McClay's jeramiad is the fragmentation of American history into ever-tighter sub-cultural histories, kicking out the foundation stones of a national memory uniting us and replacing them with subjective, angry, politically-correct tribal histories. The article brings to mind the warning undertone of Thomas Friedman's The Lexus and the Olive Tree, a reminder that united cultures build luxury cars with robots, while tribal cultures kill each other over who owns a tree. Both the article and the book are outstanding; I highly recommend reading them along with, of course, historian sans pareil David McCullogh. History provides context for present; without it we're adrift and infantile.
The problem with reading and loving history is that very few people share your enthusiasm and your pithy additions are met with glassy-eyed yawns. Also, if history is all you care about, you will live in poverty. At least math majors (another yawner) can build rockets or manage an index fund. But history teaches those of us living in a democracy that we cannot escape our civic duties. We must educate our civic leaders (or become one ourselves) with history or they will absolutely doom us to repeat it. McClay provides a thought-provoking correlation between the current Confederate flag flap and Robespierre that will make your hair stand up (if you know who Robespierre is). Read it!
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