As a boy growing up in the South during the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War, I was subject first-hand to the abuses of history, a history that justified exploitation and racism. I realized then that history should explain the past, not glorify it. I came to a passionate belief that history is a way of life, a way of making sense of the world and of oneself.
History underpins a liberal arts education.
As an art, history encourages intellect and spirit. As a discipline, history sharpens analytical rigor. Unfortunately, polls of high school students show that history rates as their least favorite subject. In addition, studies suggest that minorities do better in subjects other than American history because they do not see U.S. History's relevance to them. History is eclectic, so I use an interdisciplinary approach, incorporating the works of various fields such as linguistics, folklore, demography, and statistics.