Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus (1451 – 1506) was a navigator, colonizer, and explorer from Genoa, Italy, whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean led to general European awareness of the American continents in the Western Hemisphere. Over the course of four voyages of exploration and several attempts at establishing a settlement on the island of Hispaniola, he initiated the process of Spanish colonization which foreshadowed general European colonization of the "New World".
Although not the first to reach the Americas from Europe—he was preceded by at least one other group, the Norse, led by Leif Ericson, who built a temporary settlement 500 years earlier at L'Anse aux Meadows[5]— Columbus initiated widespread contact between Europeans and indigenous Americans.
It is believed that on one of these voyages Columbus' crew infected the Northern woodland Indian population with smallpox - most likely by accident, although Columbus was not above using such tactics as a form of warfare. The ensuing epidemic wiped out over 90% of the population of Northeast woodland Indians within a period of only a generation leaving them severly weakened and unable to repulse the colonial onslaught that would begin a century after Columbus' maiden voyage.

Columbus' Voyage
An Eyewitness Account of the Landing

Ben Franklin's Prescription for Today's Congressional Gridlock

Sometimes the briefest speeches echo the most powerfully down through our history. As it has been with Lincoln's address at Gettysburg; such it is with the words of Benjamin Franklin at the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

Franklin, frail and unable to deliver the speech himself , asked his friend and fellow Pennsylvanian James Wilson to read the speech for him. It is a speech that every member of Congress should be required to read at the start of each annual Congressional Session for Franklin reminds us - in the wisdom of his age - that our obligations to our country must be larger than our egos.

Here in less than 720 words is a prescription for what ails the United States Congress.

I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them: For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others. Most men indeed as well as most sects in Religion, think themselves in possession of all truth, and that wherever others differ from them it is so far error. Steele a Protestant in a Dedication tells the Pope, that the only difference between our Churches in their opinions of the certainty of their doctrines is, the Church of Rome is infallible and the Church of England is never in the wrong. But though many private persons think almost as highly of their own infallibility as of that of their sect, few express it so naturally as a certain french lady, who in a dispute with her sister, said "I don't know how it happens, Sister but I meet with no body but myself, that's always in the right — Il n'y a que moi qui a toujours raison."

In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other. I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution. For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are waiting with confidence to hear that our councils are confounded like those of the Builders of Babel; and that our States are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another's throats.

Thus I consent, Sir, to this Constitution because I expect no better, and because I am not sure, that it is not the best. The opinions I have had of its errors, I sacrifice to the public good. I have never whispered a syllable of them abroad. Within these walls they were born, and here they shall die. If every one of us in returning to our Constituents were to report the objections he has had to it, and endeavor to gain partizans in support of them, we might prevent its being generally received, and thereby lose all the salutary effects & great advantages resulting naturally in our favor among foreign Nations as well as among ourselves, from our real or apparent unanimity. Much of the strength & efficiency of any Government in procuring and securing happiness to the people, depends, on opinion, on the general opinion of the goodness of the Government, as well as of the wisdom and integrity of its Governors. I hope therefore that for our own sakes as a part of the people, and for the sake of posterity, we shall act heartily and unanimously in recommending this Constitution (if approved by Congress & confirmed by the Conventions) wherever our influence may extend, and turn our future thoughts & endeavors to the means of having it well administered.

On the whole, Sir, I can not help expressing a wish that every member of the Convention who may still have objections to it, would with me, on this occasion doubt a little of his own infallibility, and to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to this instrument.

The Metamorphosis

Robert Rogers – Frontier Hero – White Devil

Robert Rogers, or Rodgers (7 November 1731 – 18 May 1795), was a New Hampshire resident and colonial frontiersman. Born in November of 1781 in Methuen, Mass, his family soon moved north to what is now New Hampshire settling in a town Roger's refers to in his writing as Mountalona and today encompassing the towns of Dunbarton and Bow.

His service to the people of New England, particularly in the war known in the colonies as the French & Indian War (in Europe the Seven Years War) is well documented and a study in the fame and controversy that surrounded this remarkable man. Many military historians attribute the seeds of the American Revolution to the ideology, tactics and strategies of the famed Roger's Rangers, started under his leadership. Indeed, one of his favored rangers was John Stark who would later set aside his "Ranger temperament" to become a General in the Colonial Army and utter the famed phrase "Live Free or Die".

Legend has it - though no documented evidence exists - that, after a brief stint in England where he was feted as a British hero of the frontier, Rogers returned to America and offered his services to George Washington who turned him down for fear that he was a loyalist spy. Rogers in spite joined the British and fought as a loyalist.

