Those who followed with interest the 2010 debate about North Carolina’s public school social studies curriculum might appreciate a column in the latest Newsweek from historian Niall Ferguson.
He asserts that a nation ignorant of its history could one day face the reality of “an America where individual freedom is altogether lost.”
Historical knowledge matters. If you don’t know the origins of America’s unique political institutions, you can’t truly appreciate the freedoms you enjoy as a U.S. citizen. If you’re ignorant of America’s many conflicts—from the War of Independence to the war on terror—you underestimate the price of liberty. And if you have no knowledge of slavery, don’t expect to understand the enduring difficulties American society has with the issue of race.
Ordinary Americans don’t literally know nothing, of course, but they certainly don’t know much. Nearly nine in 10 ( 88 percent) can’t name two of the rights mentioned in the Declaration of Independence. Only one in 10 Americans ( 12 percent) knows the name of even one author of The Federalist Papers. Only one in five knows who was president during World War I. And only one in four knows what the Cold War was about.
