AHA executive director James Grossman was quoted in a New York Times article about the recent executive order, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” which claims that the Smithsonian Institution has “come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology.” Grossman defended the Smithsonian, saying that the order “egregiously misrepresents the work of the Smithsonian” and that “the historical scholarship in the Smithsonian is careful, honest and based on historical evidence.” “Historians draw on that evidence to understand how our nation has evolved,” Grossman said. “That evolution includes elements that should make us proud. But also elements that we should not be proud of, but from which we should learn.”
