Abstract

Multiculturalism, pluralism, social historiography, and postmodernism each embody critiques of traditional history, of which national history civic education is but one extended application. These very different theories share two features. First, each conceptualizes normative history in ways that challenge traditional understandings of historical interpretation and truth. The extreme of this camp deny the existence of historical truth in favor of the historical interpretation as "all there is". The implication of this view is that all history is fiction and, consequently, that national history civic education is national fiction. Second, each plays up the significance of moral diversity and conflict between racial and ethnic groups. The extreme of this camp maintain that intense and violent ethnic value differences are basic to historical reality rather than periodic exceptions to general historical community. American history and national histories generally seem to bear this out, calling into question the propriety the traditional universalist aims of civic education . Liberal and democratic "civic" theory has yet to engage these issues systematically. Much of the literature continues to assume truths central to "normal history". Much of the literature trivializes the above theoretical difficulties by presuming that the incorporation of "multiple perspectives" is sufficient to resolve problems of historical exclusion. This project attempts to bring the above strands of the history debate into the scope of liberal civic theory generally, and into the scope of theories of national history civic education in particular. The two questions the work addresses are: First, what is the historical status of civic narratives such as the narrative of the progressive liberal nation? Second, what are some of the conditions necessary in order for civic narratives to fulfill their roles in citizen-creation?