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Inventing American History (Boston Review Books) [Hardcover]

William Hogeland
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Book Description

March 13, 2009 Boston Review Books

American public history--in magazines and books, television documentaries, and museums--tends to celebrate its subject at all costs, even to the point of denial and distortion. This does us a great disservice, argues William Hogeland in Inventing American History. Looking at details glossed over in three examples of public history--the Alexander Hamilton revival, tributes to Pete Seeger and William F. Buckley, and the Constitution Center in Philadelphia--Hogeland considers what we lose when history is written to conform to political aims. Questioning the resurrection, by both neocons and the left, of Alexander Hamilton as the founder of the American financial system--if not of the American dream itself--Hogeland delves deeply into Hamilton's brutal treatment of working-class entrepreneurs. And debunking recent hagiographies of Pete Seeger and William F. Buckley, Hogeland deftly parses Seeger's embrace of communism and Buckley's unreconstructed views on race. Hogeland then turns his attention to the U.S. Constitution Center in Philadelphia (the location of Barack Obama's speech on race), comparing its one-note celebration of the document to the National Park Service tours of nearby Independence Hall. The Park Service tours don't advance any particular point of view, but by being almost purely informative with a kind of hands-on detail, they make the past come to life, available for both celebration and criticism. We should be able to respect the Constitution without being forced to our knees before it, Hogeland argues; we can handle the truth about the Framers' intense politicking and compromises.. Only when we can ground our public history in the gritty events of the day, embracing its contradictions and difficulties, will we be able to learn from it.


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Editorial Reviews

Review

"For William Hogeland, thinking about history is an act of moral inquiry and high citizenship. A searching and original voice."--Rick Perlstein, author of Nixonland

About the Author

William Hogeland is author of The Whiskey Rebellion: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and the Frontier Rebels Who Challenged America's Newfound Sovereignty. He lives in New York City.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 152 pages
  • Publisher: The MIT Press (March 13, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 026201288X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0262012881
  • Product Dimensions: 4.5 x 0.4 x 7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #420,548 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in Virginia and raised in Brooklyn, New York, William Hogeland is the author of three books on founding U.S. history: "The Whiskey Rebellion," "Declaration," and "Founding Finance," as well as a collection of essays, "Inventing American History." His work in history represents an unusual blend of critical interpretation and dramatic narrative. He has also written about history, music, and politics for "The Atlantic Monthly," "AlterNet," "Salon," "The New York Times," "Boston Review," and "The Huffington Post." His essay "American Dreamers" appears in Da Capo's "Best Music Writing 2009," edited by Greil Marcus. Hogeland also contributed the chapter on insurrections to "A Blackwell Companion to American Military History."

Hogeland's blog is at http://www.williamhogeland.com. He has an online self-publishing venture at http://www.hogelandpublishing.com. He posts at http://twitter/WilliamHogeland, and his Facebook author page is http://www.facebook.com/pages/William-Hogeland/108281879206433.

Customer Reviews

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Distorting history July 17, 2012
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
In this short, provocative book, consisting of three essays, the author is concerned that popular, standard history often distorts historical reality and can even approach the level of whitewash. Of course, history is not easy. Sometimes even facts are in short supply, but interpretation of the past often conforms to the agenda of historians or to a generally accepted "consensus" that avoids contradictory information.

In the first essay, the author takes on the notion that Alexander Hamilton is perhaps the most important founder, given that the US to some extent followed his economic vision making it the foremost industrial power in the world with a strong financial system. He is, to some, the exemplar for "national-greatness conservatism." But the author notes that Hamilton was in fact elitist in his thinking, not democratic. He was an admirer of the British monarchy. His financial policies favored rich bondholders. He quickly led the charge to suppress the Whiskey rebels when they objected to his whiskey taxation policies that put small producers at a disadvantage.

Secondly, the author notes that the portrayal of charismatic individuals often hides their problematical sides. For example, Peter Seeger is known for his folk music. What is seldom revealed is that as a member of the Communist Party all through the 1930s and 40s, he followed the Party line, often ignoring the excesses of Stalinism. It was he and others who grafted radicalism onto down-home, banjo-picking music. The acerbic intellectual William Buckley may have been the darling of conservatives in opposition to the welfare state, but what has been lost is his advocacy for white superiority in opposition to what he called the Negro "revolt" in the 50s and 60s.

In his most important essay, the author is dismayed that the modernistic National Constitution Center in Philadelphia whitewashes the democratic actions taken by ordinary citizens leading up to the US founding Constitutional Convention in 1787. The Center's grandiose, soaring presentations are designed to convince people of the power of the average person in our founding documents - an effort the author refers to as "flat-out indoctrination." What are clearly avoided are clear facts that the elite members of the Convention were there largely to limit democracy, not enhance it. In some respects, the American people are robbed of their legacy by such blatant manipulation. So-called consensus historians, in the author's view, are unwilling to acknowledge the role of such "class warfare" in our founding.

The author is surely correct to decry intentional efforts to mislead about our past. Such manipulation is not harmless. So much distortion about the past undermines the American people's ability to move forward in an intelligent fashion.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and Intriguing Reading May 3, 2009
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
These essays all exhibit erudite scholarship, imaginative insights, a passionate involvement in American history and culture, and superb writing. Hogeland makes every page dramatic with telling details and little-known facts. Who would have imagined that two charismatic figures as disparate as William F. Buckley, Jr. and Pete Seeger had anything in common, but Hogeland's account of their often intentionally obscured early years elicits important similarities. And a walk with him through The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia is eye-opening and somewhat disturbing.
I considered withholding one star from my rating only because I was frustrated that there were only three sections in this superb book. I wanted more!
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