How America Gave Up on Its Own History

(Johann) Neem is now a historian at Western Washington University, where he has watched the erosion of that promise in dismay. Last year, he delivered the annual lecture on the state of the discipline to the American Historical Association, lamenting the loss of a common and inclusive narrative. (It drew furious responses, including from one leftist scholar who accused him of “retreat, if not outright capitulation” to the fell logic of nationalism.) In recent decades, Neem told me, there have been three competing versions of the American story. The first is grounded in the notion that the United States is a work in progress. This approach mixes the self-flattery of some older histories with frank acknowledgment of the many ways in which America has fallen short of its ideals, incorporating the critical scholarship of recent decades. It approaches the American story as an ongoing struggle between our best impulses and our worst. Neem calls this approach the mainstream school, because it is how most Americans still think about their country, even though it has fallen from favor on campus.