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HISTORY.• · ·· __· .. .. , CRITICAL AND /1 PATRIOTIC 'lJ f
L~lJ' -f AMERICANS NEED A HISTORY J_ ~ - - THAT EDUCATES BUT ALSO IN~PIR__:S 4-/f WHEN MY MOTHER PASSED AWAY at the ripe old age of 90, several years ago, my brothers and I had the bittersweet task of emptying out the home she and my father had lived in for well over half a century, and where we grew up. We took various keepsalces and mementoes. I made a beeline for the books and magazines. While leafing through, I realized how much my picture ofAmerica had been formed by them and the tempered but patriotic history they conveyed. They reflected the middlebrow culture ofmid-twentieth centmy America, which carried many of my generation through the turmoil of social change, war, and political crisis. And they reminded me of the need for robust history and civic education today. The first collection of books I recovered was from when I was quite yow1g. It was the Landmark series of histories for young people, conceived by Bennett Cerf ofRandom House and launched in 1948 with books by topnotch novelists like Dorothy Park Ranger Jim Hollister Canfield Fisher, C. S. Forester, and Robert Penn Warren, and war leads a school group correspondents like William L. Shirer, Quentin Reynolds, and at Minute Mqn Richard Tregaskis. Iteventually ran to some 180 volumes and cov National Historical Park ered not just American history but everything from the pharaohs in Massachusetts. by ELIOT A. COHEN
8 EDU CATION NE XT / SPRI N G 2 0 2 0 edu cation ne xt.org ofancient Egypt to the United Nations in California, Berkeley professor and biog war and peace. Although mainly out of rapher of Sinclair Lewis on the writing print, they retain some appeal to home of Main Street; and John Lukacs, one of schooling parents and are easy to find in the most original historians oftwentieth- ~ used bookstores. century Europe vvriting about George ~ Ne}..1: I found my old copy ofKenneth Bancroft, one ofthe fathers ofAmerican Roberts' historical novel about the history. It wasn't fluff. American retreat from Canada in There was a progression here for a 1776 and the Saratoga campaign young person fascinated by the past ~ of 1777, Rabble in Arms. In it, and able to engage it at a ntunber of ; z Roberts turned my 12-year-old levels, one which unquestionably played ~ histohcal co"n"sciousness upside a role in shaping n1y attitudes) _and not ! down by making Benedict Arnold . on!y_mine? to politics. These we1~~"'.()Fks ~ ~ out to be a hero, by showing how of patriotic history, celebrating the ~ Arnold's military skill accounted for the American past and American heroes. c deferral of one British invasion of the They did not, nor did they need to, gloss 1r northern United States and the defeat The Landmark series ofhistories for young over the stains and horrors. The heroes of another. Roberts described in terms people, /aunclied in 1948 by Bennett Cerfof could be southern senators standing up more vivid than all but the best historians Random House, hassincegoneo11tofprint. to the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920's or .,d", what it was like to fight a lake battle in ChiefJoseph leading his small tribe in a ~~".\:\'· upstate New York in late autumn, be inoculated against small fight against the United States Army in the 1870s. And the tales \l"Q pox, and deal with the stupidities oflegislative politics. Like his could include accounts ofpolitical corruption, ambiguous loyal- contemporaries Walter Edmonds (Drums Along the Mohawk) ties, and mayhem-patriotic history does not have to conceal and Esther Forbes (Johnny Tremain), he made the colonial and any of that, nor need it ignore the ambiguities ofthe past. But revolutionary past live. the key was that this was my history, to own and to celebrate, And then I discovered old copies ofAmerican Heritage maga even though my grandparents were immigrants. zine going back to the early 1960's. Once a minor publi cation by the American Association for State and Local <'~ \. History, it was relatmched ~"'~ Q.Y~ , ,r,. in .filj_as a handsome, ?- /JJ '- ~IERI CAN 120-page hardcover mag- ½ ~ HERITAGE azine. The October 1961 t..,~ X::,....,rf' issue was fairly typical. At cf- >t:? the top of the masthead ~ stood editorial director Joseph J. Thorndike, who after a stint at Time had been recruited to be the managing editor of Life. The senior editor was ChiefJoseph Bruce Catton, the prolific led his small popular historian of the tribe in a fight -American Heritage Civil War; the managing against the magazine. "It wasn'tfluff" editor was Eric Larrabee, United States who later wrote one of the Army in most thorough and accessible studies ofFranklin Roosevelt the 1870s. as commander in chief. Assistant and associate editors included Richard Ketchum and Stephen Sears, excellent historians ofthe American Revolution and the Civil War. Authors in that issue included Hugh Maclennan, a prize winning professor ofEnglish at McGill University writing about Canadian voyageurs; Mark Schorer, a University of
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Particularly for Americans, patriotic history is a kind of glue for an extraordinarily diverse republic.
