Posted on 06/15/2005 4:57:43 PM PDT by CHARLITE
In a recent appearance at the Heritage Foundation, an author who has written many great histories gave some insight as to why the Ivory Tower produces such, at best, lackluster ones.
"Many people say, 'Why bother with history?,' and unfortunately many of them are in education," best-selling writer David McCullough said at the Heritage Foundation last Friday. McCullough has penned best-selling historical biographies of American Presidents John Adams and Harry S. Truman.
"Why is it possible that an otherwise intelligent person does not know that the original 13 colonies were on the East Coast or who George Marshall was," McCullough asked the crowd rhetorically, and ruefully.
"We're planting a lot of cut flowers," McCullough noted, offering a coda on a famous quote from historian Daniel Boorstein. Boorstein had said, "Trying to plan for the future without understanding the past is like planting cut flowers."
McCullough offers up reams of historical gems in his latest effort. To name just a few:
Despite the images conveyed in Gilbert Stuart's paintings, the Revolutionary War was very much a young person's war: George Washington, for example, commanded the Continental Army at the age of 45. John Adams would ride 400 miles on horseback from Massachusetts to serve in Congress. Imagine Ted Kennedy doing that.
(Excerpt) Read more at aim.org ...
Ping!
They would if Provincetown were one of them and if Marshall was involved in an "alternative lifestyle".
"John Adams would ride 400 miles on horseback from Massachusetts to serve in Congress. Imagine Ted Kennedy doing that."
LOL
Am history ping
Despite the images conveyed in Gilbert Stuart's paintings, the Revolutionary War was very much a young person's war:
Joseph Plumb Martin, author of one of the Revolutionary War's most cited first person accounts (Private Yankee Doodle - "A Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier, Interspersed with Anecdotes of Incidents That Occurred Within His Own Observation"), was only 15 years old when he left home in 1776 to enlist in one of the Connecticut regiments. He served through most of the war as an enlisted infantryman and fought in several major engagements.
Your comments are eloquent. Thank you very much for taking the time to post your thoughts.
When you say "those who recognize the eternal principles..." you have a friend and colleague in me. I can assure you. This is what keeps me going, day after day; - trying to save America. That's what it comes down to. The enemy has long been within our gates.
Thanks again for your comments.
Char
A Chronological Observation
American Muslim History
By Fareed H. Numan (December 1992)
(Edited by Ishaq Zahid for islam101.com)
Unquestionably, Muslims have made an impact on the evolution of American society. Historically Muslims have made major contribution, e.g. humanities, the sciences, and art. They explored North America 300 years before the so-called "discovery" of the New World by Christopher Columbus. They used the Mississippi river as their access route to and from the continent's interior. Here are a few glimpses of Muslim life in American History:
1178
A Chinese document know as the Sung Document records the voyage of Muslim sailors to a land know as Mu-Lan-Pi (America). Mention of this document is contained in the publication, the Khotan Amiers, 1933.
1310 Abu Bakari (Abu Bakar), a Muslim king of the Malian Empire, spearheads a series of sea voyages to the New World.
1312 African Muslims (Mandinga) arrive in the Gulf o Mexico for exploration of the American interior using the Mississippi River as their access route. These Muslim explorers were from Mali and other parts of West Africa.
1513 Pri Ries completes his first world map, including the American, after research maps from all over the world. The practicality and artistry of his map surpassed any from his time or before.
1530 African slaves arrive in America. During the slave trade, more than 10 million Africans were uprooted from their homes and brought to American shores. Many of these slaves were from the Fulas, Fula Jallon, Fula Toro, and Massiona as well as other areas of West Africa. These areas were governed from their capital, "Timbuctu." These slaves were sent to Mexico, Cuba, and South America. More than 30 percent of these 10 million slaves were Muslim. They became the backbone of the American economy.
1539 Estevanico of Azamor, a Muslim from Morocco, lands in Florida with the ill-fated expedition of Panfilo de Narvaez in 1527. Estevanico remained in America to become the first of three Americans to cross the continent. At least two states owe their beginnings to this Muslim, Arizona and New Mexico.
