Boring History? Not the Way We Tell It

Western Writers of America pack in to save the day.

- JANA BOMMERSBACH

''At the bottom.” Your heart is going to hit the bottom of your stomach in a second when I tell you that was the answer a grade school student gave to the question, “Where was the Declaration of Independence signed?”

Surveys have found that today’s students not only don’t know their history, but they also don’t care. They find it boring. Some think that Lewis and Clark are guys that Taylor Swift dated.

Those who love history—especially those devoted to writing about Western history— not only find that intolerable but dangerous. How can you be an informed citizen in a society that is based on “we the people” if you don’t know what “we” did? As someone once said, “Ignorance of one’s past leads to cultural chaos.”