A shared story Particularly for Americans, patriotic history is a kind ofglue for an extraor dinarily diverse republic. Lincoln used a patriotic version of the nation's revo lutionary past and founding generation to hold the Urtion together and provide mean!!tg and redemptive hope ~f!:~. the slaughter ofhundreds of thousands during the Civil War. The Gettysburg Address, after all, begins by recalling the Declaration of Independence and defining the meaning ofthe Revolution. And Lincoln in turn became a figure to inspire succeeding generations. Yet patriotic history is more suspect these days than it was when I was its young student, 50 years ago. In 2014, Kenneth Pomeranz, completing his tem1 as leader of the American Historical Association, chose as the topic of his presidential address, "Histories for a Less National Age." While grudgingly Lincoln used a patriotic version ofthe nation's revolutionary past andfounding generation conceding that nations or states remain to try to hold the Union together and provide meaning in the Gettysburg Address. ~ impmtant because they have armies, and ") acknowledging that histmians might do some limited good by undermines the possibility of patriotic history as well. ~ teaching about the United States, he generally welcomed the Civic education requires students ~ with their history- _;;;, shift to spatially and temporally broader hist01y, sweeping across not only to know whence conventions, principles, and laws have 1 continents and centuries. It is striking that just as he gave that come, but also to develop an attachment to them. And civic · address the forces of nationalism-in Russia, China, western education is also inextricably inte1woven with patliotism, without ~ Europe, and most definitely the United States-gave a set of which commitment to the values that malce free government ) ~ roars that indicated that they were very far from dead. It was an possible will not exist. Civic education depends not only on an ° .~ instructive error for an histolian to make. tmderstanding of fundamental processes and institutions (for j 1 George Orwell famously observed in 1945 that nationalism example, why there is a Supreme Cowt, or why only Congress ..t..l ill is "the habit ofassuming that human beings can be classified gets to raise taxes or declare war) but on a commitment to those like insects," whereas patriotism is "devotion to a particular processes and institutions, and on some kind of admiration for / 1 place and a particular way oflife, which one believes to be the the country that created them and the men and women who have -f::- <-(.. pest in the world." In practice, however, modern academic shaped and lived within them. In a crisis, it is not enough to ! historians, who are wary of nationalism for reasons know how the walls were constructed and the plumbing e -t good and bad, often conflate it with patriotism. And laid out in the house that Madison, Washington, and _t 1 this is where some of the great divide between Lincoln built. One has to think that the architects did ' ~ contemporary academic history and patliotic his- remarkable work, that as their legatees we need to ) tory has opened up. When the academy questions preserve the building even ifwe modernize it, and~ the very utility ofnational history, by necessity it that it is a precious edifice lilce none other. The triangular relationship among civic educa George Orwell, unlike some modern historians, tion, historical knowledge, and patriotism seems in distinguislreti between nationalism and patriotism. our day to be broken. Survey after survey delivers -- \J\· educa tionn ex t.org SPRING 20 2 0 / EDUCATION NEXT 11 Civic education requires students engage with their history- not only to know whence conventions, principles, and laws have come, but also to develop an attachn1ent to them.
