Is History for Sale?

American history is under siege. Howard Zinn’s tendentious tract, A People’s History of the United States, is widely used in the nation’s high schools, now supplemented by the equally mendacious 1619 Project. Across the country, streets, schools, and buildings are being renamed; historic statuary, monuments, and plaques are being removed from public spaces; and when not mothballed altogether, symbols of the past—ranging from our founding documents to the Alamo—are being “recontextualized.” Revisionism has rapidly accelerated into wholesale erasure. Many history buffs, wishing to visit the remaining historical sites before they disappear (or are altered beyond recognition), prioritize such visits while they still stand.    

This is precisely what my wife and I did while returning from a recent trip to Washington, D.C.; on the way back to Tennessee, we stopped at the homes of James Madison (Montpelier, in Orange, VA) and Thomas Jefferson (Monticello, in Charlottesville), hoping that they were safe from these baleful trends. Not long ago, when we toured The Hermitage, Andrew Jackson’s home near Nashville, we were pleased by the relative lack of left-wing revisionism. Alas, the same cannot be said of Montpelier (and to a lesser extent Monticello). The likely explanation is huge contributions from progressive philanthropist David Rubenstein, the multi-billionaire co-founder of private-equity powerhouse The Carlyle Group, that have given him great influence over the narratives these historic homes propound.

Read Full Article »