Summary of Myth America By Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer: Historians Take On the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past

By Willie M. Joseph

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This book does not in any capacity mean to replace the original book but to serve as a vast summary of the original book.

Summary of Myth America By Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer: Historians Take On the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past

 

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Authors Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer debunk myths that portray the New Deal and Great Society as failures, immigrants as hostile invaders, and feminists as anti-family warriors. Based on a firm foundation of historical scholarship, their findings revitalize our understanding of American history.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Willie M. Joseph
• Release date: Dec 30, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215510308

Willie M. Joseph

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INTRODUCTION

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Frida Ghitis: In the last few years, the line between fact and fiction has become increasingly blurred if not completely erased. She says Donald Trump's White House thrived on deceptions and distortions, reframing its own lies as alternative facts. The current crisis stands apart for the degree of disinformation and deliberateness with which it has been spread. She says the creation of conservative media and the devolution of the Republican Party's commitment to truth have led to an explosion of disinformation. In the Obama era, out-of-power Republicans felt freer to criticize what the administration was doing and craft fantastical complaints about what it was not.

They propagated wild conspiracies about the existence of death panels and spread claims that the Affordable Care Act would provide coverage to undocumented immigrants. The recent controversies over Confederate monuments were part of a campaign to promote an alternate version of the past that whitewashed the role of slavery in the rebellion and recast Confederate traitors as American patriots. The Trump White House repeatedly made outlandish claims about its unprecedented place in history. Frida Ghitis: The Trump White House made a concerted effort to rewrite history in real time. She says the 1776 Report compared nineteenth-century supporters of slavery to contemporary proponents of identity politics and equated early twentieth-century progressivism with fascism.

In the 1990s, historians faced fierce controversy over their interpretation of US history. The project for an exhibit commemorating the bombing of Hiroshima became a new front in the culture wars. One hundred and nine US senators voted to condemn the project, and it was abandoned. Historians have long sought to engage and educate the general public about our shared history. A cottage industry on the right, in particular, has flourished with partisan authors producing a partisan version of the past.

Decades of well-regarded research have been simply disregarded for the sake of convenience. Historians have long been pushing back against misinformation in the public sphere. This edited collection of essays addresses some of the most pressing distortions of the past in the present moment. Each essay is written by a historian who has been actively engaging the general public through the medium of modern media. The 1619 Project's collection of lies and legends examines the role of slavery in American political development.

Many of these distortions stem from a deliberate campaign of disinformation from the political Right. These include efforts to portray Democratic programs such as the New Deal or Great Society as misguided failures.

AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM

The term American exceptionalism arose as an analytical term, referring to the proposition that the social and economic structures of the United States represent an exception to normal laws of historical development. More recently, the analytical meaning has been overshadowed by a prescriptive, moralizing one that refers less to American difference than to American superiority. David Frum argues that the term American exceptionalism makes little analytical sense, because it fails to show that America really does represent a significant international norm. He argues that modern nationalism has led virtually every nation to strive to distinguish itself from others and to exaggerate its own unique qualities. The rise of the term American exceptionalism illustrates the decline of American idealism, writes Julian Zelizer.

In the early-modern Western world, stories about America invoked ancient models such as ancient Israel and Rome. Today, the term serves as an empty symbol, a mere marker of difference and superiority, he writes. America's sense of itself can be traced back to the Puritan settlers who