https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/201.../wood-n28.html
Gordon S. Wood is author of
Empire of Liberty, which covers US history from the adoption of the Constitution in 1789 to about 1815. He was selected to cover this era by the prestigious Oxford U series on US history. The title is taken from a quote from Thomas Jefferson.
He is not much impressed with the '1619 Project' of the NYT, premise of which is that "Anti-black racism runs in the very DNA of this country.” The project was announced as the NYT editor Dean Baquet announced in a private meeting (leaked to slate.com) that they would pivot from Russia to racism as a way to attack President Trump.
The critique from Gordon Wood, interestingly, was published by a socialist web site. It's fairly long but well worth reading.
Quote:
Q. One of the ironies of this Project 1619 is that they are saying the same things about the Declaration of Independence as the fire-eating proponents of slavery said—that it’s a fraud. Meanwhile, abolitionists like Frederick Douglass upheld it and said we’re going to make this “all men are created equal” real.
A. That points up the problem with the whole project. It’s too bad that it’s going out into the schools with the authority of the New York Times behind it. That’s sad because it will color the views of all these youngsters who will receive the message of the 1619 Project.
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