MAGA, Myth, and Memory: The Bloody Fight for America's Past

Richard Slotkin shares 5 key insights from A Great Disorder: National Myth and the Battle for America.

Do you live in a red state or a blue state? Not too long ago, we didn’t really think of America that way, but now it’s hard to avoid. While it’s possible to overstate our country’s liberal-conservative divide, there’s no question that there are competing visions of what the best version of America looks like. But what are these opposing ideologies really based on? Richard Slotkin teases out the foundational narratives that are shaping today’s culture wars in the new book A Great Disorder: National Myth and the Battle for America. Richard is an emeritus professor of English and American Studies at Wesleyan University and you can read or listen to five of his big ideas below:

The 5 Key Insights:

1. National myths are essential to the culture that supports a nation-state.

2. Three of these myths are central to the MAGA movement.

3. MAGA’s rationale for political violence becomes clear when we focus on its incorporation of the gun rights movement.

4. Since the 1970s, the left and center-left have lacked a version of national myth that would similarly root their programs in historical tradition and offer a clear vision of future destiny.

5. The passions and beliefs that divide the American public are deeply rooted in our history.

1. National myths are essential to the culture that supports a nation-state.

We are born to our families and home communities. We must learn to see ourselves as members of a national community, who have a shared history. Myths are the traditional stories through which that history is remembered and communicated.

National myths are developed over generations through every medium of cultural expression: histories, textbooks, newspapers, sermons, political speeches, popular literature, and movies. They tell us who can share American identity and what the purposes of our government should be.