1/30/2023

Last week’s curation at RealClear’s American Civics portal starts with Lee Edwards’s review of Timothy Goeglein’s new book, “Toward a More Perfect Union: The Moral and Cultural Case for Teaching the Great American Story,” which Edwards describes as “a call to action that must not be ignored.” Edwards writes that Goeglein “challenges every one of us to educate our children – and our grandchildren – about America, the bold and the beautiful.” Goeglein cites “dozens of inspiring examples of the American spirit,” including Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant, Chief Seattle, “a 19th-century Suquamish and Duwamish chief in the Pacific Northwest,” and the well-known anti-slavery work of Frederick Douglass. Goeglein writes, “We must teach future generations our true history and heritage” in order for our country to remain the “United States instead of the divided states.” All Americans, he continues, need to learn “the story of a nation with a glorious vision of unity, freedom, and dignity for all.”

Hans Zeiger, President of the Jack Miller Center, has two pieces that deserve notice. In the first, Zeiger highlights the results of a recent survey commissioned by JMC which shows that, despite partisan divisions, there is a “remarkable unity among America’s parents – across political, ethnic, and other demographic categories – about the kind of civic knowledge the next generation needs to develop the habits of self-government.” As Zeiger contends, “A renewed civics education is the first step toward empowering the public to become the authors of the next chapter of our living tradition.”

At Public Discourse, Zeiger remembers the great British historian Paul Johnson, who passed away at the age of 94 earlier this month. Zeiger writes that Johnson dedicated his life to telling “the story of human dignity in the twentieth century and beyond,” which he describes as “a story of triumph and danger, victory and tragedy.” Zeiger continues: “To Johnson, history was the story of people – flawed, creative, reasoning, exceptional – with the capacity for incredible achievement. People, he thought, were made with a purpose, and that meant history has a purpose.” Zeiger calls us to never forget the importance of human freedom and dignity in American life going forward.