The United States is in the grip of a crisis of bad history. Includes bibliographical references (pages 313-367) and index. Zelizer 4.00 693 ratings94 reviews In this instant New York Times bestseller, America’s top historians set the record straight on the most pernicious myths about our nation’s past. Replacing myths with research and reality, Myth America is essential reading amid today's heated debates about our nation's past.'-Įdited by Kevin M. Taken together, the essays unveil how corporate interests and right-wing politicians use bad history to fan the flames of white resentment and unravel America's social safety net. Elizabeth Hinton reveals that, rather than curbing crime, patrolling low-income communities with outside police forces has historically intensified violence and made everyone less safe. Carol Anderson uncovers how racism and anxiety over the nation's changing demographics, not voter fraud, are motivating Republicans' assault on voting rights. Joshua Zeitz traces how the welfare programs of the Great Society, criticized by the right as wasteful failures, have provided millions of Americans with food security, health care, and education.

For instance: Erika Lee shows how, far from posing a relentless threat to America, immigrants have long been recruited and even coerced to come to the United States. Drawing on their immense knowledge of scholarship and their own primary research, these contributors provide correctives to the ways conservatives distort history to serve the needs of their anti-democratic agenda. Julian Zelizer, Co-Editor, 'Myth America: Historians Take On the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past': Great to be here. In Myth America, historians Kevin Kruse and Julian Zelizer have assembled an all-star team of historians to provide textured analysis that explains what we get wrong about the past. Kevin Kruse, Co-Editor, 'Myth America: Historians Take On the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past': Thanks for having us. Inaccurate interpretations and outright misrepresentations of the past-cultivated within and promoted by the conservative movement and right-wing media over the last several decades-hold sway among large numbers of Americans, damaging our public discourse. 'The United States is in the grip of a crisis of bad history.

Myth america kevin kruse