![enola gay exhibit politically biased enola gay exhibit politically biased](https://usercontent1.hubstatic.com/12999466_f520.jpg)
The controversial history standards, along with the defeated and revised Enola Gay exhibit, provided a fine set of talking points for Republicans seeking election in 1995. The story of the United States is cultural imperialism-how a bunch of repressed white men imposed their will and values on peaceful indigenous people.” The history of this nation is strewn with examples of oppression and genocide. “The United States has never had a State Ministry of Culture to dictate historical ‘lines,’ but it’s had plenty of private vigilantes patrolling cultural institutions to ensure they promoted ‘patriotic’ perspectives,” Wallace wrote, pointing to the American Legion’s 1925 declaration that history textbooks “must inspire the children with patriotism” and “speak chiefly of success.” But Wallace dates the opening of the 1990s history wars to Rush Limbaugh’s 1993 book See, I Told You So, in which Limbaugh described the tenets of the supposed historical “indoctrination” taking places in schools: “Our country is inherently evil. The story of how the canceled exhibit became political fodder for the ascendant right-outlined in the book in an essay by historian Mike Wallace-sounds excruciatingly familiar today. Historian Edward Linenthal and editor Tom Engelhardt put together a 1996 book of essays about the exhibit’s cancellation and its aftermath, called History Wars, which argues that this 1990s fight over historical memory was the opening salvo in the American right’s use of history as a culture war. The curator of the Smithsonian’s aeronautics department at the time said of the conflict between the two groups: “Do you want to do an exhibition intended to make veterans feel good, or do you want an exhibition that will lead our visitors to think about the consequences of the atomic bombing of Japan? I don’t think we can do both.” The curators and historians who were putting together the exhibit fought their critics for a few months, before radically revising the exhibit to be much blander and more patriotic. The proposed exhibit of the Enola Gay-the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber that, piloted by Paul Tibbets, dropped the atomic bomb nicknamed “Little Boy” on Hiroshima in August 1945-drew criticism starting in late 1994, when the Air Force Association, unhappy with the planners’ slant toward thoughtful and away from celebratory, released a draft script (label copy, images, an artifact list) to the media. That month, under political pressure, the Smithsonian canceled a planned exhibit marking the 50 th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which was to be held at the National Air and Space Museum. To see how long the right has been refining this approach, you could look back to January 1995. Patriotism might be a side effect, but it’s not the point of historical study.
Enola gay exhibit politically biased free#
Ilya Shapiro: “Slavery is a human sin, not a uniquely American one” Erick Erickson: “The Times … minimizes or undermines the cost white people paid to free slaves” Newt Gingrich: “Slavery was AND IS terrible (there are slaves today who need liberating).” I spied some familiar statements in the conservative backlash to the Times’ effort. After Jamelle Bouie (who has a great essay in the 1619 Project on racism and anti-democratic thinking) and I published our Slate Academy podcast project on the history of American slavery in 2015, we assembled a taxonomy of the negative reactions we received. The backlash is … interesting … to watch, but it’s worth noting that this is old soup, warmed over. My colleague Ashley Feinberg has assembled a summary of their reactions, from (she paraphrases) “It makes me feel bad about my country” to “Everybody’s already heard about slavery.” It’s a veritable panoply of pique. The 1619 Project-the New York Times Magazine’s ambitious special issue arguing for an expanded 400-year history of America centering the story of slavery and its repercussions-has apparently made many leading conservatives very angry. Think You’re Smarter Than a Slate Associate Editor? Find Out With This Week’s News Quiz. The Leader of Trump’s Favorite 2020 “Audit” May Be Disbarred After Courtroom Meltdown The Ginni Thomas Saga Keeps Getting WeirderĪfter Thursday’s Hearing John Eastman Really Should Get a Good Criminal Defense Lawyer