While I am only mildly interested in history. Still I feel there are valuable lessons to be learned from it and furthermore I even have a suggestion on how USA history ought to be learned in schools.
I think English history is an integral part of American history and much more relevant to the American experience than most of what is actually learned as part of American History courses.
Furthermore I feel this learning is important not just to Americans, but to all peoples who have need of just government.
My first point is based mainly on the Federalist Papers where we see a big emphasis on the Peloponnesian War which in one way you could say was won by Sparta--but in another way really ruined Ancient Greece in a way that could never be repaired again.
I think there is little doubt that the devastating Civil Wars of England [War of the Roses] must have also been foremost in the minds of the founding fathers of the USA--in the sense that even a powerful Parliament and Christian values could not prevent chaos. To me it seems that the fathers of the USA were thinking deeply about the problem of good government and rejected many solutions that they knew from history were not effective.
The other point I have is really from Allan Bloom. In his Closing of the American Mind, in spite of the title, he clearly considered the USA Constitution to be the best answer for the question of government for all peoples in all times and places.
I think English history is an integral part of American history and much more relevant to the American experience than most of what is actually learned as part of American History courses.
Furthermore I feel this learning is important not just to Americans, but to all peoples who have need of just government.
My first point is based mainly on the Federalist Papers where we see a big emphasis on the Peloponnesian War which in one way you could say was won by Sparta--but in another way really ruined Ancient Greece in a way that could never be repaired again.
I think there is little doubt that the devastating Civil Wars of England [War of the Roses] must have also been foremost in the minds of the founding fathers of the USA--in the sense that even a powerful Parliament and Christian values could not prevent chaos. To me it seems that the fathers of the USA were thinking deeply about the problem of good government and rejected many solutions that they knew from history were not effective.
The other point I have is really from Allan Bloom. In his Closing of the American Mind, in spite of the title, he clearly considered the USA Constitution to be the best answer for the question of government for all peoples in all times and places.
