Like an Old Testament Jeremiah, Byrd prophesied the ills that would befall the land if the study of history was ignored: Our failure to insist that the words and actions of our forefathers be handed down from generation to generation will ultimately mean a failure to perpetuate this wonderful, glorious experiment in representative democracy. Without the lessons learned from the past, how can we insure that our Nation’s core ideals—life, liberty, justice—will survive?6 History held Americans together with “civic glue,” binding the diverse strands of its polyglot, multi-ethnic mix into a single
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