The 1620 Project. The 1619 Project, but fact-checked.

The 1620 Project is a rich collection of scholarly voices, gathered to refute the New York Times’ 1619 Project and provide broader pictures of American history. We are proud to feature these diverse voices in essays, podcasts, video interviews, and transcripts.

Our Work on 1620

February 22, 2022

Review: The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

Tom Mackaman

The front cover of the recently released book version of the New York Times’ 1619 Project speaks as much in a few short words as the following 600 pages of text.

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November 30, 2021

The New 1619 Project Book Tells the Same Old Story

David Acevedo

Two years later, Nikole Hannah-Jones and the NYT are back with more 1619 antics.

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November 24, 2021

North Dakota Bans CRT, 1619 Returns, and Wisconsin Parents File Suit

John D. Sailer

Although the heated debates of the last few months have simmered down for the holidays, activists, policymakers, and parents still push competing visions of education.

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November 24, 2021

1619 Again: Revisiting the Project's Troubled Past

Peter Wood

New York Times editor Jake Silverstein's new essay on the 1619 Project attempts to glide past the awkwardness that accompanied the project’s early days. Let's set the record straigh......

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May 27, 2021

Nikole Hannah-Jones at the Summit

Peter Wood

Hannah-Jones has now begun the descent that favored radicals of the past—these figures retain a die-hard following, to be sure, but they cease to matter in any larger sense.

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May 24, 2021

The Jay Bergman Debacle: An Extended Study in Academic Cancel Culture

Peter Wood

CCSU Professor of History and long-time NAS Board member Jay Bergman is under fire from colleagues, school superintendents, and the local media. His crime? Criticizing the 1619 Project.

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May 17, 2021

Keeping the Republic

Peter Wood

Schools that welcome and endorse neo-racism are sowing the seeds of misery for a whole generation of Americans.

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March 19, 2021

Video: The Mayflower Compact

National Association of Scholars

Watch our webinar on the long struggle for liberty brought about by social contracts throughout history, the thinkers of the time, and other topics that influenced The Mayflower Compact and the A......

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March 15, 2021

Event: The Mayflower Compact

National Association of Scholars

Join us for a discussion on the long struggle for liberty brought about by social contracts throughout history, the thinkers of the time, and other topics that influence The Mayflower Compact and......

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February 3, 2021

Video: Fringe History, Flawed Scholarship

National Association of Scholars

Why 1619, and not 1620, or 1776, as the  "nation's true founding?" Watch our webinar featuring Phil Magness, Robert Paquette, Ian Rowe, and Peter W. Wood to learn more.

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January 22, 2021

Biden Signals Return to Pseudo-History and Race and Sex Stereotyping

National Association of Scholars

In one fell swoop, President Biden has disbanded Trump's 1776 Commission and reversed an executive order banning race and sex stereotyping. This does not bode well for American education.

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January 22, 2021

The 1776 Commission Report Reinvigorates the American Mind

Mike Sabo

The 1776 Report intends to rebaptize American citizens in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, reinvigorating the American mind in the twenty-first century.

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January 21, 2021

Fringe History, Flawed Scholarship

National Association of Scholars

Join the National Association of Scholars on February 3 at 2 pm ET for Fringe History, an event that will assemble notable scholars to comment on different aspects of Wood's 1620, the 1619 Project......

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December 30, 2020

What to Worship, How to Obey: The New Rules of Cancel Culture

Peter Wood

Cancel culture is what we call the effort by leftists to banish people who defy the edicts of political correctness. The goalposts keep moving and cancellable offenses continue to expand. Are there an......

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December 8, 2020

Washington Schools Reject The 1619 Project

David Acevedo

Washington's 15 largest school districts have no plans to use 1619 Project-inspired K-12 history curricula, sparing nearly 400,000 students from pseudo-historical propaganda.

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November 25, 2020

Happy Thanksgiving from NAS!

