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In a new report from the Progressive Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, titled “The Distortion of American Studies,” Richard D. Kahlenberg and Lief Lin accuse the field of having “embraced a worldview as slanted as Donald Trump’s.”
They arrived at this conclusion by analyzing several recent years’ worth of the journal American Quarterly, an official publication of the American Studies Association (ASA) and the leading journal in its field. Their thesis is simple, and blunt: “Instead of providing a rich and varied collection of positive, critical, and mixed accounts of America’s history, literature, and culture, American Quarterly paints a one-sided and unrelentingly negative portrait.”
Kahlenberg and Lin substantiate this claim quantitatively. Of the 96 essays in their sample, 77 are critical of the United States; 19 are neutral; 0 are positive. They do not object to a critical posture per se. “When writing about slavery,” for example, “it is entirely appropriate that the article be highly critical of the United States.” But they are interested in the gestalt. A field that is disproportionately concerned with American sins at the expense of American virtues will not be able to tell us much about the world — about, for instance, why so many people want to come to the United States.
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