The Bradley Foundation released E Pluribus Unum: The Bradley Project on American Nationl Identity earlier this month.
From the press release:
The Bradley Project on America’s National Identity today released its Report, “E Pluribus Unum,”the product of a two-year study involving a number of our nation’s leading academics, public figures, journalists, educators and policy experts. The report examines four aspects of American life crucial to American identity: historical memory, civic education, assimilation, and national security.
The project’s site links to a pdf of the report, and also contains background essays.
Among the report’s recommendations: “a renewed focus on the teaching of American History.” I’m totally down with that. Through education it becomes less likely that the concept of national identity will be misused. Too often, racist and xenophobic organizations spout their own, largely created, conceptions of what America’s national identity is or should be. Racially charged notions about what it means to be American recur almost cyclically in our history, usually tied to the economic conditions in the world.
The other side of the spectrum tends to say, “We are all immigrants,” while discounting the necessity for social assimilation. Perhaps the Bradley report will be useful in finding a middle ground on the issue. One popular historian seems to think that it might:
“This is the clearest, most powerful summons yet, TO ALL OF US, to restore the American story to its rightful, vital place in American life and in how we educate our children. It couldn’t be more timely and important.”
– David McCullough
June 3, 2008
This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 at 10:24 pm and is filed under American History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
