National Park Service employees have flagged several books to remove from their gift shops as part of the Trump administration’s crusade against “corrosive ideology.”
A records review conducted by The Washington Post revealed several book titles that have been earmarked for withdrawal from park retail stores, including a Native American picture book by former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland; Nikole Hannah-Jones’s The 1619 Project, about the history of slavery in the United States; and another book that reportedly refers to first President George Washington as “an enslaver.”
Park employees were required to offer up potential items for review by last week, with one park employee telling WaPo that several titles have been marked for removal “out of an abundance of caution.”
The National Park Service manages 433 park units, according to NPS.gov. In South Carolina, half a dozen books on plantation life and Black history were flagged by employees, WaPo reported.
At Virginia’s Arlington House, a children’s booklet on the Robert E. Lee Memorial has also reportedly been flagged for including a note about Lee breaking his promise to serve in the U.S. military to fight for slavery instead.
In a March 27 Executive Order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” President Donald Trump claimed that under the Biden administration the parks “advanced this corrosive ideology.”
Trump added, “the prior administration sponsored training by an organization that advocates dismantling ‘Western foundations’ and ‘interrogating institutional racism’ and pressured National Historical Park rangers that their racial identity should dictate how they convey history to visiting Americans because America is purportedly racist.”
The reviewing of books—among other materials, such as park signs and informational plaques—under Trump’s directive has stirred blowback from culture and history advocates.
“Our history is complex and, as national park advocates, we trust national park staff to navigate those complexities and do their jobs without interference,” Alan Spears, senior director of cultural resources at the National Parks Conservation Association, told WaPo.
He added, “Great countries don’t hide from or sanitize their history.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the Trump administration for more clarity on what additional parts of American history qualify as “corrosive” and why.
