Reading Shakespeare's work isn't going to help me learn more about the events leading up to Lexington and Concord. Reading Homer isn't going to help me learn more about the pastors and preachers on the front lines of the cause of Liberty. Reading early historians from the late 1700s to the late 1800s will teach me what America used to be, what it really is, while reading Jane Austen doesn't carry the same necessary knowledge.
I'm sure it needs to be said, these are all in fact great books by great authors. But great books, which ultimately are nothing more than entertainment cannot address one of our greatest weaknesses, which is our knowledge of history.
We don't need more entertainment. We're already entertained to death as it is.
I have to disagree.
Classic literature teaches us what human nature is, and that it never changes.
It teaches that there will always be jackasses that want to control you; to regulate every aspect of your life for their own sadistic pleasure. They will say it’s for various important reasons, but it always comes back to their pleasure in causing you inconvenience or even pain.
Books also teach that unless you resist them, you will spend the rest of your life under their thumb.
This is not to say you shouldn’t read about Lexington and Concord, but you should consider that there are many ways besides an outright revolution that these jackasses will want to control your every thought, and classic literature is a way to do that.