Overview: Out of Many, One?

Studying history is one way for all kinds of people to feel a part of something together. It is a way of discussing and having conversations with other people despite our differences. Sometimes those stories become important ways to show we belong or that we believe in the same values or ideals.

A nation is often defined by its borders, but that doesn’t always mean that all of the people inside have the same beliefs and values, especially at the time of a nation’s founding. The United States is made up of people from many different backgrounds. Diverse viewpoints are constructed by people who all have different accounts of the past, which is shaped by their perspectives, ideas, beliefs, attitudes, and lived experiences. Over time those accounts can become stories and myths that we tell each other about what happened, and those stories shape our identities as a nation.

Sometimes those stories from the past are not historically accurate because our memories don’t quite hold on that long. We build collective memories of our history to pass on to future generations and make the stories fit who we think we are or who we want to be. Often we use objects, songs, stories, art, and rituals to help fill in the gaps or to keep myths going. In turn, our collective memories and various accounts of historic events can change what we think happened.