Myth America Buchzusammenfassung - das Wichtigste aus Myth America

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Zusammenfassung von Myth America

Name: Myth America
Rating: 2.9 (101 reviews)
Author: Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer

Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer

Historians Take on the Biggest Legends and Lies about Our Past

2.9 (101 Bewertungen)

19 Min.

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Politik der USA Geschichte der USA Sozialismus & Kapitalismuskritik Gender- und Sexualitätsstudien Rassismus

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What’s in it for me? Essay authors dismantle lies that have become the battle cries of right-wing America.

“America does not practice empire building.”

“Socialism is a new and foreign threat.”

“Feminists seek to dismantle the ideal nuclear, heterosexual family.”

“Hordes of nonwhite immigrants will mongrelize our nation.”

These are some of the false, yet pervasive, narratives examined in Kevin Kruze and Julian Zelizer’s Myth America. At a time when anyone can claim to be an expert and social media grants large and instant followings, the authors believe it’s more crucial than ever to be thoughtful about separating facts from propaganda.

In this Blink, we’ll focus on a few of the most prominent and damaging narratives found in Myth America and break down how and why they’ve gained traction in an increasingly fractured America.

The story of America is intertwined with myths and alternate narratives.

Which stories truly tell the American story?

Every nation has a narrative, a bold and stirring tale of creation and recreation. The American story is a special one because of the nation’s influence around the world and its role as standard-bearer of democracy.

But as a growingly fractured country with a narrative that has increasingly become hijacked by the political right, it’s become harder to separate fact from fiction. There are more ways to communicate than ever, but in this new reality, it seems anyone can claim to be an expert – just look at the nonhistorians raging about “revisionist history” that highlights the undeniable facts of slavery and subsequent systemic racism.

Consider the arrival of the Europeans. Their whole journey is underpinned by legends of destiny, mirroring stories from the Bible of special people who are owed a land by sacred decree. This drove not only their arrival but relentless expansion. All collateral damage in this march to create America was excused by the notion of “American exceptionalism.” Newt Gingrich made this a weapon for the right during his 1994 election stump speeches and crystallized for many the idea of America as an ideal, a notion that is echoed in its spirit by Trump’s “Make America Great” slogans.

These origin stories leave out one convenient fact though: you can’t discover a continent that was already occupied and had been for millennia by its own people. But you can try and deny it, as Rick Santorum did during a 2021 speech for the Young America’s Foundation when he said the Europeans found in America a “blank state” with “nothing here.” This myth of the vanishing Indian has been perpetuated and echoed in tropes throughout the past three centuries, lending support to the idea that the time had come for native civilization to make way for a superior European one. Such claims were backed by pseudoscientists like Josiah Nott, an Alabama physician who stated that the Native Americans were a separate race incapable of change and destined to eventually die out.

These creation myths work to set the stage for false alternative narratives that can be easily used as a tool to discriminate and suppress others – especially when it benefits those spreading them.

The myth of nonwhite immigrants overrunning America is designed to create panic.

“They keep coming.” That’s the horror story frequently told about the hordes of dark-skinned foreign immigrants pouring across the southern border to threaten America. This myth has served to disenfranchise many waves of immigrants over the centuries. Not only is it a rallying cry for those looking to place restrictions on immigrants, but it also justifies racism and discrimination toward those already here. And it’s not a new idea.

Benjamin Franklin complained about the Germans who flooded Pennsylvania. Later, Protestant colonists wrung their hands over Catholic and Irish “invasions.” The same discriminatory treatment was meted out to other “less than” immigrants: “swarthy” southern and central Europeans, Jewish people, Russians, and Asians. In 1924, Congress passed the Johnson-Reed Act in 1924 to establish quotas based on national origin to keep out these Europeans who were perceived as inferior to Anglo-Saxon ones.

Through aid, diplomacy, and military action, America has always been an empire.

Consider this fact: In the past 75 years, there have been only two years – 1977 and 1979 – when US forces were neither invading nor fighting in another country.

The United States is perceived as a leader of civilized, modern nations that agree that occupying other countries is no longer acceptable. Yet, the existence of American territories like Puerto Rico and Guam and the military presence of 750 American bases in places ranging from Japan to Saudi Arabia belie this, making it easy to shatter the myth that America isn’t an empire.

The world’s flagship capitalist nation has always had a thread of socialism in its veins.

In his 2019 State of the Union address, Donald Trump stated before Congress: “America will never be a socialist country.”

He was echoing the distaste of many of his supporters for the word “socialism,” a philosophy derided by many Americans as a new and foreign threat to American values.

A false narrative of the Lost Cause props up racism in the American South.

During the past few years, an old rallying cry gained momentum, one to tear down Confederate flags, statues, and memorials because of the racist, slave-owning past they represent. But it’s just a statue, supporters of the Confederate monuments state. And it’s history!

The truth is that a statue is rarely just a statue, and the “history” these memorials represent is less a factual representation of the American South than it is the myth of the Lost Cause, a battle cry to which defiant southerners flocked after their defeat in the Civil War.

Rather than fighting against the American family, feminists seek to strengthen it.

Here’s the irony of the war waged by anti-feminists like Phyllis Schlafly: although she and her ilk claimed that women who were fighting for their rights were degrading the American family, in almost every case, the feminists’ demand for self-hood could only result in strengthening families.

Take Planned Parenthood, the organization Schlafly and her followers often point to when they want to drive home their claims. Founder Margaret Sanger, who started it as the American Birth Control League in 1921, wanted to help families become stronger by virtue of planning and controlling their births and bodies. It was a personal mission for her – she raised eleven children and saw her own mother suffer seven miscarriages.

Final Summary

The story of America has many threads. But some of these threads are false narratives that have gained traction and support a far-right agenda. At a time when anyone can have an audience and claim to be an expert, and where truth has become viewed as a choice, it’s crucial to understand and dismantle the most damaging of these myths.

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Worum geht es in Myth America?

Myth America (2022) is a collection of essays that examine and dismantle some of the most pervasive myths about America: how it was founded, who’s allowed to be here, and how we define a ‘real’ American or American family.

Wer Myth America lesen sollte

History buffs
Students of American politics
Activists and social justice warriors

Über den Autor

Kevin M. Kruze is a historian, Princeton University professor, and author. His books include White Flight and One Nation Under God.

Julian E. Zelizer is also a Princeton professor, CNN political analyst, and best-selling author. He’s written 24 books on US political history including The Fierce Urgency of Now, Governing America, and Burning Down the House.

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