American Political Myths Have Consequences For Us All

From the “Southern Strategy” to the civil rights movement, we’re surfacing what is true about our nation’s past, and what is propaganda masquerading as history.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has made headlines again after striking down the College Board’s Advance Placement course on African American Studies in the state. Simultaneously, the College Board was making changes to the curriculum that some critics claim, omits key details from the history. Schools are common sites of cultural provocation and a key component of the ongoing history wars. To help explain the myths of our nation’s past and who is telling them, host Kai Wright speaks with Kevin M. Kruse, professor of history at Princeton University and co-author of the book "Myth America: Historians Take On the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past." They discuss how political misunderstandings both old and new, influence American democracy.

The True Story of Critical Race Theory (10/11/2021)

Is racism a permanent fixture of society? Host Kai Wright is joined by Jelani Cobb, staff writer for The New Yorker, to unravel the history of Derrick Bell’s quest to answer that question and how it led to our present debate over critical race theory. 

“Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.

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Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.