At 250, America still debates its past | Opinion

On the 250th anniversary of American independence, historians and scholars continue debating how to interpret the nation's founding and past. Joseph Ellis, Jill LePore, Ned Blackhawk, and Anne Hyde represent competing frameworks—emphasizing the Founders' legacy, slavery's centrality, Native American experiences, and women's roles respectively—each arguing their subject belongs "at the center" of American history. Opinion contributor Robert W. Thurston argues this proliferation of revisionist approaches, often couched in academic jargon, risks obscuring rather than clarifying historical truth and may explain declining enrollment in history courses.