The literature on political socialization does not adequately address how family history memories affect political views. Yet, the narrative psychology literature does clearly show the importance of family narratives for identity construction (McLean, 2016). This paper explores the nexus between family memories and political narratives. It presents the results of a U.S. nationally representative online survey (n=1600) which assessed the relationship between perceptions of family story memories and political views. The results give an overview of how US respondents perceive their family history and identify themes within their family stories. In addition, memories and themes associated with family history stories are significantly related to political views and the perceived importance of specific historical events. These data are supplemented with focus group data that explores the relationship between family memories and political narratives. This research suggests an important line of research into how family history and memory narration affects political views and narratives.
