Defusing the History Wars

Key Takeaways

Debates over Critical Race Theory. Combative school board meetings that have led to arrests. Bills that aim to impose limits on classroom conversations about racism and history. Today, America is embroiled in a culture war over whether we should see our national history as a source of pride or a source of shame. 

We at More in Common are curious about these ‘history wars’— and through an extensive and in-depth exploration of American public opinion, we discovered they are often being fought between imaginary enemies.

To better understand this conflict, we conducted a year-long research project asking thousands of Americans their views of American history and national identity and what they understood to be the views of their fellow Americans. 

One of our most notable findings is that both Democrats and Republicans alike grossly overestimate whether members of the opposing party hold extreme views. We call this a ‘Perception Gap’ — the gap between what we imagine an opposing group believes and what that group actually believes