America250: Celebration or Culture War?
2 January - 24 mins
Podcast Series
Newstalk Daily
This year, the United States marks 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. What was meant to be a sweeping national commemoration — exhibitions, reenactments and reflection — has instead become a flashpoint for political and cultural conflict, with funding rows, museum controversies and a White House determined to shape how the story is told.
On today’s podcast, Sean Defoe is joined by Dr Sandra Scanlon, lecturer in American history at University College Dublin, to ask what the American Revolution was really about — and why its legacy is proving so contested 250 years on.
They discuss the Declaration of Independence, mythmaking around 1776, how anniversaries shape...
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