The American Past Politicized: Uses and Misuses of History

Abstract

This article examines some of the major ways in which American history has been written, revised, and reinterpreted from partisan perspectives and for political purposes. It takes note of the Revolutionary founders' concerns about the ways in which their pivotal era (1765-1789) was likely to be misunderstood or distorted; how several of the most central events in the national narrative, such as the sectional conflict and Civil War, came to be misremembered for politically self-serving reasons; how presidents have misread or misrepresented American and international history to justify their policies; how the Supreme Court (and lower courts) has used history selectively to achieve outcomes (often desirable) that the justices felt were necessary; and finally, how the so-called culture wars of the early 1990s caused innocent words like “interpretation” and “revisionism” to become fighting phrases and the basis for shrill and often small-minded polemics between progressive and conservative agendas.