Ch05 - Contrasting Approaches to American History

This excerpt from The Clash of the Two Americas argues that American history is defined by a conflict between two diametrically opposed ideologies: a nationalist, protectionist, and anti-slavery system championed by figures like Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and Frederick Douglass, and a free-trade, pro-slavery, and individualistic system supported by British imperial forces, Southern plantation owners, and later, the New York Times’s 1619 Project. The author contends that the latter ideology, fuelled by the City of London and Wall Street, corrupted the American Republic by undermining its economic sovereignty and perpetuating slavery, ultimately leading to the Civil War. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.