President Joe Biden revoked a recent report by the Trump administration that he intended to promote “patriotic education” in schools, but that historians scoffed and rejected as political propaganda.
In an executive order signed on Wednesday on his first day in office, Biden dissolved Donald Trump’s presidential commission in 1776 and withdrew a report released on Monday. Trump established the group in September to garner support from white voters and as a response to The New York Times ‘Project 1619’, which highlights the lasting consequences of slavery in America.
In its report, which Trump hoped would be used in classrooms across the country, the commission glorifies the country’s founders, minimizes the role of the United States in slavery, condemns the rise of progressive politics and argues that the civil rights movement came into conflict with the “high ideals” espoused by the founders.
The panel, which did not include professional historians from the United States, complained about “false and fashionable ideologies” that portray the country’s history as “oppression and victimization”. Instead, it required renewed efforts to foster “a courageous and honest love for our country.”
Historians have widely criticized the report, saying it offers a false and outdated version of American history that ignores decades of research.
“It is an insult to the entire educational enterprise. Education should help young people learn to think critically, ”said David Blight, a Civil War historian at Yale University. “This report is a propaganda piece from the right.”
Trump officials announced the report as “a definitive chronicle of the American foundation”, but scholars say it ignores the most basic scholarship rules. It does not offer quotes, for example, or a list of its source materials.
It also includes several passages copied directly from others written by panelists, as one professor discovered after running the report using software used to detect plagiarism.
Matthew Spalding, the panel’s executive director and vice president of conservative Hillsdale College, denied any wrongdoing, saying that panel members “contributed our own work and writing, under our own names, to the 1776 Report, which was a advisory report to the President. “
Spalding and other commission leaders did not immediately respond to other criticisms of the report.
In documents announcing Biden’s executive order, government officials said the panel “sought to erase America’s history of racial injustice”.
The American Historical Association condemned the document, saying it glorifies the founders, while ignoring the stories and contributions of enslaved peoples, indigenous communities and women. In a statement also signed by 13 other academic groups, the organization says the report seeks “government indoctrination of American students”.
The most striking criticism of the report was directed at its presentation of slavery and race. The report attempts to undermine allegations of hypocrisy against the founders who owned slaves, even when they advocated equality. He also tries to soften America’s role in slavery and explain it as a product of the time.
“Many Americans work with the illusion that slavery was somehow exclusively American evil,” wrote the panel in the 20-page report. “The unfortunate fact is that the institution of slavery has been more the rule than the exception throughout human history.”
Blight, at Yale, likened this to “a kind of sixth or seventh grade story approach – to make children feel good.” He added: “But it is worse than that, because it comes off a political propaganda agenda.”
The authors argue that the civil rights movement has been distorted to promote programs that promote inequality and “group privilege”. It complains, for example, about affirmative action and other forms of “preferential treatment”.
Ibram X. Kendi, a scholar and historian of racism at Boston University, called the report “the Trump administration’s last big lie of big lies”.
“If we generally receive preferential treatment, then why do blacks remain at the bottom and dying end of almost all racial disparities?” Kendi said on Twitter. “Whenever they answer that question, they express racist ideas about black inferiority, while claiming that they are ‘not racist'”.
Other scholars highlighted what was left out. The report does not include anything from the history of American Indians, and its only reference to indigenous peoples is a racial slander cited in the Declaration of Independence.
In a passage mocked by historians, the authors make a comparison between the progressive movement in America and the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
James Grossman, executive director of the American Historical Association, said the report aims to discredit contemporary public policies rooted in America’s progressive reform movement. He fears that, even after Biden dissolves the commission, his report may end up in some classrooms.
“Historians need to pay attention to conversations about curricula at local and state level,” said Grossman. “The absurdity that is in this report will be used to legitimize a similar absurdity.”
At a public meeting of the commission this month, some members maintained the hope that Biden would keep the commission alive. But others said they needed to send the report to state and local education authorities.
“It will really be up to governors, state legislators, school board members, parents and commissioners of higher education, even students, to take on this job and carry out this work,” said Doug Hoelscher, a White House assistant under Trump.
After the report was removed from a White House website, some of its authors decided to make it available on conservative websites. In an opinion article published by the Heritage Foundation, one of the commissioners, Mike Gonzalez, said that the members “intend to continue fulfilling and fulfilling the obligations of our two-year term”.
Ultimately, the report calls for a change in teaching at US schools and universities, which the panel describes as “focuses of anti-Americanism”. He denounces any teaching that generates contempt for American ideals, blaming this type of “destructive scholarship” for the divisions of the nation and for “so much violence in our cities”.
“To restore our society,” says the report, “academics must return to their vocation to tirelessly pursue the truth and engage in honest studies that seek to understand the world and America’s place in it.”