“Dear Dr. Schweikart,
I teach Citizenship classes to Turkish and Middle Eastern immigrants. I noticed my class had a citizenship exam passing rate of less than 70% using State and Federal curriculum.Back in October I started using A Patriot’s History of the United States as our core resource. Since then, our passing rate and average score has surpassed 95%. What I have also noticed is the attitude shift the class participants have toward the United States. As of late they enter the class with an anti-American perception, only graduating with a sense of pride and humility that a nation as great as ours would welcome them.
Your book needs to be the foundation of every American history academic institution. What my students have taken away is a deep felt appreciation for the toil and sacrifice of those who made America.
Thank you again for your work,
Sincerely,
Bob”
Joseph E. Gray says:
I just watched Dr. Schwiekarts presentation on CSPAN, BookTV and couldn’t agree with your comments (above) more. How fitting it was to have aired on 60 minutes at the same time (11/11/12 at 7:00 p.m.) was a segment on David McCulloughs love of Paris and all it “should mean” to not only Americans but the world. Mr. McCullough makes the statement nearing the end of the segment that again “should mean” something to all that call themselves “Americans”: “We are raising children in America today who are by and large historically illiterate.” (Quote taken directly from 60Minutes.com.) Mr. McCullough went on to make the point that while visiting several universities that some students “…never understood that the original 13 colonies were all on the East Coast.” I’m not sure what political views the two have but I would love to see Dr. Schweikart and Mr. McCullough collaborate on a book. The result would truly be “An American Masterpiece.”
schweikart@erinet.com says:
Thanks much. David McCullough is one of my favorite historians, especially for his writing style, which is never dry. We have incorporated much of his work on the Panama Canal in our new “Patriot’s History of the MOdern World,” so in a sense you can say we already have collaborated.
Bill Bryan says:
‘A Patriot’s History…’ ends at the beginning of the Atomic
Age in 1945. I was wondering if you’d read or heard of a
TOP SECRET study program begun by Harry Truman shortly after
VJ Day whose goal was to outline dangers to the US for the
next 100 YEARS! AND! Solutions to those problems so that
the US would not be drug into another WW.
Dangers Identified: 1. Shortage of Energy—Could this
new form of energy—Atomic—be used in place of coal and
other fossil fuels? Was there enough Uranium and other fertile
and fissionable elements to last for 1000s of years?
Geologist M. King Hubbert led this part of the study and determined that ‘Yes! Fissionable and Fertile elements could replace fossil fuels with 100s of years of proven resources.
(By 1961, confident AEC Engineers reported that the US now
had about 10,000,000 tons of Atomic fuels to last about 7,000
years. By 1968, about 20,000,000 tons…)
President Eisenhower was so confident of Hubbert’s expertise
and proven track record that he was able to make his “Atoms for
Peace” speech to the UN General Assembly in December, 1953, in which he offered to share peaceful use technologies of the Atom to ALL nations, recycle fuel, etc…
“While the Power of the Atom is Enormous and Fearsome, IF WE
DO NOT USE ATOMS FOR PEACE, WE MOST ASSUREDLY WILL USE ATOMS
FOR WAR. Therefore, let us chose Peace.”
Other threats: 2. Communism as a Trojan philosophy to mask
Russian Imperialism.
3. US PetroDollars used by ME countries
to revive a moribund Islam—If the US didn’t become Energy
Independent…
I accidentally came upon this report over ten years ago on the net; but, did not make a hard copy. When I went back, I couldn’t find it! I did find mention that this declassified report could be viewed at the Truman Library. This report
is obliquely mentioned by ‘National Geographic’ in its stand
alone ‘Energy’ issue of 1984. (1985?)
Bill Bryan
770-629-2727
email: EducationChoiceActivist@yahoo.com
schweikart@erinet.com says:
No, I didn’t know of this.
Kevin L says:
Dr. Schweikart, I just read an article you wrote called “History to the Left of Us”, and I really appreciated your comments.
My son’s AP History textbook (The American Pageant) has a lot of very useful information, but much of it has a heavy anti-conservative bias. I know it is hard for anyone to write perfectly neutral, but I had hoped that it might still be possible that someone somewhere is trying to make a book that records history as best as we can compile it, rather than purposely using language to disparage other people’s reasonable views, even if they are different from those of the author.
I haven’t seen your Patriot’s History textbook, but judging by your excellent review of the other books, I would love to have it and check to see how it differs with the very biased articles we are finding in The American Pageant.
Thank you for your work.