The neglected settler colonial front of the history wars: Jeffrey Ostler, Karl Jacoby, ‘After 1776: Native Nations, Settler Colonialism, and the Meaning of America’, Journal of Genocide Research, 2021

07Sep21

Excerpt: As the history wars continue, as they certainly will, scholars, journalists, and educators committed to exposing the deep roots of systemic racism will need to combat right-wing celebrations of American exceptionalism. We may applaud the fact Trump’s 1776 Commission did not survive his presidency, but its agenda, alas, lives on. As of mid 2021, at least five states had signed into law bills banning the teaching of “Critical Race Theory” and the 1619 Project; another fifteen states are contemplating similar measures. It is not sufficient, however, only to combat these conservative efforts at censorship. A more difficult, but also necessary, challenge will be to critically examine liberal narratives, which, although capable of offering a more nuanced account of US history, nonetheless frequently produce their own versions of American exceptionalism. The 1619 Project’s emphasis on the centrality of slavery in US history has risen to this challenge on one front. An even more difficult front, however, will be to gain widespread acceptance of settler colonialism as equally constitutive.