LONDON (Realist English). On the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence, British historian Simon Schama, a professor at Columbia University, published an essay in which he recalled the dual nature of the nation’s founding document.
In his view, in 1776 “visions of freedom and justice were fraught with compromise, conflict and contradiction.”
Yet today, the words of the Founding Fathers continue to shape national identity, becoming weapons in the struggle for the country’s future.
The Origins of the American Myth: Schama’s Four Themes
Schama, the author of The American Future: A History from the Founding Fathers to Barack Obama, proposed as early as 2008 that American history be viewed through four key themes that remain relevant today:
- War and power — from the War of Independence to the endless conflicts of the modern era. Schama traces two opposing traditions regarding the military and war, originating with Thomas Jefferson. He shows how the democratic building of the nation is personified in the figures of the Founding Fathers.
- Religion — the intensity of religious belief in American public life and its influence on politics.
- Race and immigration — the problematic promise of “out of many, one” (e pluribus unum), which, in Schama’s view, has always been a source of tension.
- Natural resources and prosperity — the mystique of the American land and its role in shaping the national character.
As the historian notes, these four factors made “American exceptionalism” a widely accepted idea, but the struggle around them has never ceased.
The Founding Fathers as a Battlefield
Schama emphasises that the Founding Fathers and their ideas have today become tools in the hands of opposing political camps. According to him, supporters of Donald Trump “attacked the political idea of the Founding Fathers,” using the founders’ legacy to justify their own goals.
As The New York Times wrote in a review of Schama’s book, “cultural hostility, more implacable than any since the Civil War, has divided America in two.” Schama offers readers “an essential historical perspective on the 2008 presidential election and its significance for restoring America’s original ideal.”
In his reflections, the historian shows that “the echoes of the past live on in the land of freedom and opportunity,” and that American democracy, in his own words, has more than once “returned from the dead.”
A European Perspective on the American Crisis
As a British historian, Schama occupies a special position. In January 2026, he warned that Britain must acknowledge that “America is no longer an ally.” He called on Europe to accept this “very harsh dose of reality.”
Nevertheless, in his anniversary essay, Schama does not so much criticise the US as remind us of its complex, contradictory nature.
In his view, American exceptionalism lies not in the absence of problems, but in the constant capacity for self‑renewal. As he wrote earlier, “the country’s most enduring trait is its ability to renew itself, especially in times of disaster.”
On the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Simon Schama reminded us that the US has always been and remains a country of compromises and conflicts.
The ideals of 1776, in his opinion, are not a frozen monument, but a living, constantly contested text that every era rewrites anew. In this, perhaps, lies both the main strength of American democracy — and its main challenge.