History and the State of the Nation:

The study of history some say began with the first written history by Herodotus about the Persian Wars. Of course the bible as a written history also provides a complementary view of the historical narrative. More fundamental to history and underlying all of history is the development of a time scale. The Romans were the first of the western cultures to study and codify the rules of time. In fact the calendar western civilization uses still was developed by Roman mathematicians. It is only fitting that many clocks in churches mark their faces with Roman numerals as a tribute to this work.

Oral tradition does not lend itself to what we have come to regard as historical fact. The legend of King Arthur is an example of myth. Of course once one has a time line one realizes that Arthur was 6th century and the Romans, in what was to become Britain, predate Arthur by some six hundred years. Placing events upon a time line helps establish a historical perspective as it were. Unlike perspective in a drawing events can appear larger even though they are further away in time. This is what one can refer to as historical distortion. An engineer would not try to build a device from a distorted blue print. Social scientists feel no compulsion when using a distorted historical representation to “prove” the validity of their point of view.

While distorting history by circumventing time line constraints is rare a more common error is often introduced. This may be called the point of view error. A point of view error is introduced when a subjective judgment is used to comment upon or establish new rules. This can result in what can only be termed false history. The best example of this is the three fifths clause in the American Constitution. Because almost all of the authors of the American Constitution were slave owners they saw nothing wrong in including this 3/5 rule.

The Civil War tested the concept of slavery and indeed the very documents and concepts upon which America was founded. Lincoln sensed the grave error that had been made by institutionalizing slavery. Lincoln’s speech acknowledges this time line by the famous four score and seven years part of his Gettysburg Address. The 87 years refers to the time between 1863 when Lincoln spoke and 1776 when America declared her independence. By adding the three fifths rule to the constitution written and ratified in 1787 slavery became an integral part of American governance.

In fact this error is the reason for the American Civil War though many southern historians deny this even today. Indecently this war was called the “Civil War” in both the north and the south while it was being fought. Yet historical distortion has permitted the civil war to be referred to as the War Between the States a term that was made up years later in the American South. Often both victims and victors hide the bitterness of defeat in such terms. It is akin to the last refuge of a scoundrel being patriotism.

Today America does something much more insidious; we practice political correctness and conflict avoidance. As if by doing so would somehow make things better. I liken this to another old saying “There is none so blind as he who will not see”. As Jefferson said the teaching of political history will teach Americans “how to judge for themselves what secure or endanger their freedom.” Let us look at history openly and honestly.