David Acevedo

Even in this rollercoaster of a year, there is still much for which we may be thankful. Here are our top five encouraging higher ed developments from 2020.

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November 17, 2020

America Wasn’t Founded on Slavery in 1619 — but on Pilgrims’ Ideals Written in 1620

Peter Wood

Plymouth, not Jamestown, was the real beginning of America, argues NAS President Peter Wood in his new book, "1620,"  a comprehensive takedown of the New York Times' 1619 Project.

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October 6, 2020

Pulitzer Board Must Revoke Nikole Hannah-Jones' Prize

Peter Wood

We call on the Pulitzer Prize Board to rescind the 2020 Prize for Commentary awarded to Nikole Hannah-Jones for her lead essay in “The 1619 Project.” 

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October 5, 2020

Tom Klingenstein on Cancel Culture and 1619

National Association of Scholars

The issues that cancel culture presents are not new, but they are powerful in a way that we haven’t seen in generations. Complacency is, unfortunately, not an option.

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September 17, 2020

Video: White House Conference on American History

National Association of Scholars

Watch NAS President Peter W. Wood speak at the first ever White House Conference on American History.

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September 10, 2020

Slavery or Freedom: The Conception of America

National Association of Scholars

Was America conceived in slavery or freedom? Join us for this week-long online conference Sept. 14-18, 2020.

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August 27, 2020

Video: 1776 v. 1619

National Association of Scholars

Was America founded on the idea of liberty or on the brutality of slavery?

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August 13, 2020

1776 v. 1619: Two Visions of American History

National Association of Scholars

Webinar Event: Was America founded on the idea of liberty or on the brutality of slavery?

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August 10, 2020

Kick the ‘1619 Project’ Out of Schools

David Randall

America’s future depends on knowing our true past. We must get rid of the 1619 Project Curriculum to save our children from the anti-American lies of the woke establishment.

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July 30, 2020

In Defense of Unbiased History Education

Jay Bergman

An open letter from NAS Board Member Jay Bergman to the superintendent of Newington schools on the dangers of 1619 Project-inspired history curricula in K-12 education.

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July 24, 2020

NAS Applauds Senator Tom Cotton's Saving American History Act

National Association of Scholars

Senator Tom Cotton has introduced the Saving American History Act of 2020, a bill that would reduce federal funding to public schools that teach The 1619 Project.

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June 22, 2020

Re-Founding a Nation: Jamestown Year 1

Bruce Gilley

To change the future, radicals must capture the past.

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June 11, 2020

Video: The History of American Enterprise with H.W. Brand

National Association of Scholars

The story of how Americans have made their living—earned their daily bread, bought and sold goods and services, created jobs and companies, organized and innovated, bargained and battled in the......

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May 19, 2020

And the Pulitzer goes to...Nikole Hannah-Jones?

David Acevedo

Hannah-Jones' eminently flawed 1619 Project essay deserved no consideration for this award due to its widespread disregard of journalistic standards and historical facts, as well as her refus......

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May 7, 2020

The Collapse of the Fourth Estate

Peter Wood

Nikole Hannah-Jones won a Pulitzer Prize for her work in The 1619 Project. This does nothing but demonstrate the Pulitzer Committee's tribal loyalty to progressivism.

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May 4, 2020

Pulitzer and the Politicization of American History

Christopher Kendall

How did a piece of historical commentary that misrepresents central elements of the American founding, rejects rigorous historical analysis, and elevates proudly biased distortions of history win the......

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April 14, 2020

The 1620 Project and Its Critics

David Acevedo

Despite its particular challenges, the history of Plymouth Colony is an absolutely vital aspect of the American founding. We ought to treat it as such.

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April 7, 2020

Missing the Point of Plymouth Rock

David Randall

It is the essential, central component of the story of American liberty.

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March 16, 2020

The New York Times Revises The 1619 Project, Barely

Peter Wood

After more than six months of criticism from historians, The New York Times has very slightly revised part of The 1619 Project. It's a start, but we hope they will do more.

