On Thursday, November 13, Prof. Dr. Heike Paul, Chair of American Studies at Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg, delivered a lecture titled “The Myths That Made America – Revisited.” The event revisited the foundational narratives that have shaped U.S. national identity and continue to anchor discussions of Americanness. Paul reflected on her 2014 book The Myths That Made America, noting that the significant political shifts of the past decade had made a new edition necessary.

Her lecture examined how these foundational myths function in today’s polarized political climate. Paul emphasized that such narratives – e.g. around Christopher Columbus, the Founding Fathers, or the Frontier – are far from fixed; they span wide interpretive ranges and often become battlegrounds in contemporary culture wars. She argued that American mythologies had become sites of affective polarization, raising questions about whether consensus remains possible when shared narratives are increasingly fractured. She also asked whether societies truly need fixed origin stories or whether more open-ended “beginnings” might better serve a diverse and changing society. Paul furthermore introduced two blueprints for interpreting the current state of affairs in the US, each illustrated by a book: The American Jeremiad (Sacvan Bercovitch) as a future-oriented narrative of incremental progress, which increasingly failed to persuade many Americans, and Retrotopia (Zygmunt Bauman) as a backward-looking vision of society that draws its appeal from a longing for the “better” past.

The Q&A session focused largely on the forthcoming edition of Paul’s book. Audience members asked whether she might introduce entirely new myths or primarily revisit existing ones with updated analysis. Paul pointed to emerging narrative frameworks, such as the “1619 Project,” whose reframing of American origins around the history of slavery has become both influential and contentious, as well as the potential of other historical moments to take on mythic significance. She underlined that there is no myth about the New Deal which might explain why the social and economic progress achieved during that period of U.S. history is not remembered more broadly.

The evening concluded with Paul emphasizing not only the endurance of America’s foundational myths but also their continual reshaping. She invited the audience to consider how these narratives may evolve in the coming decades, particularly in a society increasingly aware of its own internal fractures, contradictions, and hopes.

We cordially thank Prof. Heike Paul for her valuable insights and the University of Cologne for the cooperation. This event was kindly supported by the State Government of North Rhine-Westphalia.