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Is Obama Dismissive of the Official Narrative of US History?

I have heard multiple conservatives on multiple occasions accuse Obama of being insufficiently proud of American history -- most specifically, the history of the US warfare state as the great liberator on earth.

In actuality, the mainstream conservatives and mainstream liberals tend to have a very similar view of American history: The history of progress, largely carried out by the central state. Lincoln and FDR, the New Deal and the World Wars, the Civil Rights era and even Cold War and proudly championed by both the center left and center right.

In his inaugural address, for example, Obama talked up the soldiers who "fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn." While it is true that he says "that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with the sturdy alliances and enduring convictions," he seems to believe those missiles and tanks are important, which would explain why he's increasing "defense" spending and expanding the war.

Obama is proud of the statist version of American history, as are most conservatives and mainstream liberals. The antidote is in thoughtful revisionism. A good introduction to looking at American history differently is Ivan Eland's new book, Recarving Rushmore.

Posted on Monday, April 20, 2009 at 5:38 PM | Comments (1) | Return

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