A world without background knowledge turns George Washington into—to quote one of the scientists—“a country preacher” who “assumed that everybody believed the same thing.” In the absence of knowledge, Washington’s proclamation, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, or Ronald Reagan’s “Tear Down This Wall” speech may be classified (to use a term made popular by the Common Core) as “informational texts.” But historical texts they are not. History humbles us when it acquaints us with our ignorance.
