• Skip to main content
  • Current
  • Home
  • About
    • About Current
    • Masthead
  • Podcasts
  • Blogs
    • The Way of Improvement Leads Home
    • The Arena
  • Reviews
  • 🔎

Search Results for: 1776 Commission

Are the 1619 Project and the 1776 Commission really that different?

John Fea   |  December 21, 2023

I just read Zine Magubane’s review of Kenan Malik’s Not So Black and White: A History of Race from White Supremacy at Catalyst. Malik argues that both the 1619 Project and Donald Trump’s “1776 Commission” fail to recognize the importance […]

Biden dumped Trump’s 1776 Commission, but its members are still meeting

John Fea   |  May 22, 2021

If you are not familiar with the 1776 Commission, get up to speed here and here and here. Here is The Washington Examiner: The education advisory commission set up by former President Donald Trump will resume operations despite being disbanded by President Joe […]

History saves us from ourselves

John Fea   |  March 3, 2025

My piece in yesterday’s Sunday edition of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. A taste: Today the study of history is used as a cudgel in the culture wars. Activists on both the left and the right cherry-pick from the past to […]

Jim Grossman reflects on his leadership of the American Historical Association

John Fea   |  January 10, 2025

After fifteen years at the helm of the most important historical association in the world, Jim Grossman is stepping aside. Here is Ryan Quinn at Inside Higher Ed: A chapter of history is closing: Jim Grossman is retiring after 15 […]

The American Association of University Professors on academic freedom in Florida

John Fea   |  May 24, 2023

Today the American Association of University Professors released the “Preliminary Report of the Special Committee on Academic Freedom and Florida.” You can read it here. Here is the opening paragraph: In January 2023, the AAUP announced the establishment of a […]

Historians Kevin Kruse and Julian Zelizer on the state of the Republican Party

John Fea   |  January 11, 2023

The Princeton University historians are the editors of Myth America: Historians Take on the Biggest Legends and Lies About our Past. Here is a taste of their recent interview with Vanity Fair: I know both of you are particularly public-facing […]

“Capture the schools”

John Fea   |  August 17, 2022

University of Pennsylvania education historian Jonathan Zimmerman reflects on the wars over history in schools. A taste: Last year, former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon likewise called on right-wing Americans to capture the schools. “The path to save the nation is […]

What is going at Hillsdale College and the state of Tennessee’s education system?

John Fea   |  March 6, 2022

We wrote about Tennessee governor Bill Lee’s relationship with Hillsdale last month. We have also offered a few posts reviewing the 1776 Commission, a Trump-supported group tasked with creating a patriotic-oriented curriculum. Hillsdale president Larry Arnn led the commission and […]

Tilting at Windmills

John Fea   |  February 24, 2022

There are political forces with deep pockets trying to shape how we learn American history. What are academic historians to do?

Is there a “Latino vote”?

John Fea   |  February 15, 2022

In a recent piece at The Atlantic, historian Geraldo Cadava debunks the myth of the “Latino vote.” Here is a taste: Americans of all races are engaging in debates about our national origins because we sense that something is broken. […]

How Hillsdale College, the “champion of American exceptionalism,” is shaping civics education in Tennessee

John Fea   |  February 8, 2022

In November 2020, then president Donald Trump announced his 1776 Commission, a commission charged with delivering a conservative alternative to The New York Times 1619 Project. There were no American historians on the commission, but there was plenty of room […]

What do Americans really think about critical race theory?

John Fea   |  July 23, 2021

According to an Reuters-Ipsos poll 43% of Americans said they are “familiar” with critical race theory. 30% have never heard of it. Other findings from this poll: 24 % of Americans know about the 1619 Project. 22% know about the […]

The Trump intellectuals who despise their fellow citizens, but love America

John Fea   |  July 7, 2021

Historian Joshua Tait calls-out the so-called “Trump intellectuals”–many of them connected to Hillsdale College and the Claremont Institute–who claim to be “ardent patriots” who are “at odds with real America, but remain committed to the rhetoric of patriotism.” These Trumpers […]

The Evangelical Lost Cause Comes to Orlando

John Fea   |  June 24, 2021

“If we cannot justify the South in the act of Secession we will go down in History solely as brave, impulsive but rash people who attempted in an illegal manner to overthrow the Union of our country.” –Former Confederate General […]

Evangelical roundup for June 17, 2021

John Fea   |  June 17, 2021

What is going on in Evangelicalland? A lot of Southern Baptist stuff. You can get up to speed here and here and here and here and here. Will the hard right of the Southern Baptist Convention leave the denomination? The […]

American Amnesia

Jeremy Sabella   |  May 26, 2021

Without accountability, the national slate doesn’t get clean—no matter how often we try to wipe it

Election Day was 10 days ago. What are evangelicals saying?

John Fea   |  November 15, 2024

It looks like there is going to be some division in evangelical MAGA-land over some of Trump’s cabinet appointments. More than 80% of evangelicals voted for Trump and the president is “rewarding” them with an attorney general nominee who was […]

On classifying books

Nadya Williams   |  July 17, 2024

With books, as with other good things in life, sometimes you are just in the mood for something different.

Why did Jonathan Edwards think that slavery was morally right?

Daniel K. Williams   |  September 27, 2023

A note from the editor: This essay is reposted from the Anxious Bench, where it ran on 09/26/2023. It is much longer than anything else that has ever run on this blog — at nearly 7,000 words, it is the […]

Rick Warren vs. the Southern Baptist Convention: A guide to understanding the controversy

John Fea   |  June 11, 2023

On Tuesday, the country will be focused on the historic federal indictment of a United States president. But 12,000 Southern Baptists in New Orleans will be listening to a three-minute speech by one of the most popular megachurch pastors in […]

Next Page »