In 1944, Swedish Economist Gunnar Myrdal said, "America has had gifted conservative statesmen and national leaders, and they have often determined the course of public affairs. But with few exceptions, only liberals have gone down in history as national heroes." How accurate is this statement?

by ADHPEE

In Gunnar Myrdal's analysis on the "American Creed" in his work An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem & American Democracy (1944), he states this:

America has had gifted conservative statesmen and national leaders, and they have often determined the course of public affairs. But with few exceptions, only liberals have gone down in history as national heroes.

I realize that he is generalizing and that the terms "liberal" & "conservative" have represented MANY different things throughout American history, but how accurate is this statement?

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/49ktva/any_historian_worth_their_salt_will_tell_you_that/?st=jpkamtdr&sh=0f53a473

Here's an old thread where a few people (including myself) take a few stabs at explaining why polemical/rhetorical statements like this don't make any sense to evaluate as a historian. That one was a bit of rhetoric from a conservative, this one is from somebody on the other side of the aisle, but the basic idea is the same.

In my view, historians may have a better command of sources and methods then laypeople and can therefore show whether something happened or not. But there is nothing a historian can tell you about what words like "Liberal", "Conservative" or "National Hero" that you couldn't tell yourself. "Few Exceptions" is a nice little extra slippery note as well.