When Americans celebrate their history, controversy frequently ensues. Public commemorations, particularly those that take place on a national scale, require difficult choices about how the country understands its origins and what those interpretations mean for the present.

Throughout 2026, the United States will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Fault lines have already emerged over what will be showcased and what will be left out. With his “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” executive order, Donald Trump has sent clear signals to museums, universities, and civic groups as they determine what to present in the coming months.

When Americans celebrate their history, controversy frequently ensues. Public commemorations, particularly those that take place on a national scale, require difficult choices about how the country understands its origins and what those interpretations mean for the present.

Throughout 2026, the United States will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Fault lines have already emerged over what will be showcased and what will be left out. With his “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” executive order, Donald Trump has sent clear signals to museums, universities, and civic groups as they determine what to present in the coming months.

His directives have included an attempt to purge the findings of decades of archive-based, peer-reviewed scholarship from presentations that reach the public. Professional historians have expressed deep concern that the administration, working with Republican allies in Congress, is attempting to impose a nationalist narrative that erases difficult issues, conflicts, and failures from the national conversation.

This is not the first time that this kind of historic celebration has generated controversy. Fifty years ago, Americans debated the bicentennial, and the way history would be presented was widely seen as a test of what the country had learned from the political struggles of the 1960s.

In 1976, the United States was reeling from a tumultuous period. Deep divisions had opened over race and gender relations, sexuality, cultural values, and the war in Vietnam. President Richard Nixon’s downfall, and the scandals that surrounded Watergate, had generated profound distrust of government. The energy crisis shattered faith in U.S. power, while stagflation—the combination of inflation and unemployment—left millions of working Americans struggling to get by. President Gerald Ford, who entered the White House in August 1974 amid public optimism that he could heal the nation, saw that confidence erode dramatically after he pardoned Nixon for any crimes that he might have committed.

The bicentennial offered a chance, at least in theory, to bring the country together. Preparations stretched over nearly a decade. In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson and the Democratic Congress established the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission (ARBC) to develop a national plan. Over the following seven years, the commission became mired in internal divisions, especially as........

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