1732 Ayyub ibn Sulaiman Jallon, a Muslim slave in Maryland, is set free by James Oglethorpe, founder of Georgia, and provided transportation to England. He arrived home (Boonda, Galumbo) from England in 1735.
1790 Moors from Spain are reported living in South Carolina and Florida.
1807 United States Congress prohibits the importation of slaves into America after Jan. 1, 1808. Despite suppression of the slave trade during the next 60 years, slavery reached its peak between 1840 and 1860. The last Slave ships to be confiscates by the federal government were Wildfire, Storm King, Williams, Erie, Echo, Cora, and Binita, all of which violated the ban on importing slaves.
1807 Yarrow Mamout, an African Muslim slave, is set free in Washington DC, and later becomes one of the first shareholders of the second chartered bank in America, the Columbia Bank. Yarrow may have lived to be more than 128 years old, the oldest person in American history. Two portraits of Yarrow done by well known artists are on public display. The first, painted by Charles W. Peal in 1819 was done when Yarrow was 100 years old. It hangs in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. A second portrait completed by James Simpson in 1828, almost a decade later, can be seen in the Peabody Room at the Georgetown Public Library, Washington DC.
1809 Al Haj Umar ibn Sayyid is enslaved in Charleston after running away. In jail, he is visited by John Owen and taken to Blade County and placed on the Owen plantation. John Owen later became Governor of North Carolina. It has been reported that Umar lived to be 100 years old.
1828 Abdulrahman Ibrahim Ibn Sori, a former prince from West Africa and now a salve on a Georgia plantation, is freed by the order of Secretary of State Henry Clay and President John Quincy Adams. He was known to many during his lifetime as "The Prince of Slaves." A drawing of him, done by Henry Inman, is displayed in the Library of Congress. His life has also been well-documented.
and so forth and so forth...
http://www.islam101.com/history/muslim_us_hist.html
The 1776 replay isn't far away.
Is it some sort of history revisionism ? The US is based on the Judeo-Christianian values.. Now these islamists wanted to make it a Judeo-Christian-islamic ? Load of rubish mate I should say.
That would be one flat horse.
After 50 years of LIBERAL UNIONS running the schools - what are people expecting ..??
The textbooks continued to dumb down our students .. as very little is said about American history and what is said is anti-American.
Teachers have spent more time teaching activism and protesting, and hugging trees and spitting on people.
However, the liberals did have a goal - and they almost accomplished it. The goal was to NOT TEACH ABOUT HOW THE GOVERNMENT IS RUN - IN ORDER TO KEEP THE POPULACE SUBSERVIANT TO THE ELITES. If you don't know how the govt operates .. you can't protest against it .. and you can be led to believe the govt is there to provide you with everything. This can explain why the dems can spew all this garbage and a lot of people don't know they're lying.
But .. something unusual happened several years ago. A lot of parents began to take their children out of public schools. As a result, we have children who are homeschooled who are winning spelling bees and math and science awards. I also believe the resurgence of conservatives at college campuses is a result of all those home schoolers - home schoolers who were taught how govt operates and were also taught respect.
Hey, don't worry Mr. McCullough. Today's kids may not know anything about American history, but they're getting lots of diversity training studying bogus holidays like Kwanzaa, and the glories of islam. You've just got to get your educational priorities straight.
Priceless, CyberAnt.....simply priceless!
Thanks for your superlative comments.....and you're right about the connection between home schooling and the rise of conservativism on our campuses. We stil have a long way to go to repair the damage done over the last 4 decades, but we're moving forward at last, thanks to terrific Americans like David Horowitz, Ann Coulter and scores of others.
Char
Wet, too.
LOL Kwanzaa is a particular bugaboo with me--an invented holiday introduced to support communist beliefs (just read the material) in a specific ethnic group--fine in itself if that's what someone wants to do on their own--owes almost ALL of its recognition by the public to its being pushed in the schools.
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