Sean Wilentz: On the Importance of Studying and Debating American History

Conversations with Bill Kristol

News, Society & Culture, Government, Politics

4.7 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 23 July 2020

⏱️ 65 minutes

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Summary

How should we think about the American founding? What role does slavery play in the history of the United States? What should be done about Confederate monuments? How might we think about the legacies of revered figures from America's past? Over the past year, these perennially important questions have been unusually central to our public life. In this Conversation, the distinguished Princeton historian Sean Wilentz shares his perspective on the current debates and the importance of the study of American history. Wilentz argues that understanding America's past—from the inspiring to the shameful—is vital for what he calls informed citizenship. Nonetheless, he warns against falling into the trap of oversimplifying history. According to Wilentz, the New York Times’ 1619 Project, which argues that slavery is foundational to the United States, is one recent example of this pitfall, because it minimizes important anti-slavery efforts at the time of the American founding. Wilentz calls for renewed efforts toward a reflective and nuanced study of the past. He further asserts that these efforts could help us recover a space in American politics for informed, thoughtful, and respectful debate—not only about the past but also about the future. Wilentz and Kristol also discuss the legacy of civil rights leader and Congressman John Lewis about whom Wilentz recently published a thoughtful and important reflection.

Transcript

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0:00.0	And the Hi, I'm Bill Crystal. Welcome back to Conversations. I'm very pleased to be joined today
0:19.1	by Distinguished Historian at Princeton, Sean Wilence, a long time history professor there,
0:25.5	author of the terrific and magisterial book, I think I can say.
0:29.4	I think I can say that if it's a thousand pages, right?
0:31.6	The Rise of American Democracy in Jefferson to Lincoln.
0:35.0	A most recent book I believe is on the slavery and anti-slavery at the founding, a very hot topic, you might want to say, to say, no property in man.
0:44.1	And also it was drawn as written for many journals and participated in our public life and
0:51.6	discussing contemporary politics as well.
0:53.3	So it's really a pleasure to have you on, Sean.
0:56.0	I'm delighted to be here, Bill.
0:57.2	Great to see you.
0:58.1	I want to talk about history and America
0:59.8	and current controversies and stuff.
1:02.0	But I thought actually we were talking last weekend just to get ready for this. I think I called you and it was just within 24 hours of John Lewis's death and you were said you were sort of not shaken by it, but I mean moved by it and I was moved too but I didn't really know him well but you knew him pretty well and then say a word about that because it's so relevant. You just I think wrote a eulogy that's just coming out in Democracy magazine of Congressman Lewis too.
1:28.0	Yeah, you know, you know even when you know it's coming, it's always hard, you know, and we knew that John was very sick and he probably wasn't going to make it.
1:38.5	But still, when it finally happens, it's a loss.
1:41.5	Yeah, I mean, I got to know John in the mid 90s
1:45.9	doing a piece on him.
1:47.9	And we spent about a year, very close contact.
1:50.9	He allowed me, he gave me full access. I followed him around, talked to his friends,
1:55.6	did a lot of research for this piece actually.
1:58.8	Who was the piece for? Well, it ended up in the new republic, and it's probably the, of all the pieces I've written that are not strictly historical, right, that are at the cost of politics, and it's probably the one I'm the most proud of, the proud of stuff.
	...

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