David Hackett Fischer on African Founders

Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI Radio in New York

In his new book for Simon & Schuster, historian David Hackett Fischer argues that African history is American history. AFRICAN FOUNDERS draws on extensive research to show how enslaved Africans and their descendants enlarged American ideas of freedom in varying ways in different regions of the early United States. At a time when many states have banned Critical Race Theory from curriculums. And – seemingly everywhere – the debate rages on as parents and politicians insist that CRT doesn’t belong in classrooms teaching American history. AFRICAN FOUNDERS emphasizing the fact that early Black Americans deserve to be recognized as founders of this nation. Join us when, Hackett Fischer, whose 2005 book Washington’s Crossing won the Pulitzer Prize for History, reveals how much our country was shaped by these African influences in its early years, changing the landscape of American laws and ethics, and producing a new, distinctly American culture, on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.