Unhappy Anniversary: One Year Since Trump’s Brutish Assault on History

Recently, at a closed White House event conveniently bereft of professional historians, one of the soldiers in Trump’s hijacking of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence described the administration’s approach as “a matter of history, not politics.” We agree with those principles, so let’s get the history right. As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, our continued independence requires that we understand what has happened since 1776 (and before) and why.

We might start with institutions whose missions and integrity are embodied in legislation passed by Congress: the Smithsonian Institution, the National Park Service, the National Archives, the Library of Congress, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, or NEH. These agencies have enjoyed widespread nonpartisan reputations among broad swaths of the American public, and even internationally. Historians, as well as the publics they serve, often disagree on interpretation; that is what we do. But we agree on standards and the imperative of unflinching honesty.

The Trump administration has tarred the experienced professionals at these agencies with its all-purpose epithet “woke.” These historians are not, however, spreading “narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.” To require the Smithsonian, for example, to consult with a White House devoted to the dissemination of “alternative facts” is tantamount to Thomas Jefferson being ordered to consult with King George III of Great Britain on how to craft the Declaration of Independence.