dismal verdicts about what Americans know about the govern In a blistering a1ticle in the national security-oriented onHne ment under which they live. For example, in a recent survey publication, War on the Rocks, my colleagues at the Johns by the Annenberg Public Policy Center, just two out of five Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies Francis respondents could identify the three branches of government Gavin and Hal Brands declare that the historical profession is "committing slow-1nbtion ·suicide." Able histo rians themselves, _they point to studies showir1g_ . _ a decline of 30 percent in history majors at U.S. institutions ofhigher education in the last 10 years alone-[the steepest enrollment sHde of any of the ': . . humanities]The brunt of their critique is that the discipline of history has walked away from some of the subfields that matter most to the shaping of engaged citizens-politics, statecraft, and war. Meanwhile, fellow historians Fredrik Logevall and Kenneth Osgood have found similar patterns in
w z hiring in the profession; in looking at H-Net, the ~ >- leading website for academic jobs in history, they 5 a. found a grand total oflS advertisements in 10 years .,, -5 for tenure-track junior historians specializing in ;::: u :::, American political history. 0 0go Members of the historical profession might, z 0 with reason, push back on this bleak picture, noting 0z :c the robust health of organizations like the Society "'r for Military History. But the truth remains that .,, j h·aditional forms ofhistory-political, diplomatic, ;;: 0 and military-have been increasingly pushed "';c to the margins of the field; that departments of Paul Giamatti as history have shrunk rapidly because students John Adams in vote ,,vith their feet; and that chmning out fewer ,,r· •'I-. · HBO's adapta history majors (who in turn are likely to be the ~ f- . tion ofDavid future histmy teachers in middle and high schools) ~ .<1) McCullough's bodes poorly for the future of civic education. If, ../ biography. moreover, those fewer students who remain are themselves only barely familiar with the kinds of history that appeal to young people and can form and one out of five could not identify any them as citizens, the cycle become,', a vicious one. Ifthe nuts and branch of government. Nearly half thought bolts of American political and military history are not taught that illegal immigrants have no rights under the Constitution. in universities, the chances that they will be passed to a younger Another survey indicated that only one third of Americans generation yet diminishes. would pass a U.S. citizenship test. (9 The issue appears not to be a lack of civics comses per se, which are required in the vast majority of states. Rather, the Beyond the academy issue seems to be the unmooring ofcivics from history, and in It is not the case that Americans in general have fallen out particular history in the curriculum at colleges and universities of love with their own past. Large numbers visit battlefields where the high school teachers of tomorrow are trained. and museun1s-a million a year to Gettysburg, more than that
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many to Mount Vernon, almost three quarters of a ....__ million to the National World War II Museum, and J.. six-digit numbers even to more remote sites. Popular ~ historians do well-David McCullough and Ron f Chernow have repeatedly written best-selling his tori- ~ cal biographies.-On the whole, histmical television series may not quite draw the 14 million viewers that ) Ken Burns' 1990 Civil Wars series did, but they have
educationnext.org S PRI NG 2 0 2 0 I EDUCATION NE XT 13 feature TEACHING HISTORY COHEN
The issue appears not to be a lack of civics courses per se, rather, it seems to be the un1nooring of civics from history, and in particular history in the c~rricuhun at colleges and universities where the high school teachers of tomorrow are trained.
between the outlook of the modern analytic historian and that of the patriotic historian.
s·earching for inspiration Patriotic history involves, for example, heroes. Most academic historians who write biography (not tl1e most popular genre in universities) specialize in the study of clay feet. Hence David Herbert Donald's biography of Lincoln depicts a president stumbling from decision to decision and yet somehow presiding over a triumphant Union. Doris Kearns Goodwin-a popular historian gives a much more sympathetic account in Team of Rivals. Perhaps because she had had closer connections to the world of actual politics, her book is the more popular, and more admiring, one. One may even th.ink I\ Doris Keams Goodwin-a popular historian- gives a muc/J more sympa- it is in so'.ne ways the ~ore essentially accurate_po1trait. thetic and heroic account ofLincoln than does David Herbert Donald. Amencans need history that educates and mforms, J- but also one that inspires. If, for example, one gives ~X: / a special need for these authentic historical figures in the here equal weight to John F. Kennedy's sordid sexual behavior and ~ rf'''-. and now. It is very easy for academic historians to mock this the soaring rhetoric ofhis inaugural speech; ifone concentrates ~~ special need, and Harvard historian Jill Lepore, ~ as a staff writer for The New Yorker, is an expert at mocking," Wood deplored this disposition. After criticizing Lepore for her contemp tuous tone toward a political movement that she despised (the Tea Party), Wood argued that societies need memory and a useful and a purposeful past-in other words, heritage. Modern critical historical writing, he said, seeks simply to establish what happened. It is "all head and no heart," Wood wrote, and citing his own teacher, Bernard Bailyn, argued that it was in:J.portant to understand thatsuch histo1y could not meet a society's needs, and something else is required. This is the nub of the matter. Even if the academy generated more historians (like Wood, Wilentz, and Lepore, for example) who can write compellingly and lucidly for lay audiences, and even if they turned their attention to politics of the kind that citizens need and average readers Americans need fiisto,y that educates and informs but also that inspil'es, like the find interesting, there is bound to be a tension soaring' rhetoric ofJohn F. Kennedy's inaugural speech, delivered in 1961.
