A True History of the United States by Daniel A. Sjursen
Review by The Rev. Dr. Gerry Mueller
Steelhead Press, 2021
Despite the ‘clickbait’ title and the rather breathless subtitle “Indigenous Genocide, Racialized Slavery, Militarist Imperialism, and Other Overlooked Aspects of American Exceptionalism” this book is in fact a serious examination of the USA’s development from its beginnings (and no, those were not when godly Pilgrims landed at Plymouth having fled religious intolerance – they were in fact the intolerant ones) to roughly the end of the second Obama presidential term. And while it does not explicitly deal with the first Trump term and what might be called the Biden interregnum, it was published in contemplation of that first Trump term and the possibility of a second term. While the author never actually says so, the overarching theme of this book, for me, became something like “Trump is not a bug in the USA’s Constitutional system, he is a feature” – Trump is merely saying out loud and doing in full view what presidents, administrations, Congress, and the courts have done all along, but quietly and out of view. Sjursen does this by serially retelling US history, while removing the myths and white-washing that have accrued like barnacles on the actual story.
First, a note on the author. Sjursen is not a fringe figure, wild-eyed radical liberal, or aberrant historian. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy – West Point, a career military officer (Armour), served in Afghanistan, after graduate studies in history he taught history at West Point, and eventually retired at the rank of Major. He is now a full-time writer, contributing editor at Antiwar.com, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy (CIP), and his work has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The Huffington Post, The Hill, Salon, The American Conservative, Mother Jones, ScheerPost and TomDispatch, among other publications.
Why should you, a presumed Canadian with a connection to the Faculty of Divinity at Trinity College, probably with “liberal” tendencies (which for the purposes of this book recommendation I will define as somewhat to the left of the US Republican Party as it now is!) read this book? If you are of my generations of Canadian adults (born roughly between 1940 and 2000) the history of the United States that you were taught or have learned (I had an entire high school year, Ontario Grade 10, devoted to US History!) is that of a mythical US, that “shining city on a hill – a light to the nations” that is USAn mythology (I believe an American is a citizen of all the Americas, a USAn is one that resides in the USA), more politely exceptionalism. You are probably also somewhat puzzled how quickly the USA, our neighbour below us, sometimes a little loud, mildly pushy even aggressive, but capable of being reasoned with, turned into (to misquote, I think, Garrison Keillor) the meth lab above which we are now living. And if like me, you are probably hoping that when the present Management of the USA departs, as it must in 2029 (but given the trends, can’t be too sure of that) things will return to normal, this book might just convince you that this is normal, not a “new” normal, just as it has always been, but more visible.
If that analysis is correct, then this book might just convince that the policy of our present government, that is actively looking for new alliances and trading partners elsewhere in the world is necessary. Even if it doesn’t, you will get a new understanding of just how our neighbour to the south came into existence, developed and grew, and became what it is today. And while you will not learn anything new about Canada (except possibly a better understanding of the War of 1812) you might more firmly believe that our way of being a nation among nations, which among other things is not underpinned by an almost religious belief that that is the best and even only way to be, is worth preserving and fighting for.
Note: An earlier version of this book’s content appeared in serialized form at truthdig.com under the title “American History for Truthdiggers”.
