What are the most important lessons of history?

Everyone has a right to an opinion, but all opinions are not created equal.

Some are based on extensive research and analysis and others are not. Some are driven entirely by partisan bias. Others are not. Some opinions on the lessons of history are informed by an understanding of the basic laws of economics. Others are not. Some are based on a long term synoptic view of the history of mankind. Others are based on a study of a much more limited period and geography.

Today, the big four lessons of American history imbibed by American high school and college students on the coasts and in the upper Midwest are: America is racist, America is sexist, America is a class society, America is an imperialist power. These four truths are contrasted with the four myths: that America has gotten beyond race, that women are now equals to men, that the American dream is alive, and that American foreign policy is benign.

From a long term historical perspective this approach misses the really big points.

First, America is most historically distinctive not in its racism but in its ethnic heterogeneity and its relatively early abolition of slavery (relative to say the Islamic world). Second,  what is distinctive about America in terms of women is not gender discrimination but the early emancipation of women relative to all other parts of the world – whether Europe, Asia, Africa, or Latin America. Third, what is historically distinctive about America is not the existence of economic classes but the absence of a monarchy or an aristocracy (historical relics that are very much alive across the world today). Fourth, what is distinctive about American foreign policy is not its abuse of power but the fact that America saved the world from National Socialism, Stalinism, and Maoist Communism and has alleviated countless humanitarian disasters.

Looking beyond America, the question is: is the big lesson that capitalism doesn’t work or that it does? Was Marx right or wrong?

To me the answer is simple. It was one thing to be Marxist when Marx was a Marxist – in 1848 when the life of expectancy of a child born in an industrial town was half that of the child born in the country. It’s another thing to be a Marxist after 1939 (after the news of Stalin’s purges and the Nazi-Soviet Pact). Still another to be a Marxist in 1975 after Mao’s massacres. Still another to be one in 2016 after Castro, Pol Pot, Mugabe, Chavez. After Deng Xiao Ping and the Chinese miracle.

Some opinions are immune to facts. Others are not. Marx would not be a Marxist today.

Some things you can’t make up. One day, as a Berkman Fellow at Harvard Law School, I had the perverse urge to test knowledge of the Preamble on the part of Harvard law school students. I was appalled at how few were able to recite it or summarize its contents. Then I decided to test Harvard Law School professors.

A similar result. Then most astoundingly I met separately with three professors of US Constitutional Law and found that not one of them passed the test either. Only one of the three was embarrassed. The other two had an excuse: their job was to teach students to write appellate briefs and the Preamble was never cited there.

Another canary in the coal mine of academia. So what is the Preamble and why should anyone care?

The Constitution has three basic parts: the Preamble, the Articles, and the Amendments. The Preamble is important because it lays out the reasons for having a government. The best way to teach the Preamble is to, on the first day of class, ask the students to write down why you think we have a government.

You should do this right now before proceeding. 

Once you have completed this assignment compare your list with the Founders’ list and note any discrepancies.  What is missing from the Founders’ enumeration from an 18th century perspective? from a 21st century perspective?

After the Preamble come the Articles. Do your best to summarize each before you go to the text itself and then compare what they actually do to what you had thought.

Then write down what you think the First Amendment says before actually going to the text to see what it actually says. The precise wording matters. So does the order in which the rights are listed. Does the First Amendmennt apply to all levels of government or just the Federal government? Does it dictate a strict wall of separation of church and state at all levels?

After the First Amendment, what is the most important Amendment and why?

What is the case for the 14th Amendment? What is the incorporation doctrine?

These are questions eighth graders should be able to answer. If you can’t please consult the text of the Constitution. If you need a helping hand, please consult the best annotated version I know of: Linda Monk’s The Words We Live By. Civic literacy requires work. No pain, no gain.