The Colors of Livermore, Livermore Falls

Image signed and dated by the Artist

Open Edition, unsigned

We will, likely, never know if Washington was right about Rogers and the legend may, in fact, be nothing more than revisionist history fostered by the likes of the peripatetic historian Francis Parkman who nearly one hundred years after Rogers day, set his sights on rehabilitating Rogers in the eyes of a public that remembered only his final betrayal in his service to the army of King George.

Yet, the legend of Washington's actions - true or not - and certainly the work of Parkman, may contain the seeds of Roger's historic rehabilitation. After all, today Rogers is revered as the father of the Rangers and the Green Berets, while his fellow loyalist Benedict Arnold's name has become synonymous with treachery and betrayal.

Lest we fall into the Parkman trap of romanticizing the frontiersman, it should be pointed out that Native American’s of the time – with the exception of the Iroquois who often fought beside him – referred to him as Wobomagonda, translated to “White Devil” because Rogers and his Rangers could be every bit as blood thirsty, vengeful and savage as any of their rivals.

The truth about Rogers probably lays somewhere in between. The Rangers may have been pitted by history against the native indigenous people – but they drew much of their strategies, dress and temperament from the very same people and many historic documents evidence their admiration of their foes.

After the Revolution Rogers returned to England where he died unappreciated and impoverished in London - far from his family and the woods and mountains of his native New England that he loved so much.

God's Final Touch

Signed and dated by the artist

Open Edition Image

Pontiac's Rebellion

Pontiac's Council

Following the French and Indian War and uprising against the English ensued that is attributed to efforts led by Chief Pontiac, an Ottawa leader. The uprising came to be called Pontiac's Rebellion, though Pontiac's role had been more related to his early leadership in key battles than his overall leadership which is much in dispute. The rebellion ran from 1763–1766.

The uprising came largely as a result of the resentment among Indians of the area that "their" land had been ceded to the British by the French in the treaty that ended the War.

Pontiac - Wikipedia Biography
Indigenous Chamber Biography
Pontiac's Rebellion - Wikipedia

Resources
Francis Parkman
The conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian war after the conquest of Canada

Pontiac and the Indian uprising
By Howard Henry Peckham

Who is buried in the Dunbarton Cemetary Next to Samuel Rogers?

A History Mystery
Where is Robert Rogers Buried?

Robert Rogers was born to James and Mary McFatridge Roger. He was one of five brothers three of whom are believed to have served under him as Rangers. James, Richard and possibly John all were Rangers during the period when Rogers' name was made.

Richard died of smallpox, James returned to the family farm after the war and John vanished into obscurity. Brother Samuel seems to have been the homebody among them, not venturing into miliary service but remaining with the family.

When Robert Rogers died in London on May 18, 1795 he was a pauper - likely as a result of a descent into alcoholism in his later years. Just what happened to his remains is a matter of some dispute and speculation. Some writings about Rogers claim he was buried in a paupers grave in London that was destroyed by German bombing raids during World War II and later made into a park.

However, the romantic legend about Roger's final resting place is far more interesting - and quite possibly even provable.

In what is now the town of Bow in the Dunbarton Cemetary, and just across the street from where their childhood home stood, lay the remains of Robert Rogers' older brother, Samuel, in a grave marked with his name. Not far from Samuels grave is a shallow, unmarked grave according to Frank Nastasi, an amateur historian and Rogers aficionado. Nastasi has been to the Dunbarton Cemetary on two separate occasions in early 2000 and 2003. Employing a ground-penetrating radar, Nastasi found an unmarked grave, 3-1/2 feet deep, in the cemetery.

Some say that members of the Rogers family spirited the last remains of Robert Rogers back to New Hampshire and, in the dead of night, laid him to rest for eternity in the state he had loved.






The Colors of Livermore, Livermore Falls

Image signed and dated by the Artist

Open Edition, unsigned

The Pilgrims and Plymouth Colony

Despite the fact that the Pilgrims figure prominently into our Thanksgiving myth, the Pilgrims were far less important to the development of New England or the American Idea than the Puritans.

The Glorious Revolution

For those who ascribe to the paradigm that the evolution of the American Idea was a function of realities, events and relationships in both the colonies and the "motherland". The Glorious revolution of 1688 undoubtedly played a role in the lead up to the Revolution, even though it was an English event.

