While US President Donald Trump has declared that America was back, ahead of marking the country’s 250th anniversary on Saturday (4 July), an American social historian has labelled efforts by the current administration as “working overtime to censor and change the past”.
July 4th marks the birth of the United States as a sovereign nation, commemorating the 1776 declaration by 13 British colonies that they would govern themselves rather than remain under British rule and the monumental adoption of the Declaration of Independence – considered the founding document of the country.
Professor of History Emeritus at the City University of New York, Joshua Brown, warned that as the country moved to celebrate a key milestone in its history, it was increasingly viewed internationally with greater scepticism.
President Trump kicked off celebrations last week when he opened the Great American State Fair on the National Mall in Washington, that seeks to celebrate the people and culture of the country’s 50 states as part of the 250th anniversary commemorations.
“There has never been anything like the United States of America and together we are making it bigger and better and stronger and far more exceptional. Tonight, as we stand on the edge of our 250th year of independence, I am thrilled to declare that America is back,” Trump adds.
Professor Brown says, “This distinctive moment with the current President and administration, I think, creates a different vision from in the rest of the world than even four years ago. So, I think that there is a shocking, both a shock and at the same time a certain amount of derision toward the what many people view abroad, not to mention in the United States, of the hypocrisy of the claims about the American experiment and the success of the American experiment, and how we are the model for the world; or even worse, we are the best in the world and nobody else is like the United States.”
Brown is both a historian and a teacher; in addition to being an illustrator and political cartoonist – often featuring presidents and commentary from past and present.
“It’s a challenge. So, on some level it’s, well, how can you express yourself and not just be repeating what some very talented people are doing. I think the other problem is that Trump is a cartoon in and of himself and not very funny one.”
Key events include: The Great American State Fair in Washington D.C. that culminates on July 4th; the burying of a Congressional time capsule in Philadelphia which will be sealed for the next 250 years; Sail4th – expected to be the largest flotilla of tall ships that will sail to the Port of New York and New Jersey on Independence Day; then an event dubbed Salute to America 250 culminating in a large concert and fireworks display over the National Mall, while other major fireworks events are expected around the country including the traditional flagship in New York among others.
“It may be interesting to begin by looking back at the bicentennial, which many of us remember extremely well, because in some sense, what you see is a stark contrast between the notion of what the American past and what its celebration is compared to 1976, as opposed to 2026. For one thing, it was a bipartisan celebration.”
“We’ve had many eras where we have gotten gone backward. But at the same time, as the historian Eric Foner has, I think, argued compellingly, the struggle in itself is important that we have large constituencies that are not content, that say we need equality, we need to fight for it, for this. And even when they lose, the very fact that we have had the struggle, I think becomes an important part of US history.”
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