The 1619 Project (in the New York Times Magazine)

[David Lockmiller]

(05-15-2020 03:29 PM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  “Already, 3,500 classrooms and five major urban school systems (including Buffalo, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.) have adopted The 1619 Project for their history curricula.” (“1619 and the Narrative of Despair,” By Princeton Professor ALLEN C. GUELZO, National Review, May 11, 2020.)

This statement raises an obvious question:

Given the fact the six preeminent American history scholars in this country -- Brown University’s Gordon Wood, Princeton’s James McPherson and Sean Wilentz and Allen Guelzo, City University of New York’s James Oakes, Columbia’s Barbara Fields -- have joined to highly criticize this American history curricula, why would the responsible authorities at any major urban school system, such as Washington, D. C., authorize the purchase of "The 1619 Project" American history curricula?

This group of well-established, preeminent American history scholars wrote to the New York Times as follows:

"We ask that The Times, according to its own high standards of accuracy and truth, issue prominent corrections of all the errors and distortions presented in The 1619 Project. We also ask for the removal of these mistakes from any materials destined for use in schools, as well as in all further publications, including books bearing the name of The New York Times. We ask finally that The Times reveal fully the process through which the historical materials were and continue to be assembled, checked and authenticated."

In response, these preeminent American history scholars were basically "stonewalled" by the Editor of the New York Times Magazine.

The central pivotal figure in the American Civil War is President Abraham Lincoln. Over 15,000 books have been published on the subject of President Lincoln. The aforementioned Professor Allen Guelzo of Princeton University has won three times the annually-awarded Lincoln Prize for the top Lincoln scholarship book published in any given year. He is one of the preeminent American history scholars who has requested that the New York Times "reveal fully the process through which the historical materials were and continue to be assembled, checked and authenticated."

This was not an unreasonable request and the request should have been honored by the New York Times.

And, given the fact the six preeminent American history scholars in this country have joined to highly criticize this American history curricula, why would the responsible authorities at any major urban school system authorize the purchase of "The 1619 Project" American history curricula?