Burton Folsom, an author and researcher of United States history and economics, spoke to the UA chapter of Young Americans for Freedom on Tuesday, discussing Western civilization, free markets and the rule of law.
Folsom is a recurring speaker for Young America’s Foundation, a national organization for young conservatives, and has made several appearances on Fox News segments.
Folsom offered an interpretation of the Declaration of Independence in the broader context of the United States’ current political and economic climate.
“The Declaration of Independence puts the United States in a unique category among all nations,” he said. “Force and conquest is the way nations are founded.”
He also discussed the role of the abolition of slavery in American history, stating that the U.S. was “the first nation in Western civilization to abolish slavery somewhere in the country.”
The first Western nation to abolish slavery was Denmark, which abolished the slave trade in 1792.
Folsom then connected his historical argument to modern interpretations of the nation’s history, including The 1619 Project, a collection of essays and poems by Nikole Hannah-Jones, and an expansion of the essays in the New York Times’ 1619 Project issue.
“The 1619 Project that says the United States was racist from the beginning — it’s actually the opposite,” Folsom said. “Every other nation is forced into conquest. We aspired to new ideas, but we don’t reach them all the time.”
The project recontextualizes American history that placed slavery at the forefront of our nation’s narrative.
His remarks prompted some students in attendance to reflect on how political discussions unfold on campus.
“A lot of our political discussions on campus are about social issues, and there’s not a whole lot of focus on economic issues,” said Rehder Myhre, UA YAF’s director of outreach.
Myhre said he connected Folsom’s comments on the causes of the Great Depression to modern-day economics.
Myhre said he was concerned about the United States’ economy, and that even if you do everything right it can be “tough to break into the world.”
“It seems like the economy’s getting worse, but I think we can learn more from Burt and how we used to do things in the past,” he said.
According to the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics, 43% of young Americans are struggling financially or getting by with limited security.
“I was able to grow up in a generation where I could have the American dream,” Folsom said. “And I want you all in this Alabama YAF chapter to have those same possibilities.”
