History

Join the History department for a small panel session examining the history we’re making right now, and how we got here. This session's panelists are Profs. Jeffers Lennox and Joeseph Slaughter.

Elbows Up: Canadian Nationalism and American Aggression from the Revolution to Trump

Even before it declared independence from Great Britain, the Continental Congress decided to invade Canada. This failed attack in the winter of 1775-76 was an attempt to spread the revolution beyond the borders of the thirteen rebelling colonies. The United States invaded again during the War of 1812, this time giving rise to a sense of Canadian identity that did not exist prior to the conflict. The threat of American annexation after the Civil War was a central influence on Canadian confederation in 1867. Our current moment, with the Trump regime threatening to make Canada a state, has a long history. Questions of Canadian national legitimacy are nothing new – the land was stolen from Indigenous nations, and Quebec nationalists have long wanted to separate. But when these threats come from the United States, Canadians respond differently.

Jeffers Lennox is Professor of History at Wesleyan. He is the author of two books, most recently North of America: Loyalists, Indigenous Nations, and the Borders of the Long American Revolution.

Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? Why this Question is at the Heart of the MAGA History Wars

In 1975, Arnold Friberg painted an image of George Washinton on his knees in prayer beside his horse on a snowy, cold day in Valley Forge. This painting is now iconic in conservative Christian circles, appearing in homes, schools, and even sermons. Friberg’s painting represents a particular view of America’s founding – that of a Christian nation – that lies at the heart of the MAGA movement’s history wars. It’s an example of the influence of amateur evangelical historian-activists such as David Barton and William Federer who have popularized a particularly evangelical myth of the nation’s founding era. Barton and Federer’s videos, speeches, and publications – including works such as The Founder’s Bible (a text that weaves early American mythology into an evangelical-friendly translation of the Bible) – have influenced home school curricula, mega-church pastors, and countless state and federal politicians. But, less important than the question’s answer is why the question is being asked in the first place. The anxiety over the question undergirds much of the blowback to The New York Times’ 1619 Project, the creation of Trump’s 1776 Commission, and the history wars raging at the local and state levels today. The question is central to conservative Protestants’ identity nationally and individually: as a people in a sacred covenant with God, that when violated leads to a nation’s sure judgment and destruction. But, for these Americans, when that covenant is restored and honored, then America truly will be great again, as it was in the country’s founding.

Joseph Slaughter is a historian of Christianity, Capitalism, Technology, and War. His first book, Faith in Markets: Christian Capitalism in the Early American Republic, was published by Columbia University Press in 2023.