Summary Of The Myth Of The Weak American State By William Novak

William Novak presents an argument on how the history of American government has been told upside-down for many years now. Novak depicts a mighty American state, capable of a great deal and responsible for some of the most important narratives in American history. However, there were many people, of whom had great interest in the founding fathers, were irritated by Novak’s argument.

The main group of people being referred to here were people from the Tea Party political movement. This movement arose out of conservatives protesting the federal government. Despite popular consent of a weak American government, Novak proposes a strong American state. In other words, instead of supporting a weak state government (the core belief of the Tea Party movement), Novak argues that the state government is not as weak as the widespread belief infers.

In a video interview, William Novak discusses the Tea Party and strength of the state government. He describes the Tea Party as a manifestation of a long history of American’s refusal to reckon with the power of their state over the course of American history; refusal to deal with the growth of state power and reckon with the role that state has played in American lives from the very first days of the republic; and how there have been gapless

The American present witnesses the steady aggrandizement of” powers, while “the story of the American past, on the other hand, continues to be told in narratives that…highlight[s] a story of relative powerlessness.” This conflicting representation of American past versus present supports Novak’s claim that one cannot associate what began as a weak state to how it is formed today, indicating a falsehood to Tea Party members