14 EDUCATION NEXT/ S P R ING 2020 educationnext.org Washington's crossing ofthe Delaware is thefows ofa book by its scholarship. But its relentless depiction ofan irredeemably David Hackett Fischer that melds critical and patriotic 11istory. sordid past, blotted by the oppression ofthe African American population ofthe South, massacre oflndians, despoiling ofthe as much on the personal peccadilloes, inconsistencies, and environment, horrors of tenement life, and political cupidity, mixed motives of the Founders as on the marvel that is the leaves the reader thinking that perhaps the only good thing to Constitution that they created; if the shameful relocation of be said about the United States during this period is that by American citizens ofJapanese ancestry to concentration camps contrast, it makes today's America look good. One could write gets more play than the D-Day landings or Battle of Midway, a history that acknowledges all those things- yet somehow histo1y cannot serve that inspirational function. And then, also celebrates the great works of literature and engineering in a crisis, you are stuck, because you have no great figures from Mark Twain to the Brooklyn B1idge, or tl1e extraordina1y to remember, no memory of great challenges overcome, no political achievement of the reunification of a country that examples ofpersistence and struggle to embrace. had experienced four years of unremitting bloodshed, or the A notable recent work of scholarship, Richard White's heroism (quiet in one case, noisy in the other) of Booker T. account ofReconstmction and the Gilded Age, The Republicfor Washington and a young Theodore Roosevelt. 8 Which it Stands, is something ofa warning. It is a volume in the Wood recognized in his review ofLepore's book about the ~ JV_; 0 0 excellent series produced by the Oxford Hist01y Tea Party tha{the two forms ofhistory-critical-il ,.;,t QC 0 z of the United States, which also includes and patriotic-can only coexist, but rarely .:J// ez" James McPherson's Battle C,y ofFreedom if ever coincid~ Some particularly gifted "'z (on the Civil War) and Wood's Empire of historians can pull it off, such as David ;~ Liberty (on the early republic). Like the Hackett Fischer, in his magnificent books other volumes, it is lucid and masterly in Paul Revere's Ride and Washington's Crossing. But for the most part, the two Worth celebrating: Booker T. Washington forms of history have different purposes (right) and young Theodore Roosevelt. and tap different skills and sensibilities.
educationnext.or g S PRI NG 2020 / EDUCATION N EX T 15 Patriotic history involves heroes. Most academic historians who write biography (not the most popular genre in universities) specialize in the study of clay feet. - -
The challenge is the management of their coexistence, and in to a liberal president turning to history for inspiration and con particular the recognition by scholars that both are necessary. solation and meeting the scorn of liberal history professors, it Popular and patriotic historians may grumble at reviews of was the liberals who found themselves looking for a usable past. their work by their academic colleagues but in truth, pay them They saw a president they believed to be a potential tyrant, and a little heed. For academic historians, however, the sentiments Republican ·parry-that seemed to be masterilig the legislative and can be more acidic. Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor at the judicial branches !_)_f g~vermnent. They now ne~~~d the heroes University ofPennsylvania, put it sharply in a guarded defense and the inspiring moments from the past to convince themselves of Ken Burns: "It's called sour grapes. Put simply, Burns has that the country could get through difficult times. managed to engage a huge public audience. And that makes Interestingly enough, it was Jill Lepore who found herself him suspect among members of our guild, who write almost doing in a different way what she had disparaged the Tea Party entirely for each other. We pretend we don't envy his fame and movement doing. In 2018 she published an ambitious and fortune, but ofcourse we do. We're lilce high-school kids who engrossing one-volume histo1y of the United States, These don't get asked to the prom, then say they never wanted to go Truths. It is filled with patriotic sentiment. "The United States in the first place." \-\-,.