Founding Fathers and Other Fairy Tales

In this episode of The Left Unsaid, Pat, Meg, and Finn take a wild, unbalanced joyride through the myths we’re taught in school — from the sacred veneration of the Founding Fathers to the soothing bedtime stories spun by Ken Burns documentaries.

We dig into:

• How the Trump administration is pushing "patriotic education" (read: mandatory nationalistic myth-making).

• How liberal takes on history (hello again, Ken Burns) sometimes aren’t that far off from the conservative ones — just with better music.

• What the 1619 Project gets wrong.

• Why critical thinking about history matters more than ever, as authoritarianism erupts into the classroom.

• And why the Constitution isn't the sacred text you were told it was in 8th grade civics class.

If you're tired of fairy tales disguised as history, grab your headphones. Let's complicate the past together — and maybe complicate the future too.

Links:

Trump administration on education: 

1. Executive Order “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling”

2. 2021 President’s 1776 Commission Final Report

The 2nd Place Winner in the Senior Individual Documentary category of the National History Day competition in 2024, which we noted tied decolonization in Africa to the unfolding of the principles of the Declaration of Independence.

Historian Tad Stoermer’s takedown of Ken Burns on the American Revolution.

The Dig episode on the Constitution and how Americans have viewed/worshipped it over time, with Aziz Rana.

James Oakes, respected historian of slavery and abolitionism in US history, critiquing the 1619 Project and pointing out that history textbooks were actually pretty good, at least in the 80s and 90s.

Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States.

Incredible new history: America, América, by Greg Grandin.