I realized this morning what really bothers me about this piece: it claims that there is no national narrative that does not acknowledge the realities of slavery. This is not true. There is a national narrative of struggle, setback and further struggle, rooted in the founding documents. Eric Foner's college text Give Me Liberty! is a fine example. Woodard fits into the lineage of Howard Zinn and Nikole Hannah-Jones, popularizers of denunciation whose plausibility masks profound distortions.
David Hackett Fischer deserves an acknowledgement.
I realized this morning what really bothers me about this piece: it claims that there is no national narrative that does not acknowledge the realities of slavery. This is not true. There is a national narrative of struggle, setback and further struggle, rooted in the founding documents. Eric Foner's college text Give Me Liberty! is a fine example. Woodard fits into the lineage of Howard Zinn and Nikole Hannah-Jones, popularizers of denunciation whose plausibility masks profound distortions.