Hawk1981
VIP Member
- Apr 1, 2020
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The grand narrative of the story of the United States with its mixture of truth, myth, perception and interpretation has endured and served as a unifying force for the nation's people and culture. America's history reflects the needs of the people and the culture of the present. The narrative accounts for, adjusts to and assimilates the changes that occur over time with the demographics of language, religion, race, cultural rituals, and significant historical events.
The American epic has not been static. It has changed and will continue to evolve to meet the needs of America's changing demographics along with other significant events. The traditional American epic begins with the age of European exploration and includes as its important points the American Revolution, the Civil War, the conquering of the American West, America’s rise as a world power, the waves of immigration propelling its development, and its significant role in winning the two world wars and the subsequent Cold War. The traditional story becomes more muddied and non-linear the closer to the present it gets, but overall a beautiful, positive narrative of expansion and progress.
Changes in the telling of the American narrative have always occurred. Interpretations and perspectives have included, and continue to include, the traditional, the progressive, the consensus, the conflict, the economic, the great, the social, the left, the right, the social, and the list goes on. Social changes since the mid-20th century have dramatically increased the scope and opportunities for people previously left out of what had largely been a male dominated field. The gains that have been made in historical scholarship by including the work of minorities and women who have introduced new perspectives and new stories that had previously been undiscovered or ignored have been enormous. The American narrative is a richer and more complex story.
Not only the story tellers have changed, but also the details of the story. Where once history was written largely through limited primary sources; letters, journals, diaries, and newspapers, and of course, secondary sources-what others had already written; historians have opened up a new universe of sources such as estate inventories, court documents, and even oral histories. The age of information and technology has made accessible mountains of data from the daily minutiae of people's lives, and available with astonishing speed. The rapidity and processing power of media has accelerated the rates of scholarly research and revision, and flung open previously closed doors to historical professionals and laymen.
In March of 2015, the US Census Bureau reported that by 2020 more than half of the country’s children will be minority race, and that this shift will take place for the population as a whole in 2044. Demographic trends indicate that the white American majority is declining. US Census Bureau data shows between 2010 and 2015, the white-only population (not Hispanic or Latino) decreased from 63.7 percent to 61.6 percent. During the same period, Hispanic or Latino, Black, and Asian populations all increased marginally, totaling 36.5 percent of the population.
Some of the effects of these ongoing changes in demographics are already reflected in conventional US history texts, including the blood on the hands of European-American colonists and settlers. For African Americans, the story covers the beginnings of the Atlantic slave trade, colonial slavery, slavery and Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the struggle for civil rights in the 20th century. For other minorities, there are such episodes as the Trail of Tears, Wounded Knee, and the struggle of Latino migrant workers.
The American story is again being amplified and enriched with the stories of yet other peoples who have come to America. There's a whole new generation of children and their parents who are either descendants of immigrants or immigrants themselves, coming to America and enriching what it means to be American.
The future of America’s story, especially as a binding force, will likely have to accommodate new evolutions, interpretations and perceptions of the past. For example, the new population demographic may demand a story even more faithful to the struggles of peoples of color; additional years of study, discussion and negotiation may be required before the national original sin of slavery is finally redeemed; the origin stories of the new American generations and their experiences may supplant or marginalize the European exploration and colonial epic; the next generations will honor the relics of the past based on their needs, retaining or discarding the memorials, museums and statues according to their perceptions of history and cultural.
For the future American historical narrative and its potential success at strengthening our national bonds rather than our divisions, a crucial factor will be its legitimacy and credibility in the eyes of the coming generations of Americans.
The American epic has not been static. It has changed and will continue to evolve to meet the needs of America's changing demographics along with other significant events. The traditional American epic begins with the age of European exploration and includes as its important points the American Revolution, the Civil War, the conquering of the American West, America’s rise as a world power, the waves of immigration propelling its development, and its significant role in winning the two world wars and the subsequent Cold War. The traditional story becomes more muddied and non-linear the closer to the present it gets, but overall a beautiful, positive narrative of expansion and progress.
Changes in the telling of the American narrative have always occurred. Interpretations and perspectives have included, and continue to include, the traditional, the progressive, the consensus, the conflict, the economic, the great, the social, the left, the right, the social, and the list goes on. Social changes since the mid-20th century have dramatically increased the scope and opportunities for people previously left out of what had largely been a male dominated field. The gains that have been made in historical scholarship by including the work of minorities and women who have introduced new perspectives and new stories that had previously been undiscovered or ignored have been enormous. The American narrative is a richer and more complex story.
Not only the story tellers have changed, but also the details of the story. Where once history was written largely through limited primary sources; letters, journals, diaries, and newspapers, and of course, secondary sources-what others had already written; historians have opened up a new universe of sources such as estate inventories, court documents, and even oral histories. The age of information and technology has made accessible mountains of data from the daily minutiae of people's lives, and available with astonishing speed. The rapidity and processing power of media has accelerated the rates of scholarly research and revision, and flung open previously closed doors to historical professionals and laymen.
In March of 2015, the US Census Bureau reported that by 2020 more than half of the country’s children will be minority race, and that this shift will take place for the population as a whole in 2044. Demographic trends indicate that the white American majority is declining. US Census Bureau data shows between 2010 and 2015, the white-only population (not Hispanic or Latino) decreased from 63.7 percent to 61.6 percent. During the same period, Hispanic or Latino, Black, and Asian populations all increased marginally, totaling 36.5 percent of the population.
Some of the effects of these ongoing changes in demographics are already reflected in conventional US history texts, including the blood on the hands of European-American colonists and settlers. For African Americans, the story covers the beginnings of the Atlantic slave trade, colonial slavery, slavery and Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the struggle for civil rights in the 20th century. For other minorities, there are such episodes as the Trail of Tears, Wounded Knee, and the struggle of Latino migrant workers.
The American story is again being amplified and enriched with the stories of yet other peoples who have come to America. There's a whole new generation of children and their parents who are either descendants of immigrants or immigrants themselves, coming to America and enriching what it means to be American.
The future of America’s story, especially as a binding force, will likely have to accommodate new evolutions, interpretations and perceptions of the past. For example, the new population demographic may demand a story even more faithful to the struggles of peoples of color; additional years of study, discussion and negotiation may be required before the national original sin of slavery is finally redeemed; the origin stories of the new American generations and their experiences may supplant or marginalize the European exploration and colonial epic; the next generations will honor the relics of the past based on their needs, retaining or discarding the memorials, museums and statues according to their perceptions of history and cultural.
For the future American historical narrative and its potential success at strengthening our national bonds rather than our divisions, a crucial factor will be its legitimacy and credibility in the eyes of the coming generations of Americans.