~ I_ rests on a dedication to equality, which is chiefly a moral idea, Zimmerman had begun his career as a high-school social rooted in Christianity, but it rests too, on a dedication to inquiry, studies teacher, closer to the real needs ofthe American public fearless and unflinching," she writes. The book concludes with for historical education. He noted that writing for lay audiences the old metaphors ofthe ship ofstate in a storm, with Americans often counts against a young historian and deplored the guild called upon to fell majestic p.ines and "hew timbers ofcedar and mentality ofa history profession that too often looks down on oak into planks" to rebuild the ship. Depending on one's literaiy public engagement. In so doing, he made a point that cannot be tastes, the language is either florid or evocative, but it was clear put too forcefully. Unless history departments, and university that in the profound crisis Lepore saw in the Trun1p presidency, administrators behind them, begin to weight public engage historyhad to come to the rescue. Possibly without recognizing ment as a useful academic function, they are likely to pull their it, she too had become a patriotic historian. ok, \,__...., ~ discipline further into bitter irrelevance. ...\--,r"ti:-¼S A reversal ofthis trend is notinconceivable, particularly for those faculty members who have tenure, but also have to deal History's road ahead with tight-fisted college administrations in an era when higher What, then is to be done? education itself is being turned upside down, and when it is We can begin by recognizing that although America's becoming harder to sustain departments that do not pay their renewed focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, way with student seats in classrooms. Histmy departments' and Mathematics) education for K-12 has had some beneficial l disdain over the last few decades for both popular history and effects, it is vital to pay heed to supposedly softer subjects-his- the historians who engage the American public may not survive tory foremost among them. Evidence suggests that recent focus ~ ·1 provosts unwilling to hire more expensive professors teaching on STEM as well as on standardized tests in reading and math ~ ...i fewer courses to fewer students. (and therefore preparing for tests) has come at the expense of ,.. ,J / Moreover, the educational establishment itself has, on occa civics, social studies, and history.W,ducational reformers should _i J,"" sion, changed its approach to history. After a series ofcritiques, realize that the time may have come to rein in the obsession ., ~,J' _ , the College Board revised its course framework for Advanced with formal testing and to restore some balance to curriculal~"' t"' f Placement Hist01y. "AP United States History," in its 2017 While little can be done in the short run about what has '_j l E version, is both sophisticated and sober, but offers plenty of happened to history as a discipline, or how history teachers are "'~ opportunities to explore learning objectives Wee "explain how trained in universities, there is a lot that can be done in summer (- -:1:-+ ideas about democracy, freedom, and individualism found workshops or through creative forms of part-time education, 1 expression in the development ofcultural values, political insti particulai·ly online. If mai1y conventional universities do not ~ tutions, and American identity." offer adequate instruction in histo1y for teachers, entrepreneur- ' And then there is politics itself. In 2016, the political tide ially minded competitors can do so, and with national reach turned. Instead ofa desperately unhappy conservative opposition by virtue ofonline educat;wn. All ofthese are opportunities for ------
