American founding documents and frontier myths serve bourgeois class interests
Evidence
The formation of the American state provided no exception. The American Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the considerations raised in the Federalist Papers were all expressions of the interests and creed of the American bourgeoisie. Soon they were to be augmented by the myths of Frontier, the paternal Plantation, the competitive capitalism of the Yankee, the courage of the Plainsman, and later supplemented by the tragedy of the War between the States, the Rugged Individual, the excitement of the American Industrial Revolution, the generosity of the Melting Pot. Such were the romantic fictions that came to constitute the social ideology of the nation’s bourgeoisie. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 873
Categorization
- XREF: Ties to the founding-myths framing from Communication as Culture and the bias/legitimation literature. — connects to: The rise-of-the-middle-class narrative is a fabricated historical impression, not fact; Nation-state formation generates founding myths that legitimate ruling-class orders; Founding myths substitute fabricated narrative for genuine history to serve ruling classes (+7 more)
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 873
Broader Connections
- The bourgeoisie expropriated popular culture to legitimize its rule
#expands(0.80) - Genre codes transform real history into naturalized myth selectively
#expands(0.75) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 791 - A settler frontier mythology drives America’s lax gun laws
#exemplifies(0.70) — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 105 - American school curricula systematically erased imperialist, genocidal, and capitalist dimensions of national history
#corroborates(0.65) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 352