Peter W. Wood

A significant reexamination of American history has been launched by the New York Times 1619 project and Wood provides a useful discussion bringing in a wide variety of historians to comment on the project. Normally historians debating history would be confined to the academic world. By offering this new interpretation of America’s founding principles on the pages of the New York Times, the paper has created a wider public debate. Woods book helps us understand how historians think and the intellectual rigor that goes into understanding history. Very timely. Highly recommend.… (meer)

I found this book to contain really interesting, critical information concerning the 1619 Project as well as various aspects of early America. That being said, the book was incredibly repetitive and constantly bashed on 1619. If the book was more focused on the information, I would have given it a much higher score. I know this was meant to be a response to the 1619 Project, but I found myself skipping over large diatribes about Nikole Hannah-Jones, the other contributors or ideas explored because they were boring (and, again, repetitive). I will say that I did love how large the footnotes section was and that everything referenced was included, as a scientist, I love a good set of citations.

… (meer)

Look I finished this but there's really nothing here.
The author has no real facts.

Most of this amounts to 'Wah, my ancestors look bad if you center marginalized peoples in the narrative.
Wah, identity politics, how dare POC want history to include their experiences, that's integration not history!'

I honestly was expecting the author to have more than racism with which to make a point but I hoped in vain.

I planned to take this argument down point by point and fact by fact. Unfortunately it's mostly organized as a whinefest to The 1619 Project.

History as it currently exists for the most part is the formal study of white supremacy passed off as a scholarly subject.
That's because the study of history as a discipline has it's roots in white supremacy as does anthropology & archeology.

This is a well known fact and to have an accurate record of ACTUAL history the experience of EVERYONE involved will have to be included from THEIR point of view.

This is jarring when all you've all ever known is a white supremacist view of history.

Christopher Columbus was a liar, a thief, an enslaver and a colonizer. He stole from his own crew and had zero redeeming features. Their is no fixing him and really no need to try.

It's not okay to steal from people because their skin is brown… (meer)