Gordon Wood and Woody Holton clash over past and present

By HILLEL ITALIE
AP National Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — They are two prominent historians with very different views of the past — and the present. Gordon Wood and Woody Holton met last weekend to debate the American Revolution, and the new books each have published. But midway the firm, but collegial tone shifted when Holton accused Wood of encouraging the backlash against the 1619 Project by prominent Republicans, calling him a “founding father” of a “massive censorship campaign.” Wood later called the debate a “disaster.” He also continued to criticize the 1619 project, the Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times series on the centrality of slavery in American history.