Using E Pluribus Unum As a Narrative Framework for the U.S. History Survey

Rob Good Using E Pluribus Unum as a Narrative Framework for the U.S. History Survey or a minute it seemed as if the debate in my “Teaching U.S. Several years ago I became concerned about the undue influence my History in the Secondary Classroom” course at a local univer- own political and social views might have on student learning, despite sity would devolve into a frantic shouting match. During our my efforts to remain neutral in class discussions. A young woman, who F Downloaded from second class meeting the preservice teachers divided themselves into was an ardent prolife activist, wrote an essay celebrating Roe v. Wade as an two opposing and antagonistic groups. The debate arose in response achievement that provided greater liberty for women. While I did not have to my question: What narrative approach should teachers take in a a chance to ask her about her response (it was a final exam), I worried that U.S. history survey? One group, the majority, argued vehemently that the story line I established in my course did not give her adequate space teaching a triumphant, national narrative represented an oppressive to engage in an authentic debate over questions about access to abortion, act of forced assimilation that ignored the experiences of marginal- women’s rights, and the meaning of freedom. Over the next few years I http://maghis.oxfordjournals.org/ ized social groups. In response, a minority of students countered that began to look for a narrative framework that would allow students to con- without a shared appreciation of American concepts of freedom and struct interpretations of the past that were both democratically developed democracy we would have no nation. As passions rose, I sat and won- and historically sound. Rereading Eric Foner’s Story of American Freedom dered how this class and, by extension my profession, might develop inspired me to contemplate how I might present a similar story line about a shared understanding about the best ways to teach U.S. history to the efforts of diverse groups to shape the meaning of our shared values. (5) adolescents. After considerable experimentation I found that using the United States’ In many ways the debate among these preservice teachers reflects original motto, E Pluribus Unum, from many one, achieved this goal. As the larger argument occurring in our nation. We find ourselves increas- a narrative framework it created space where students could engage with ingly polarized and at odds with each other over the meaning of our history, each other, and their teacher in ways that promoted a strenuous nation’s past. Controversy over Texas’s social studies standards during but civil discussion about the meaning of America’s past. at :: on August 9, 2013 2010 and the equally intense conflict that exploded when the National E Pluribus Unum has served as the nation’s de facto motto since the Center for History in the Schools published standards in 1994 exposed adoption of the Great Seal in 1782. While it was officially replaced by “In deep rifts in American society. (1) These disputes reflect long-stand- God We Trust” in 1956 during the height of the Cold War, it remains a ing divisions between progressive and traditional approaches to his- central, if contested, ideal in American society. President Barack Obama tory. Although no quick generalization can completely describe this cited E Pluribus Unum as our national motto during a 2010 speech in divide, progressives tend to favor narratives that explore conflict in a Jakarta, Indonesia. His actions prompted Rep. J. Randy Forbes of Virginia pluralistic society while traditionalists support stories that promote to introduce legislation reaffirming “In God We Trust” as the nation’s offi- unity by affirming consensus around core national values. (2) Recently, cial motto. (6) Because E Pluribus Unum remains an important statement the OAH Magazine of History devoted an entire issue to exploring the of national purpose it has tremendous potential to serve as a unifying “history wars” that have always existed in American culture. In the story line. Education professor Walter C. Parker argues that E Pluribus issue’s forward, Keith Erekson argued, “we must pay attention to the Unum promotes democratic citizenship education by recognizing that way details are placed within larger story lines. These story lines— we are a diverse nation with a shared political identity. It poses a cen- persuasive historical narratives and interpretations—tell people which tral question to students: “How can we live together justly, in ways that facts are important to remember and which are not.” (3) are mutually satisfying, and which leave our individual differences, both As a teacher in a public high school, I have struggled to develop individual and group, intact and our multiple identities recognized.” (7) a story line for my U.S. history survey that would, as Erekson urges, While reconciling this inherent tension is not an easy task, the phrase “embrace the controversies and enrich learning.” (4) As a historian, provides students who hold competing visions of the nation’s past a com- I am drawn to stories that explore how Americans from different mon place to begin a conversation. Traditionalists can appreciate fealty to backgrounds have struggled for greater equity and opportunity in an a shared unum while progressives can point to the conflicting aspirations unequal society. My interest in social history has shaped a pedagogical of diverse groups that compose the pluribus. (Figure 1.) approach that seeks to promote my students’ sense of personal agency and their involvement as citizens in our democracy. At the same time I Developing E Pluribus Unum in the U.S. History Survey want my students to develop informed interpretations of the past that For the past five years I have organized my ninth-grade U.S. history do not merely mimic my point of view. survey course around the concept of E Pluribus Unum. Before diving OAH Magazine of History, Vol. 27, No. 3, pp. 11–15 doi: 10.1093/oahmag/oat023 © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Organization of American Historians. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: [email protected] in such an important document. I end the lesson by bringing their attention to Lincoln’s challenge that “It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.” I suggest that Lincoln was not just speaking to the crowd assembled on November 19, 1863, but that he was also speaking to the ages and, therefore, to them. This experience introduces students to the organizing premise of my course: Contest- ing visions of our shared values shape American history, and E Pluribus Unum is an ongoing process in which they, as citizens, are vital and active agents. My opening unit on Reconstruction provides an excellent opportunity to develop this narrative framework in more detail. The idea of E Pluribus Unum becomes clearer as students examine how freed slaves, defeated Confederates, Radical Republicans, northern Democrats, and newly formed women’s groups all struggled to shape the meaning of freedom, equality, democracy, and opportunity in the aftermath of the Civil War. As we transition into units on the West, the Gilded Age, and the Progressive era, we deepen our exploration about the different strategies Americans have employed to achieve their shared goals. For instance, students begin to recognize that even among social Downloaded from Figure 1. In his first proposal for the Great Seal of the United States in 1776, groups there is considerable debate regarding how to best achieve the Eugene du Simitiere included the motto E Pluribus Unum. Courtesy Library of Congress. American dream. The varied approaches of Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois, Carrie Chapman Catt and Alice Paul, or Samuel Gompers and Big Bill Haywood demonstrate the complexity and diver- into the content (our curriculum begins with Reconstruction), I set sity of American social history. http://maghis.oxfordjournals.org/ aside time to develop the contours of this narrative framework. My stu- E Pluribus Unum also helps students interpret political history. For dents spend the first two days of school trying to define for themselves instance, they can apply the framework to analyze the diverse ways pol- what this Latin phrase means. On the first day of school I give each iticians and political parties have sought to organize government and student a dollar bill—a tactic that immediately grabs the attention of enact public policy. Not only do they compare and contrast the expan- anxious freshmen. I tell them that the dollar is their first handout for sive vision of government power proposed by the New Deal with Ronald the class, and I have them analyze the Great Seal, making sure to iden- Reagan’s vision of limited central authority, but they also explore the tify the phrase E Pluribus Unum written on the banner grasped in the more complicated and nuanced approaches to federal authority pre- eagle’s mouth. Once we translate the Latin, students brainstorm what sented by Richard M. Nixon’s New Federalism or Bill Clinton’s Demo- groups comprise the pluribus in American society. They generate a list cratic Leadership Council. Students come to recognize that although all that usually includes race, gender, religion, class, sexual orientation, politicians pay homage to our shared unum, they view those core values at :: on August 9, 2013 geography, ethnicity, political beliefs, language, ability, and age. I then give students a list of four common values (liberty, equality, democracy, and opportunity) that I argue are essential parts of the American unum.

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