Children, Write History

Think of what we know because of the Diary of Anne Frank and Laura Ingalis Wilder's Little House on the Prairie books. Future generations will be indebted to the children of all ages everywhere in the world who write about their lives in the 21st century. Future generations also will be indebted to the parents, grandparents, teachers, and guardians who preserve these accounts and carefully tuck them away.

     A country's history molds the way citizens think about what is important to them and what they hope never happens again. History also uncovers myths. What will finding a song a 10-year-old girl writes in Saudi Arabia today reveal about her life in 2018?

     Recently, myths were dispelled, when more than 350,000 of King George III's private and public papers, stored in the Round Tower at Windsor Castle since his 1820 death, were opened to scholars. According to Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, Rick Atkinson, King George's good handwriting was easy to read. It revealed the mental illness that affected him later in life had no bearing on his thoughts and actions during the American Revolution.

     Unlike his German-born grandfather and father, George III was born in England, spoke English, understood he was a monarch who shared power with Parliament, and did not assume the divine right of kings, as France's monarch did. He loved and was faithful to his wife and the mother of his 15 children, two of whom, William IV and George IV, he took a personal interest in grooming to become future kings.

     King George considered the loss of what would become the United States the beginning of the end of the British empire in Canada, Ireland, India, and the West Indies. He read intelligence English agents gained by opening correspondence from the "New World." After he learned General Washington's rag tag troops not only launched a surprise crossing of the Delaware River that killed or captured over 900 German mercenary Hessians on Christmas Eve, but also went on to take Trenton and defeat three British regiments in Princeton, he knew General William Howe was right about a costly war lasting beyond 1777. And he would have to ask Parliament for more money. The celebration ending the Seven Years War was over.

       

Democracy for All

The musical, Hamilton, used rap songs to illustrate how history retells relevant ideas, such as the importance of being in the room where political decisions are made and the enduring influence wielded by the one who tells the story of what happened in the past.

     Those who live in countries, where they enjoy basic human rights, often need a reminder that conflicts between values: freedom and equality, unity and diversity, private wealth and common wealth, and law and ethics, frequently require reevaluation. In authoritarian countries, citizens need to discover the paths taken to achieve human rights for all.

     Without a Bill of Rights, citizens are condemned to perpetual 1984-type fear. TIME magazine (Nov. 13, 2017) reports how China currently uses a "social credit system" to keep track of every citizen's "financial data, social connections, consumption habits and respect for the law." Deviate from what is acceptable to the regime, and lose a promotion, your right to travel, and your children's futures, and you could end up in prison. You also have to worry about how a personal enemy might use a cyberattack to compromise your activities and alter your social credit score. 

     What is democracy's alternative? From Colonial Williamsburg, the Virginia village John D. Rockefeller, Jr. restored to show the origin of the United States, comes a concise, 168-page book, The Idea of America, that relies on primary documents, such as the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, to recount relevant ideas. The book illustrates how early U.S. values have expanded to be more inclusive and how citizens can find guidance to resolve current issues by studying historic documents and values.

     Jeffrey Edleson, dean of the School of Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley, said The Idea of America was "a must-read for anyone who cares about the future of American society." That's too limiting. The Idea of America is food for thought for everyone looking for a worldview that could make life better for all human beings. The book is available at shop.colonialwilliamsburg.com.