Origin myths are deeply embedded in our media culture and shape everything from tech companies to public policy.
In this week’s WhoWhatWhy podcast, Julian Zelizer, a Princeton history professor and co-editor of Myth America, explains how these myths have been weaponized by some to advance their agendas.
He details how layers of myth can obscure actual events, leading to a distorted understanding of history and, as a result, shaping bad policy going forward.
Zelizer highlights a multitude of erroneous but widely held notions, including, for example, that Native Americans have not made significant contributions to American history, that the Southern border is a porous gateway for dangerous immigrants, that socialism is an imported ideology, that the New Deal and Great Society programs were unsuccessful, that voter fraud is a common occurrence, and that feminism seeks to dismantle the American family.
Zelizer emphasizes the importance of bringing a nuanced appreciation of history back into the public conversation about policy and values. He also underscores the critical role of historians in dispelling misinformation and delineating the many layers of myths that complicate our understanding of history
Today, historical myths are being perpetuated as part of a partisan project, compounding the problems we face.
The cartoon above was created by DonkeyHotey for WhoWhatWhy from these images: Sarah Ewart / Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0), WallpapersWide.com / Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), Angelique Johnson / Pixabay, Joe Rosenthal / Wikimedia, Jackie Williamson / Pixabay, Richard Masters / Wikimedia,and Gs970 / Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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Full Text Transcript:
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Transcript Coming Soon…