The Glorious Revolution


A Lone Tree in the Dells, Prescott Arizona
20" x 30"
Signed numbered and dated by the artist
$495
Proceeds from the sale of this image are shared with "Futures for Children" a nonprofit organization providing support and educational assistant to Indian children,

The Missouri Compromise

“This momentous question, like a firebell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union.”- Thomas Jefferson 1820

The Missouri Compromise was the quintessential sausage making experiment by the United States Congress. Not capable of being described in a single sentence. In essence the decision divided the remaining unincorporated territories up based on a geographic line above which would be free and below which would be slave. This was seen by Jefferson as a sure sign that the Union was in mortal danger from the institution that he had tried to elininate in his first draft of the Declaration of Independence.

Wikipedia
The Act of Congress

"How long will the desire for wealth render us blind to the sin of holding both the bodies and souls of our fellow men in chains?" Asked Representative Arthur Livermore from New Hampshire.

From Wikipedia: Arthur Livermore (July 29, 1766 – July 1, 1853) was a United States Representative from New Hampshire. He was the son of Samuel Livermore a signer of the Declaration and a representative to the Continental Congress. Both he and his brother Edward St. Loe Livermore, served in the United States Congress. He was born in Londonderry, New Hampshire.

The Martin Luther King Jr. of the 17th Century ?

William Penn's Bold and Successful Experiment

Nearly 100 years before the United States declaration and more than 100 before the Constitution a Quaker businessman named William Penn would launch a model of governance that would become one of the principle models on which the new republic would be built.

Penn was granted a "Proprietary Colony" when, in 1982, James Duke of York, the future James II of England, handed over a large piece of his American holdings to Penn. Penn could have chosen the run this new area as his own personal fiefdom but instead he began to immediately work on a model of governance called the Pennsylvania Frame of Governance.

While the colony still functioned under the Royal Charter, the Pennsylvania Frame of Governance supplemented the Royal Charter with broad principles embracing complete religious toleration and broader freedoms. Though never adopted in its complete form the Pennsylvania legislature eventually adopted an amended form of it * - Penn's idea was one of the first "blows" on behalf of a set of ideals that would eventually form the American idea for a new Republic.

The fourth version of this work was titled the Pennsylvania Charter of Privileges and would last until it was replaced with the state constitution following the Revolution.

William Penn - America's First Great Champion for Liberty and Peace by Jim Powell, editor of Laissez-Faire Books and Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute.

Pennsylvania History - William Penn

Pluralism in the Middle Colonies

* The very notion that the frameworks was not "adopted" by the legislature that was arguably governing Penn's own colony is demonstrative of the leadership style of this extraordinary man.

Interpretations of History

We often talk of bias when discussing the interpretation of history - eith bias used in its most pejorative sense - but the truth is that all history - even the most contemporaneous accounts of historical situations, involves a level of bias that recognizes that the very state of being human leads naturally to an interpretation of every experience within the context of our other experiences.

Here is a lesson plan, designed for college students but appropriate for secondary school students, designed to get students thinking about perspective and experience as it relates to the interpretation of history - or in events and "facts" themselves.

The description and assignment - read and discuss two different versions of the American revolution.

The documents for the exercise.

Slavery - The Shaming of the American Idea

Of all the sins of our forefathers, slavery, even more than the ethnic cleansing of Indian cultures is the greatest stain upon the American idea. No discussion of the theme of slavery can consider slavery devoid of the morality of the decisions that brought it about, maintained it and finally brought it to an end.

Madison, Jefferson and Washington were all slave holders, though each of them were individually troubled, even tortured, by the hypocrisy of their positions.

Stanford University Panel:
Jefferson and Madison and the problem of Slavery in an Empire of Liberty
(April 7, 2009) Jack Rakove, Caroline Winterer, and Annette Gordon-Reed discuss the politics surrounding American slavery during the 18th century in the first of a series of four lectures on the American Revolutionary era sponsored by Stanford University. Listen

Was slavery a good economic system?
Is the economic strength or lack of economic strength in the South today in any way a reflection of the legacy of slavery?

