Taj Mahal and the Lakers

By Dan Roberts

Several recent studies have warned that baby boomers and their children do not know much history. A colleague of mine points out this dilemma when he muses that we may well be producing a leadership class of the sort that thinks Pizzaro is an Italian fast-food restaurant at the mall~~, or that Taj Mahal plays for the Lakers.

Are we casting up a generation cut off from its past, unable to understand the historic forces breaking against it from all sides? Perhaps. We could wring our hands in desperation, call for vast new government expenditures, or hunker down and pray that some miracle will spare us the ill effects of this creeping callowness. Instead, consider these proposals that might help reverse this trend.

First, historians have a double task. The profession must continue to produce clear and accurate historical work, but also must be willing to get it out to a wider audience. Before the 19th century, much of written history was hagiography, the glorification of some leader, dynasty, national or ethnic group. Often it was the casual repetition of unexamined legends and stories passed between generations with little concern for accuracy...