The 1619 Project's Attack on Memory

Egyptologist Jan Assmann pioneered the concept of mnemohistory to demonstrate how collective remembrance of past events plays a critical role in preserving or transforming a shared notion of national identity.

In this timely book, Adam Ellwanger adapts the notion of mnemohistory to expose the New York Times’ 1619 Project as a propaganda effort aimed destroying America in order to found a new nation defined by far-left “social justice” ideologies.

As a series of essays, the New York Times’ 1619 Project argued that the true founding of the United States was not in 1776 with the signing of the Declaration of Independence, but rather in 1619, when the first ship of captured Africans arrived on the shore of British North America. Further, the authors asserted that the nation that was later founded by the colonists was designed to advance the interests of white supremacy, and that whatever legitimacy there is to America’s commitment to equality, freedom, and liberty comes from the efforts of black Americans.

Through a close rhetorical analysis of the 1619 Project as mnemohistorical propaganda, Ellwanger shows how narrative inversions and strategic manipulation of memory work as techniques for fomenting a mass political movement aimed at destroying American society. Ultimately, his analysis shows that the 1619 narrative – which explicitly aims to improve the lot of African-Americans – actually locks black identity in the past, preventing the cultural transformation that the project promises.