The Selective Canon of American History
Newsweek recently engaged in an opinion piece asking if George Washington still 'matters,' a question framed around his complex legacy as both a foundational figure and a slave owner. This line of questioning, frequently surfacing in mainstream outlets, tends to focus on the individual moral failings of historical figures, portraying them as isolated controversies rather than symptoms of systemic
structures. Yet, this public introspection rarely extends to more recent, equally problematic figures whose legacies continue to shape U.S. foreign policy and economic structures. For instance, the discussion around Henry Kissinger, responsible for the 1973 coup in Chile that installed Augusto Pinochet and led to the murder of 40,000, or the covert support for the 1953 coup in Iran, remains
largely absent from mainstream 'does he still matter' assessments. The silence is particularly deafening given Kissinger's continued influence and advisory roles well into recent decades, a stark contrast to the distant past of Washington's era. One must ask why the moral ledger concerning architects of foreign interventions and economic destabilization is so frequently overlooked, while figures
from centuries past are subject to intense scrutiny over domestic issues. The framing suggests a comfort in dissecting historical slavery while sidestepping the moral implications of ongoing imperial ventures, which, according to a 2017 study by Brown University's Costs of War Project, have directly led to over 900,000 deaths and displaced 37 million people since 9/11 alone. The convenient