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America Is Anxious About Its 250th Birthday. So Are Historians.

At the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians, scholars wrestled with what people want from national anniversaries — and whether historians can give it to them. This summer...

NYTIMES 입력 2026.04.21 18:04 0

America Is Anxious About Its 250th Birthday. So Are Historians.

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America Is Anxious About Its 250th Birthday. So Are Historians.

At the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians, scholars wrestled with what people want from national anniversaries — and whether historians can give it to them.

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The Organization of American Historians met recently in Philadelphia, which is preparing for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

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Hannah Beier for The New York Times

Jennifer Schuessler

Reporting from Philadelphia

April 21, 2026,

5:02 a.m. ET

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This summer, more than a million people are expected to descend on Philadelphia for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. But over the weekend, several hundred historians showed up early.

At a hotel not far from Independence Hall, members of the Organization of American Historians gathered at their annual meeting for four days of panels, shop talk and gossip that often circled around two anxious questions: What do Americans want and need from the anniversary? And are historians able — or willing — to give it to them?

It had barely been a year since President Trump issued an executive order,

“Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,”

that claimed a “revisionist movement” had sought to undermine the nation by “casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light.”

Since then, scholars have scrambled to push back against efforts to bring federal cultural institutions in line with

the president’s vision of “patriotic history.”

But in Philadelphia, the mood was less five-alarm fire than sober determination, embodied by a rousing opening night appearance by Lonnie G. Bunch III, the embattled secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

In an onstage interview with the group’s president, Annette Gordon-Reed, Bunch mixed wry don’t-want-to-talk-about-it jokes about his standoff with the Trump administration with calls for historians to stay the course, tell the truth and, crucially, show their work.

“We’re like the last great craft guild — we have secret nods and special handshakes,” Bunch said.

“We do not explain how we do the work we do,” he continued. “So part of this is on us to make the public understand this is not somebody’s whim, or somebody’s politics. This is somebody’s research and expertise.”

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