It is this appreciation for change and multiple perspectives that makes the U.S. history classroom a poor place to inculcate or beat back patriotism. ‘How great are we?’ is simply not the question history seeks to answer. ‘How did we get here?’ is closer to the mark.
The point of history is not to list all the good things or bad things that have happened, nor to strike some desired balance between them. It’s to understand origins, persistence and change. We teach it because we hope that knowing how slavery ended or the Second World War began will equip students to think intelligently about the present. History helps them to see why and by whom their world was built. It shows them how visions have had consequences — sometimes far-reaching, sometimes unintended. It gives them the intellectual tools to act on their society: a complex, dynamic place that is theirs to change or conserve.
The aim of history class isn’t to get students to love or loathe their country. It’s to prepare them to live in it.
Daniel Immerwahr, “History Isn’t Just for Patriots,” Washington Post, Dec. 23, 2020
1 thought on “National Greatness Is a Moving Target”
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Blue Book Diaries 
Helpful indeed. These were the animating questions I’ve been unable to articulate while still grasping for them as I think through next semester: How did we get here? How do we live here? How can we understand *this place*?
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