Someone else appreciates my favorite part of North American history-
Most high school American history textbooks devote one chapter to this period, lasting from 1609 (in the British colonial version) to 1788. The textbook model was set by the most widely used American history textbook in the first half of twentieth century, written by David Saville Muzzey. That textbook dominated the field from 1911 until 1963. By 1963, it had been assigned to 30 million students. The 1963 version was co-authored by Arthur S. Link, Woodrow Wilson's hagiographer. (I know of no better single piece of evidence of the decline of the American public high school than a comparison of the two-volume 1922 edition, more rigorous than a college textbook today, with the 1963 edition. Yet 1963 was the year of the highest SAT scores; it was downhill after that.)
Why is there this short-changing of the colonial era? Because most high schools are funded by the civil government. Civil government was weak and decentralized before 1788. Any level of civil government above or beyond the town council was barely detectable in any colonial citizen's life. Therefore, to focus the narrative on the era of American cultural development in which a true multiculturalism existed – long before American political sovereignty existed – appalls today's academic multiculturalists, who see the United States Government as the only reliable agency of cultural coordination.
If we have a future that is worth having, it is to be found in the past - during our history prior to the deception of 1788.
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