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A few ofthe books in Thomas Jefferson's libraiy, as displayed at the Libra1y ofCongress. The I , .. 1:-\ I "'i Constitution is at the National At'Chives. 1 1 · .. }. lU ,'~1 >,-,, 1 \ . • \ 1/, { creative grant giving and philanthropy. ~ \~✓ ~~ l,)~ ~(: ~--'~,,,,h,,r\¼✓✓f. 1'-1. l , •., , ,,fw,~,/R,,_.~~,..,.,.,,.~,._µ;,,-,,-,./,..,,,/, ,,,;J.,;_~N,w,;,,, ,'//. ">✓-'·y,: , w,,-.;4• /,;1/, '✓r//d', ~ The federal government's role is one to be ,,. , ,T,,p/d.v//-"'7' (",-0 ,.,,.,,{,,,;.,.,.,.,.,,.,.~.,4,,,~,,.5,,/4;, q,~~;,r ; .✓.✓/,.-,{,,,.4?v.//1n ~v; ,_ri approached with care. Part of the strength of .-1' the traditional American educational system . . ~· , .r~(tt\C.~.I. . . J ,r;1't' 1//, /. • f?Z'4,.✓/4'..-f~:,;i/fJ,,,,.,.#4.,.,,.-,,.,...~ ,..,,-.,,...,.t.,.,./4/, ,..,..,.,.,.,.,/,~ ,...,J,J/f,;./ .,,,~,,e--vw,,A>fa/.. · ·. J has been that it has been decentralized and , ...,.~-r1 1-3/._.,-.,,.,./'l;.:,,,,,fp411/ V . ,:/ ,/ ../ / 7 5 competitive, and one can argue that attempts . "IA ,:,;,~~, ,.,, r •.·..._ . l'i'l/?// a . .:::r:9-i!~~~c"'.,-;,k"_t ~f;;~...-&/c,)"ut-4,t;~.... 4-,,.:,.4!'°..;:(:;;., ,. ,.,~,: l,~ ,✓.. .:- ...~ ,..4/.f/. ,4:l',-,..(..,-t_...... ,, ~ -1 to create standardized tests and standards do h i , . o'(,rw t,i/21:,A •., /4;,,,4'£, ..;.;~¼n4/4 -,4r'//o✓ ..-Y9.::,,..y.,q~. 4 (:.;~,4.-.,:,.,1-·?/.:...... ,.~,...... ,.,.,.i" h-"'..."-' ,',/:,;,,:•_.,,,.,-h,.., ~ ,,,~ ,.,, ' . 7 _·:; ,"' . .,,,;;· , ,r . - ,, ~ as much damage as good. Moreover, particu , . / ~(i:,/f.,._,e-7~.u•,4· ,.,,4",;; ,., ti.,1/7'::,,t./,.,-,,..,,?.,,;f,w<' ..,,,,.,~:, /. .J,.,,,,eft' .."✓,, // /,-:.,.~,v...,,.~;,.,..-hJ.//r• , K.:7".· ;'M 't;' larly in the field of history, the temptations d ,.,. /..-..!.C"'~•.,,,./4#..,.,,"'✓,"-A"':_,,, P.("6r<;uJ.~nC¼,/4,/.;//, ,.,./ .. ,;,•:%.:..,./(~;d, ,~ ,.d.,:.,A•N .;, ,-4:;,. ,.. ,. .,,.(:; ✓, . for ideological fiddling are too great to make t '~ll:~,.!t'rh.d.,..;-f.-,k~ ,;,-...,.~ /rb.,,y.,.Y£.;.,~..t ,.,/4 rt?~ ;1 fr ~~ ,_.,,,.,,.h(,,. ,,..,,7 4.;·,/4 , ') ·,n~ ,.'/.,;.;/..,. , .?.-.'.:..! i J~.,,,.;;,...-.,, ,,·4:.CA'..,,,,,,.,,;;,('?~p~,4,,N,./;7r -.-T,f,,.,,,,(-rf.,7,_·.,h/4r. ,,..:,,f;/?, );.,,,.N,:f·.,.·, •1/;;,, .,•/.'~,,.,.:,,.~91 ,,.,,._,_,,..,/# conservatives, in paiticular, feel comfortable. / , J , . ·' • // , <4 / ...;;L ' . .. • . . . •<' ,N r-//1.►..., ;~r /4.-y$1";/'4'fJ~.,.,,.,r,r~/'.~ ,,;- ~;,.,,,,-..1, ~ ✓/LC ll'f"",:{4-.,-/.. c,..,..,,..,.,.....,,.t',-".-2'7~~ ;,,.,- ,..,/4.,,,7,.,_ ,.. •.• ,. ,t , .,,1 ,#,4.-d But there are two areas in which there is good 1 ,•, •.-11--l'd ! /4/n r11,--,r./¥ . .✓ Nd,,,-_;?,,.//_,./ /;;,:,;(.,,.,,.,,.,.,,-~ ...~ /4_,..,,.,~ ,, _..1 ,.;. ~, ..,£)?/4,,,.vn,,:r , ✓d .~n,.j,/.(, :,7_' /._,,,.,,., ,, ~ -•~ slavery as the central sustaining national historic sites to include battlefields, monu cause of the bloodiest conflict in American history. But ifdone ments, and historical homes, but also the Library ofCongress and well, as many historians, museum designers, and custodians National Archives with their magnificent collections ofhistorical of national parks, public, semi-public, and private institutions documents. These offer many opportunities for the millions of have shown, it can both educate and inspire. And it is, in any Americans who are interested in engaging their past to do so. case, inescapable. Without civics, our political institutions are There is also a role for entrepreneurship and philanthropy reduced to valueless mechanisms. Without history, there is to play. For example, organizations can support bringing no civic education, and without civic education there are no back some of the older material discussed at the beginning citizens. Ylithout citizens, there is no free republic. The stakes, of this paper and creating new sources of such work. Further, in other words, could not be higher. they might expand opportunities for students to learn history through experiences outside of the classroom. While patriotic Eliot Cohen is the Dean ofJohns Hopkins University's School history may be imbibed inside a school, it can also be found by ofAdvanced International Studies. This essay is adapted from singing along to the Hamilton score (see "Hamilton Goes to the forthcoming book, How to Educate an American, pub High School," features, Summer 2017), while camping on the lished by Templeton Press.
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