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Writing American history in uncertain times

22 June 2023 16.00 - 17.15
Add to Calendar22/06/2023 16:0022/06/2023 17:15Europe/LondonWriting American history in uncertain timeshttps://www.jesus.cam.ac.uk//events/writing-american-history-uncertain-timesFrankopan HallfalseDD/MM/YYYY15Jesus Collegeevent_12270confirmed
Frankopan Hall

The United States of America's history and politics have always been closely connected, but in recent years we’ve seen extraordinary reckonings with the USA's past – especially with histories of race and slavery – and an unprecedented backlash against historians and scholars who diverge from what former president Donald J. Trump termed “patriotic education”.

Join us for a panel and audience discussion led by Jesus Fellow Nicholas Guyatt, Professor of North American History at the University of Cambridge. He will be joined by Eric Rauchway (University of California-Davis), Honor Sachs (University of Colorado-Boulder), Karine Walther (Georgetown University-Qatar), and Nathan Connolly (Johns Hopkins University).

In this discussion we’ll ask a group of leading USA historians – all contributors to the forthcoming Oxford Illustrated History of the United States – to offer dispatches from the front lines of the USA's history wars, including the unprecedented efforts of conservative politicians to use legislation and intimidation to restrict teaching and research in schools and campuses across the United States.

We’ll also consider the difficulties of writing about past events in the midst of a brutal ‘war on woke’, and we’ll look ahead to 2026 – the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence – and ask whether USA citizens can still find common ground in their shared understanding of the past. And we’ll be keen to ask the audience to make connections to and comparisons with our own ‘history wars’ here in the UK.

Online and in-person.

Register for free on our Eventbrite.