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March 10, 2020

The New York Times Won't Engage with 1619 Detractors

David Acevedo

The New York Times' 1619 Project claims to “recast all of American history.” Why won't its writers discuss with historians?

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March 3, 2020

Excluding Experts

National Association of Scholars

Nikole Hannah-Jones ought to step up, be courageous, and debate the historians with whom she disagrees, argues Peter Wood in a recent essay.

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February 20, 2020

The Economics and Politics of The 1619 Project

Peter Wood, Phillip W. Magness and Robert Cherry

Robert Cherry and Phil Magness join Peter W. Wood to discuss The 1619 Project, including its dubious portrayal of the economics of American slavery.

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January 7, 2020

NAS's 1620 Project Gets Off the Ground

David Acevedo

The 1620 Project is a rich collection of scholarly voices, gathered to refute the New York Times’1619 Project and provide broader pictures of American history.

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November 21, 2019

Episode #46: Lincoln Redux: Race and American History with Lucas Morel

David Randall

In this episode, David Randall and political scientist Lucas Morel discuss Morel's response to the lead essay of the New York Times' 1619 Project, as well as strategies for countering the ......

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November 15, 2019

The Truth About America's Founding and Slavery

Daniel Davis

During this in-depth interview, Allen Guelzo talks about the New York Times' 1619 project, reparations, capitalism and its role in our history, and more.

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October 21, 2019

America Wasn't Founded on White Supremacy

Lucas Morel

Were the founding fathers' stated ideals different from their true intentions? Professor Lucas Morel explores this question through a critique of Nikole Hannah-Jones' influential piece for......

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October 19, 2019

America’s Exceptional Guilt

Jason Ross

A Liberty University professor explains the emergence of the "neo-Garrisonian" view of the Constitution, recently promulgated in The New York Times' 1619 Project, ......

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October 18, 2019

Reclaiming 1619

Kevin R. C. Gutzman

A prominent historian critiques the New York Times' over-simplified portrayal of American slavery, instead offering a more holistic account of the events surrounding our country'......

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October 18, 2019

Conference Call Invitation: The 1620 Project

David Randall

Join us next Wednesday, October 23, at 2 PM Eastern for a conference call to discuss The 1620 Project, NAS's response to The New York Times' 1619 Project.

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October 8, 2019

How the Times’ 1619 Project Misses the Point

David Randall

As Englishmen had become Americans, liberty and equality shifted from customs to rights, and slavery became a very peculiar institution indeed, a repellent anomaly in a world of freedom.

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October 7, 2019

Slavery Gave Us Double-Entry Bookkeeping?

Hans Eicholz

An essay from the New York Times makes a striking choice on which facts to include and which to leave aside for the purpose of constructing a new theory of capital. Hans Eicholz rebuts Matthew Desmond......

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October 7, 2019

Positive Good Slavery Argument Makes a Comeback at The New York Times

William B. Allen

The "1619 Project" declares that the economic and social advances of the United States are owing to the development of slavery in the American South. As stated, argues W.B. Allen, The New......

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September 30, 2019

Was it Good Fortune to be Enslaved by the British Empire?

Bruce Gilley

Professor Gilley examines the state of slavery in Africa and throughout the British Empire at the now infamous date of 1619. 

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September 23, 2019

400 Years of Slavery

Glenn Loury and John McWhorter

Professors Glenn Loury and John McWhorter discuss the New York Times' 1619 Project, the problem with centering the American experiment on race, and current racial disparities. 

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September 19, 2019

The History of American Enterprise

H. W. Brands

The ingenuity of the American mindset is what has made America wealthy.

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September 18, 2019

America is Hopelessly Racist

Peter Wood

What does it mean to re-write America's foundational myth?

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September 16, 2019

Slavery Did Not Make America Rich

Deirdre Nansen McCloskey

We should stop using the history of slavery for present-day politics against capitalism.

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