The Triangular Trade or the Slave Trade?
Some textbooks have engaged in the historic cleansing of the realities of the slave trade. In this description of regional differences in the colonies taken from Jerome Reich's textbook on Colonial History , the author uses the term "The Triangular Trade" to replace the term "Slave Trade." Triangular Trade during this period was not at all an unusual phenomenon. It occurred to some extent in all trading simply because, ships needed to be full in both directions in order to maximize profits and it was unusual to have a set of needs that formed the mirror image of one another where a shipping route between two points satisfied all the needs of the region. The norm instead was that good from one place were traded for goods in another place which were then sold or traded to a third location, meeting the needs of all three (or more) locations. Therefore, there was no single Triangular trade in the 1600s, 1700s and 1800s, there we literally thousands of them. Yet somehow the slave trade - which took on the form of this classical trade pattern - has been deemed by certain textbook publishers and authors at THE Triangular Trade. Critics condemn the use of the term as a whitewashing of the slave trade, a denial of the inhumanity of a system of trade that involved the trafficking of human beings as a part of the commerce.

The Terrible Transformation: The Narrative of Olaudah Equiano
Google Books Version - Difficult to read
LibreVox - Text and Audio - Recommended

Colonial Regions Roots and Reasons

Looking back on the early colonial period one can't help but wonder how three regions so different could eventually come together to form a Union that would reshape the world. Even within the three regions sub-regions developed that had profound effects on the development of the colonies and eventually on the new republic itself.

An Overview of the Regional Development of the Colonies of North America:
If you have not yet read the brief piece from Jerome Reiche's book Colonial America, please read it here.

Three Colonial Regions
Northern Region:
New England
The Founding of the Plymouth Colony - From Conceived in Liberty
The Puritans Purify Theocracy in Massachusetts
The Thanksgiving myth - obviously not an objective piece but accurate nonetheless.
The Massachusetts Bay Company/Colony
The Puritans
The Salem Witch Trials - Wikipedia

The ideals of the Puritans eventually began to form the core of a theocratic rule where the church controlled more and more the direction of governance within the colony. This reality led to the formation of groups that bucked the religious establishment. Tow leaders within this system were Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams. Both eventually were formally banned and both went on to form countervailing forces within the colonies. Leading toward the days of the Awakening when the forces of individual spirituality would come to predominate the more traditional (puritanical) theocracy imposed by the Puritan religious leaders.

Anne Hutchinson is Banished from the Colony
Wikipedia Biography
US History Biography

Roger Williams is Banished and founds Rhode Island
Biography
Wikipedia Bio
Family Biography and Association

Resources:
Chronicles of the First Plymouth Colony - Google Books
Mourts Relation - Plymouth Plantation - Google Books

Middle Region
New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey
The Middle Colonies Overview - Cerritos College, CA
William Penn and the Middle Colonies
Penn - The MLK of the Colonial World

Southern Regions
Virginia, Georgia, The Carolinas
The Virginia Company

From Company to Royal Colony

The Social Structures of Virginia
Part 1
Part 2

Bacon's Rebellion
A precoursor to Revolution or an act of insurrection and oppression?


Timeslines:
Horizontal Timeline - quite useful
Scarborough HS
The Avalon Project - Yale University has collected important documents by chronology

The Vanishing - The Disapearance of Roanoke Colony

One of the lasting mysteries of the colonial period, what happened to the colony of Roanoke, believed to be the second "permanent" settlement of Europeans in the New World.

The Lost Colony of Roanoke - American History Mysteries

The Birth, Death and Rebirth of the American Banking System

A Philosophical Clash with Economic Ramifications
Hamilton vs Jefferson and Madison and the Bank of The United States

Following the Revolution there existed no formal banking system in the young Republic. In the last decade of the eighteenth century the United States had just three banks and more than fifty different currencies in circulation: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese coinage, local money issued by states, cities, and businesses. White the national currencies were more stable than the local ones and more broadly traded, overall the currency values were very unstable creating a climate where currency speculators were thriving on that uncertainty.

Supporters of a national bank argued that if the nation were to grow and to prosper, it needed a universally accepted standard coinage and this would best be provided by a United States Mint, aided and supported by a national bank and an excise tax. Detractors were suspicious of such a venture being controlled by the government, particularly the Federal Government.


In 1791, the original Bank of the United States, sometimes referred to as "The First Bank of the United States", was proposed and brought into being under the support of the first Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton.

Along with establishing a mint and an excise tax, the purpose of Hamilton's proposed bank was to:

• Establish financial order, clarity and precedence in and of the newly formed United States.
• Establish credit—both in country and overseas—for the new nation.
• To resolve the issue of the fiat currency, issued by the Continental Congress immediately prior to and during the United States Revolutionary War—the "Continental".

The Bank of the United States(Wikipedia)
Alexander Hamilton on the Constitutionality of the Bank of the United States

For a look at the areas of general agreement between Madison and Hamilton as well as some indications about where there were emerging differences it is useful to read Federalist #9 (written by Hamilton) and Federalist #10 (written by Madison).

