The numbers behind the ‘history wars’

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By Lily Rothman

Senior Editor

It’s no secret that Americans often disagree about how to talk about the nation’s collective past. What should kids learn about it in school? Which aspects should professional historians spend their time researching? And what does all that information mean for us today? A new survey from the American Historical Association and Fairleigh Dickinson University, with the support of the National Endowment for the Humanities, sheds some light on just how polarizing the topic can be. For example, more than twice as many Democrats as Republicans believe that women’s stories are generally overlooked in historical discourse.

But, while offering a sneak peek at the survey results, the AHA’s Dana Schaffer and historian Pete Burkholder write for TIME that they’re still optimistic that history can bring Americans together. Click here to read more about why.

Here’s more of the history making news this week:

HISTORY ON TIME.COM

Column: History's Warning for the U.S. Withdrawal From Afghanistan

By Priya Satia

History suggests that a more discreet American presence in Afghanistan will be a provocation rather than a source of security

What Biden’s Recognition of Armenian Genocide Means to Armenian-Americans

By Madeline Roache

"We affirm the history," Biden said on April 24. "We do this not to cast blame but to ensure that what happened is never repeated"

His Predecessors Dodged Race. Biden Embraces It

By Philip Elliott

There's been a shift in recent years in the broader psyche of how race fits into American politics, and leaders past and present have responded in uneven ways

Column: The Derek Chauvin Verdict Is Haunted by the Ghosts of Those Who Found No Justice

By Eddie S. Glaude Jr.

When Judge Peter Cahill read the verdict that Derek Chauvin was guilty on all three counts for the murder of George Floyd I imagined ghosts dancing around the courtroom

The Black Homeownership Gap Is Larger Than It Was 60 Years Ago. COVID-19 Made It Worse

The gap in homeownership rates between Black and White Americans grew to over 30% last year — which is higher than what it was in 1960, when racial discrimination in housing was legal

FROM THE TIME VAULT

Today in 2002: Yoda Strikes Back!

“Maybe George Lucas ought to get out more. For the past three years, as he ruled his multimedia empire from the palatial redoubt of Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, Calif., Lucas has dwelt in the lovely dream that his 1999 Star Wars movie, Episode I—The Phantom Menace , was universally loved. Lately, though, inquiring journalists have slapped him awake. ‘I'm getting my education now from the press,’ he says. ‘They come in and say, “Wow. People hated your movie. What do you think about that?'" That's what happens when the Wizard of Oz gives interviews. But Lucas' first Star Wars film in 16 years was the victim of its own mammoth hype, stoked by a quillion cover stories, including TIME's, before anyone had seen the completed work—and by the worldwide audience's communal memory of Star Wars (1977) and its sequels, The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983).” (April 29, 2002)

Today in 1996: Segregated Schools

“Like most urban systems, the Kansas City, Missouri, School District (KCMSD) has lost white students to the suburbs in droves, which has made the task of achieving racial balance nearly impossible. After deciding that inner-city students could not be bused out to the suburbs as part of a mandatory desegregation plan, a federal district court ordered the state and KCMSD to spend $1.7 billion to create a top-notch system, in part to lure suburban whites. Then, last June, the Supreme Court decreed that the district court had no authority to order expenditures aimed at attracting suburban whites. When the history of court-ordered school desegregation is written, Kansas City may go down as its Waterloo.” (April 29, 1996)

Today in 1985: V-E Day at 40

"It is, of course, a delicate matter to seek reconciliation among World War II enemies without seeming to paper over the unspeakable evils of the Holocaust. Yet for a White House staff that prides itself on its mastery of public relations and for a President who has shown great skill in the use of symbolic gestures, the task should have been fairly routine. Instead, a series of staff miscues and a lack of sensitivity by the President not only cast a pall over his German trip, they managed to stir up all the old wartime passions that Reagan had hoped to put to rest.’” (April 29, 1985)

HIGHLIGHTS FROM AROUND THE WEB

Mistreated Memory The past week brought the troubling news that the bones of two children who were killed in the 1985 MOVE bombing—a police strike on a Black collective in Philadelphia—cannot be located. Maya Kassutto at NPR has the story.

Losing Records Shane Wright and Katina Curtis at the Sydney Morning Herald report on why key documents from Australian history are in danger of literally disintegrating, and what the consequences could be.

Bearing Arms Historian Andrew C. McKevitt writes for the Washington Post about why the 1968 Gun Control Act failed to stop an American “gun-buying boom.”

A Shot in the Arm As the effort to encourage COVID-19 vaccination continues, the New York Times has an interesting piece by historian David Motadel about the history of vaccine hesitancy.

Old News Also at the New York Times, Asher Elbein looks at the latest development in a centuries-old mystery, and what new archaeological research suggests about the lost city of Cahokia.