The 1619 Project is a journalistic declaration of war on America. Ryan P. Williams and Matthew J. Peterson write:
It isn’t an overstatement to describe The New York Times’ 1619 Project as a journalistic declaration of war against America. Many of the project’s historical claims are downright fabrications — but in the most decisive respect, that’s beside the point.
The project’s leader, Nikole Hannah-Jones, has tried to brush off the criticism of many distinguished historians by claiming that such disagreement is how historiography always proceeds — as we learn progressively more, a new “narrative” challenges old ones.
The 1619 Project, however, isn’t about new historical scholarship, and insofar as journalism is about the quest for truth, it isn’t quite journalism, either. As eminent scholars and stalwart liberals, such as Princeton University’s Sean Wilentz, have pointed out, the project makes utterly preposterous claims — above all, the notion that protecting slavery was a central motivation in launching the Revolutionary War and thus the American project.
[Ryan P. Williams and Matthew J. Peterson, "NYT’s 1619 Project is Dishonest Attack On Nation’s Founding Principles,” New York Post, March 1]
