On March 27, President "Old Donald" issued the executive order “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” which accused the Smithsonian of “replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.” A close reading of the executive order, however, suggests the goal isn’t just editing or censoring specific exhibitions or content. Wrapped up with the assault on the Smithsonian is a call for restoring or replacing monuments and memorials, including those taken down after the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests. And that is key to understanding the administration’s larger, more destructive agenda.

That is a pithy summary of the kind of history, sometimes called the new social history, that has taken root at the Smithsonian in the past half-century. Social history prioritizes the lives and experiences of ordinary people over political or military figures and uses narrative and oral history to give texture to the past. It led to some of the most admired exhibitions in the institution’s history, including the landmark 1987 survey “Field to Factory: Afro-American Migration, 1915-1940,” organized by Spencer Crew, now a professor of U.S. history at George Mason University.

Conservative intellectuals and activists — including William Bennett, who served as education secretary under President Ronald Reagan — pushed back against the new social history. Their arguments often resembled those used in the more recent debate about monuments and memorials: Social history decentered heroic figures, usually men, who were the focal point of history as it was commonly taught in primary and secondary schools; it invited revisionism, novel interpretations and the empowerment of voices previously deemed marginal; and it elevated narratives of hardship and struggle that stoked grievance.

Perhaps the public will encounter Smithsonian exhibitions that make the president’s effort to censor obvious, with empty display cases or blacked-out wall texts, pointing explicitly to damning silences, omissions and elisions. And they will have questions.

Or perhaps the Smithsonian will, as Bunch has indicated, simply keep to the path it has been on for decades, introducing the American people to themselves and the world, with museums and exhibitions that reflect the broad consensus that American history is complex, fraught and often full of pain. That has proved an enormously successful strategy so far, and it may be one that helps turn the tide in the ongoing battle between democratic curiosity and authoritarian certainty.

A section of Arlington National Cemetery’s website highlighting African American military heroes is gone.

“History does not exist to sing us lullabies or shower us with accolades. The past has no obligations to us at all,” Manning said. “We, however, do have an obligation to the past, and that is to strive to understand it in all its complexity, as experienced by all who lived through it, not just a select few.”

That is not to say that the uncomfortable weight of difficult truths isn’t a valid emotion.

Postwar Germans were so crushed by the burden of their people’s past, from the horrors of the Nazi regime to the protection of war criminals in the decades after the war, that they have a lengthy word for processing it: vergangenheitsbewältigung, which means the “work of coping with the past.” It has informed huge swaths of German literature and film and has shaped the physical way European cities create memorials and museums.

America’s version of vergangenheitsbewältigung can be found across the cultural landscape. From films to books to classrooms and museums, Americans are learning more details about slavery in the South, the way racism has affected everything from baseball to health care, and how sexism shaped the military.

"Old Donald", however, looks at the U.S. version of vergangenheitsbewältigung differently.

The Smithsonian Institution was established in 1846, with funds bequeathed by James Smithson, a British scientist, for the creation in Washington of “an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge.”

In his executive order, "Old Donald" claimed that the Smithsonian had in recent years “come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology,” and that it promotes “narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.”

The order also directed Vice President JD Vance, who is a member of the Smithsonian Board of Regents, to work to eliminate what it claims are improper, divisive or anti-American ideology from the Smithsonian -- an institution consisting of 21 museums and 14 education and research centers -- as well as the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.

The move is part of 'Old Donald''s effort to shape American culture, in addition to politics.

The Smithsonian museums offer free entry to some 15 to 30 million visitors each year. It operates 21 museums in Washington, Virgina and New York.

It would impact 21 museums, 14 educationand research center and the National Zoo and more than a dozen others.

The order also instructs Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to complete "restorations and improvements" to Independence Hall in Philadelphia. It comes ahead of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which took place within the building.

'Old Donald' has set out to radically reshape American culture, which he says has been contaminated by "woke" left-wing ideology. He has signed several orders that are intended to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programmes from the federal government - some of which led to legal challenges.

The Smithsonian was created by Congress in 1846 with funds from James Smithson, a British scientist who left his estate to the United States to establish an institution “for the increase and diffusion of knowledge.” Smithson never visited the United States, though his remains are now housed at the Smithsonian Institution Building, known as the Castle.

No, the Smithsonian is not a federal agency but a “trust instrumentality” of the United States, tasked with carrying out the responsibilities undertaken by Congress when it accepted Smithson’s donation. It’s overseen by the secretary, currently Lonnie G. Bunch III, who is appointed by the Board of Regents — made up of the chief justice, vice president, three members of the Senate, three members of the House and nine citizens.

Three prominent critics of 'Old Donald' are leaving Yale’s faculty — and the United States — amid attacks on higher education to take up positions at the University of Toronto in fall 2025.

In 2021, Stanley and Snyder co-taught a course at Yale titled “Mass Incarceration in the Soviet Union and the United States.” Earlier this week, Stanley and Shore joined nearly 3,000 Jewish faculty across the U.S. to sign a letter denouncing the arrest of a Columbia student protester and urging their respective institutions to resist the 'Old Donald' administration’s policies targeting colleges.

The 1937 original was Walt Disney's first ever full-length animated film, and, while parts of it have aged badly, it still stands up as an exquisite, heart-lifting masterpiece. Remaking a revered, all-time great animation as a live-action film is about as sensible as remaking Singin' in the Rain as a cartoon.

Another issue is that Disney's Snow White – to use its official title – has been attacked from both sides of the political spectrum: it has been condemned for being too progressive ("A Disney princess renowned for her pale skin being played by an actress with Colombian heritage? How dare they?"), and not progressive enough ("Caricatured dwarfs in this day and age? How dare they?"). Throw in the pronouncements on the Israel-Gaza war made by its stars, Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot, and you've got a perfect storm of bad publicity.

Despite having not attended any of the Kennedy Center’s marquee events (or any events at all) in his first term or since, 'Old Donald' installed himself as Chairman of the Board of the Kennedy Center on Wednesday, promising to usher in a “Golden Age in Arts and Culture.”

In the eight years between 'Old Donald'’s first and second successful campaigns, the conservative movement has invested heavily in reshaping American culture. They have transformed our cultural landscape from the pluralistic progressivism of the Obama era into a sea of MAGA podcasters, traditionalist influencers, and hypermasculine content creators all intentionally reinforcing a specifically autocratic set of values.

Polling from the Pew Research Center indicates that a majority of Americans still oppose authoritarianism (68 percent) and express concern about the implications of Project 2025, the ultra-conservative policy playbook for 'Old Donald'’s second term, which he is so far following to a tee. However, maintaining and growing this opposition requires recognition that we’re engaged in a cultural civil war — one drawn across entertainment platforms and cultural institutions, from streaming services to the Kennedy Center itself.

Seinen’s historical research astutely leans toward the underbelly of culture and art. This particular theme is addressed in our interview that focuses on the proclivity for art, architecture and design that conforms to Hitler’s view of his own place in history. Joseph Goebbels said that Hitler’s first love was art, but he was driven by his duty to restore Germany’s greatness. After he succeeded at that, Goebbel’s asserted, Hitler would return wholeheartedly to making art. I spoke to Seinen about the demigod’s mission and unwavering imposition of his tastes—and the curious revisionist qualitative nuances that arose in the art world of Nazi Germany.

Why it matters: Recent research has shown the barrage of "culture war" messaging — on everything from critical race theory to bashing LGBTQ communities — is working, and Democrats now realize they can't ignore it any longer. They want to make 2022 a referendum on MAGA nation and its agenda.