THE REWRITING OF AMERICAN HISTORY: PAPERING OVER THE CRACKS

The old saying is true - "Victors get to write the history." This is not only true of the outcome of war but also political victory. Authoritarian President Trump's entry to the White House, according to Nick Bryant in 'The Forever War' commissioned a 'rewrite of American history' -  a glorification of the past or 'papering over the cracks'. Trump, in his second term continues his assault on history.

In 1979 I stood amazed in the circular structure in Disneyland and experienced the spotless story of America unfold, projected onto multiple screens covering the 360º expanse. Pulsating with surround sound, the patriotic anthems of 'America the Beautiful' and 'The Star-Spangled Banner' drawing enthusiastic applause from the audience.

The Circle-Vision 360º initially was used as propaganda at the American National Exhibition in Moscow in 1959 under President Nixon's watch. This pristine view of American history, reflected in George Bancroft's publication ' A Primary History of the United States for Schools and Families' in 1857 was built on the premise 'Everyone born in this free and beautiful country, should be proud of it, thankful for God for it, and willing to do everything that is right to keep it free and good.' This required sanitisation - the dark side didn't get a look in.

The polish and glitter of this impeccable compilation of the past was challenged early in the 20th Century by the 'Progressive School', a serious intellectual pushback. It gradually evolved where historians like Howard Zinn in 1980 published his landmark study, 'A People's History of the United States a Revisionist Work' which challenged the fundamental nationalistic glorification of country and sought to tell the American story from the perspective of the losers rather than the winners. This led to the story of the discovery of America from the viewpoint of the Arawaks. "Swathes of the American populous, excluded for a long time from the national story were finally getting their historical due. There was Black History Month, Italian American History Month and LGBT History month and Native American Heritage Month. The trend was to separate stories rather than an overarching national narrative. This fracturing sparked a conservative backlash in the 'history wars' of the 1990s." (pp.158,9)

Nick Bryant cites the famous line from George Orwell's 1984, "totalitarianism demands ... the continuous alteration of the past, and in the long run probably demands that disbelief in the very existence of objective truth. But substitute the word 'totalitarianism' with 'Trumpism' and it rings truer. Trump, after all, had commissioned a work of fake history." (p.148)

Trump chooses to trumpet Disneyland's version, papering over the cracks!