein (R. B. Bernstein).
A prolific writer, a dedicated teacher, a generous colleague, and the truest of friends.
He just died--unexpectedly.
I'll write an obituary soon, but for now something more personal.
Richard was the most kind-hearted person I've ever known. He wanted his friends to thrive. He wanted his historian friends to thrive & produce great scholarship.
He loved it all.
He was a brilliant scholar--with a truly AMAZING understanding of the founding period and "the guys" as he & I called them. (The Founders).
He was brilliant.
But he was modest.
He simply loved studying, writing, and teaching about the founding period.
2/ The Sedition Act of 1798, passed by the Federalist-controlled nat'l government, made it a crime for US citizens to "print, utter, or publish... any false, scandalous, and malicious writing" about the government."
"Scandalous" and "malicious" are NOT specific terms.
3/ People charged with violating the Sedition Act included people who spoke ill of President Adams.
Federalists said publicly that they were protecting the reputation of the government in time of (quasi)war.
Privately, they gleefully discussed silencing the Republican press.
1/ Just recorded a webcast episode on generational change in American politics--inspired by Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, Jim Clyburn and others stepping aside as leaders in Congress, and Hakeem Jeffries and others stepping forward.
2/ It's easy to see generational change in the past (the post-Founding 1820s generation, anyone?). It's easy to underestimate it in the present.
Now is a moment to watch for patterns of change--to consider implications and interventions before things become set in place.
3/ In the 1820s, the Founding generation was passing. The next definable generation to arrive on the scene? Andrew Jackson heralded its arrival. A total, radical sea change in the culture, tone, and organization of politics, and the nation.
Let's see what we've got coming next.