In a recent meeting addressing the staff of the New York Times, the paper’s executive editor Dean Baquet announced that the Gray Lady’s new editorial direction for 2019 would include an effort to “write more deeply about the country, race, and other divisions.” The 1619 Project appears to be the first major fruit of this shift. Are these much-debated essays part of a concerted effort to undermine public faith in the basic decency of our regime? Do they merely represent a corrective to some of the nation’s long-held beliefs about how large a role slavery played in shaping our institutions today?

To address these and other concerns, we present four contributions to the ongoing debate about the 1619 Project:

The New York Times Resurrects the Positive Good Slavery Argument

by W.B. Allen

Slavery Gave Us Double-Entry Bookkeeping?

by Hans Eicholz

Reclaiming 1619

by Kevin Gutzman

America’s Exceptional Guilt

by Jason Ross