Coming to terms with our history

Abstract

Many historians condemn most of those who have led our nation since its first settlement over 400 years ago, focusing only on their roles in perpetuating those institutions. They apply today's standards of morality and concepts of political correctness to people who grew up in an entirely different era, and whose views of the world were molded by personal experiences, conventional wisdom and moral standards far different from those of today. The result is that most of our forebears – including some of our historically most revered "founding fathers" – are now being characterized as evil and misguided persons, with little or no acknowledgment that they acted according to the widely accepted standards of their day, and that they made many positive contributions to our world.