"History Will Judge Them." No It Won't. - Tad Stoermer

[ihaveaquestion]

Dec 22, 2025
Every time someone in power does something terrible, you hear it: “History will judge them.” “History won’t be kind.”

But history doesn’t judge anyone. Historians do. And the people you’re waiting for history to condemn don’t even need to understand that. The system does the work for them.

American history is largely nationalist history, by design. And nationalist history has one job: protect the nation, ensure continuity, smooth over the ruptures that might make people question what it actually is. That’s what the Lost Cause was—not a Southern aberration, but a nationalist project. Reconciliation mattered more than truth. Unity mattered more than justice. Treason became tragedy. And it worked.

Trump doesn’t need to understand any of this. Fifty years from now, historians will write about “a deeply polarized era” and “democratic backsliding” and “the challenges of populism in the digital age.” They’ll sand down the edges until it fits a story about American resilience, American recovery, the system working.

Meanwhile, the casualties will be forgotten. Because that’s what nationalist history does. It protects the nation from itself.

So stop waiting for history to do the work. Write it now. Right it now.

[GreatGazoo]

1. "The 'history' taught in public schools would more accurately be called 'patriotism'" - James Loewen

in "Lies My Teacher Told Me" (1995)

[ihaveaquestion]

2. A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn

I haven't read "Lies..." yet, but I'll put it on my list. Thanks for the recommendation.

I highly recommend Howard Zinn's book for a primer on US History and something that should be taught in every high school US History course.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_People's_History_of_the_United_States