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Article: HISTORY: Come, Clio.(study of history remains relevant)
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- January 24, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THERE is an anecdote circulating in the history department at Harvard, where I have taught until recently, concerning a senior who was given an oral examination to determine the level of honors for which he qualified. Requested to describe the origins of World War II, he looked stumped. After a moment's hesitation, he asked: "Were there two of them?"
The story--even if apocryphal--illustrates the growing ignorance of history in our society as well as the sense of its irrelevance. The process seems to date from the 1960s, a decade that marked--for reasons that are far from clear, inasmuch as the Sixties were accompanied by no political or economic crisis--a ...