Academics push trendy 1619 Project without believing its claims, says history prof

Dr. Jeff Hummel, SJSU economics and history professor, recently delved into the controversial 1619 Project at a Mt Hamilton/Bastiat Society event. Though proponents often doubt this project’s veracity, they frequently reference/praise the 1619 Project for “academic attention,” says Dr. Hummel. For historians who advocate the 1619 Project, their professional writing often contradicts the project’s foundational claims—raising questions about influential academics playing the rewrite-history game for their own fame.

(4:10–4:53)

Jeff Hummel: There is a new wave of progressive historians who claim to be challenging prior accounts of the American Revolution and overturning a dominant mainstream consensus. And some of these historians publicly associate their work with the 1619 Project, in other words, appearing to come out in its defense.

But when you actually examine their purely scholarly work, they have not significantly defended, really defended the 1619 Project, or even significantly altered our understanding of the Revolution.

(30:00–30:32)

JH: In conclusion, despite both [Woody] Holton’s and [William] Hogeland’s polemical denunciations of mainstream accounts of the American Revolution, their serious scholarly work has done very little to bolster the 1619 Project. And neither of them, although they have their unique perspectives, emphases, and contributions, I do not think are in any way dramatically overturning some monolithic consensus about the Revolution’s causes.

[Note: Holton and Hogeland are two influential progressive historians who associate some of their popular scholarly work with the 1619 Project.]

(32:46–34:08)

Guest: Is there some reason why [academics] wanted to hang a hat on the 1619 Project? I mean, it just seems odd to me that they would say, “Hey, this is where it all started, and this is what happened…”

JH: Well, the 1619 Project… is sort of looking for things, right? They’re trying to change the story.

So your question is why do historians go along with it? Because, well, sell more books; you link it with the 1619 Project. Get more academic attention.

I think that there are academics who are sympathetic to the goal of the 1619 Project without buying in to all of the specific claims.

Guest: Maybe they’ll look the other way on accuracy if the goal is politically correct.

JH: Right.

(35:59–36:19)

JH: I mean, there has been considerable pushback. And yet, the 1619 Project book that came out this year was on, at least in San Francisco, was on the bestseller list for week after week after week after week.

Watch the whole thing here.

Image by Mark Hillary