An interesting op-ed piece about the need for balance in historical and academic perspectives on the US. Written by a liberal professor, it notes that criticism of America’s flaws is only half the picture, as unbalanced as jingoism.
Then came Sept. 11 and the spontaneous, heartfelt flag-waving that followed. The America that academics had persistently characterized as “wrong” had been wronged. Students returned to their classes changed. But they found minimal guidance if they were looking for an intellectual bridge between love of country and a sophisticated understanding of the nation’s place in the world. A lot of intellectuals burned that bridge decades ago. There are numerous examples of the castigating tendency of American scholars, but my personal favorite is an anthology I reviewed a few years back. This textbook gave undergraduates three articles on World War II. The first was on Japanese internment, the second on segregation of black troops in the South and the third on harassment of Italian Americans. Every article discussed an aspect of the war that was absolutely true, yet, collectively, they made for a portrait of the war that was fundamentally false. No Adolf Hitler, no Emperor Hirohito, no Holocaust–only an imperfect America battling its demons.
The US, for all its flaws (and some are significant) is still a marvel in history and in the world. And the US, for all its goodness, is still far short of perfect. So long as people try to treat the matter in black-n-white — the US as paragon or the US as Anti-Christ — so long will we be doing a disservice to the truth.
(Via InstaPundit)