After a comment on the American Revolution blog I feel that I must make a post on this subject. History education is wholefully underfunded and worse, undervalued as part of a modern curriculum. Relegated on many campuses as part of the humanities courses, history is often ignored and pushed aside since it does not make you richer or further your career or ambitious plans for material gain. But without out, we as a people are wholefully ignorant of who we are, were we have been and therefore where we are going. I can point to Iraq, the economic crisis, immigration and find dozens of examples in our history that speak to us. From Cicero to Franklin to Truman our sense of history grounds us and allows us to stand, think, consider, imagine and move forward building on the marvelous tapestry that the human experience...history...provides for us.
Realizations I had while teaching American history...the first six presidents were all from the two first powerhouse states, Virginia and Massachusetts....Manifest Destiny did not stop at the California coast...Henry Clay must have thought that becoming Secretary of State was the path to the presidency since Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and JQ Adams had all held the position.
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