The History of Central Banking in the United States (Wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_central_banking_in_the_United_States

A more comprehensive look at the history of centralized banking can be found in Edward Flaherty's web-based analysis of this process beginning with the formation of the first central bank and extending up to the first act creating the Federal Reserve in 1913.
Click here

Federal Reserve - History of Banking

The Debate
Opinions Against the Bank - based on Constitutionality: Jefferson
Hamilton's Opinion For the Bank on Constitutional issues

Early American Documents

AMDOCS Website a collection of some early American documents. Click here

Does Free Speech Have Limits?

Philosopher Tim Scanlon discusses the questions that surround the right of Free Speech.
Click here

Niccolo Machievelli (3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527)

Niccolo Machievelli (3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527) - whose very name is synonymous with diabolical intent. Is in fact one of the most influential forces in political thought of the millennium.

Machiavelli was a diplomat, political philosopher, musician, and a playwright, but foremost, he was a civil servant of the Florentine Republic. In June of 1498, after the ouster and execution of Girolamo Savonarola, the Great Council elected Machiavelli as Secretary to the second Chancery of the Republic of Florence.

A Renaissance Man, Machiavelli is most famous for a short political treatise, The Prince, written in 1513, but not published until 1532, five years after his death.

Synopsis of "The Prince"

Listen to the Prince

Wikipedia Biography

A lecture series by Yale Professor Steven Smith
New Modes and Orders
New Modes and Orders 2

Lectures by Charles Anderson, Univeristy of Wisconsin - Madison

Rejecting the Medieval Synthesis Overview of Renaissance & Civic Humanism, Reformation, Scientific Revolution, and the Rise of Nationalism 50:30 Professor Charles W. Anderson

Machiavelli, The Prince 44:05 Professor Charles W. Anderson Political, Economic and Social Thought

Anderson on Machiavelli Part 2

Niccolo Machievelli - Partially Examined - Optional
If you become fascinated enough with NM, this optional podcast examines his ideas in both historical context as well as in relation to the modern world of Stalin and George W. Bush.

Introduction to Political Philosophy

A comprehensive series of classes and an entire course on the evolution of Political Philosophy is available from Yale University's iTunes Collaboration, called Open Yale. You'll find these courses scattered around throughout this blog but if you'd like to take the entire course from beginning to end, click here.

About Professor Steven B. Smith

Setting the Stage for Social & Political Philosophy

The ancient roots of American political and social thinking can be found in Greece. The Greeks created a social order distinctive from all others of its time: Egypt, Mesopotamia, Israel. It is in these places where the myths and foundational stories that drive belief and human behavior began.

Both the Progressive and conservative movements within the American idea consider the greek philosophers as the root of their ideals. Obviously a divergence since then has led to the current chasm that exists between the two.

In a series by renowned Professor Emeritus of Political Science Charles Anderson, iTunes University offers a series of lectures that provide valuable insight into these places and the roles that they played in the development of political thought.

Egypt, Mesopotamia and Ancient Israel: 48:59 Professor Charles W. Anderson Political, Economic and Social Thought

Discovery Channel: Seven Wonders of Ancient Greece
Greece Part 1] [Greece Part 2] [Greece Part 3] [Greece Part 4] [Greece Part 5]

Ancient Greece - Democratic Experiments 41:36 Professor Charles W. Anderson Political, Economic and Social Thought

Ancient Greece, cont. The Pre-Socratics 44:59 Professor Charles W. Anderson Political, Economic and Social Thought

The Republic, Plato's greatest work

Plato 428/427 BC – 348/347 BC), was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens. The prized student of Socrates and the teacher of Atistotle. Plato with Socrates and Aristotle helped to lay the foundations of natural philosophy, science, and Western philosophy.

Resource Links

Ancient Greece

The Social Contract as the Underlying Theme

Three well known philosophers form the core of those who embrace the notion of the Social Contract. Thomas Hobbes (1651), John Locke (1689) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762) are the most famous philosophers of contractarianism. . . the notion that legitimate state authority must be derived from the consent of the governed

All three embrace the idea that there must be a social contract in order for government and society to function in an orderly way. However, the three draw quite different conclusions from this starting-point. Hobbes advocated an authoritarian monarchy, Locke advocated a liberal monarchy, while Rousseau advocated liberal republicanism. Their work provided the theoretical groundwork of constitutional monarchy, liberal democracy and republicanism. The Social Contract was used in the Declaration of Independence as a sign of enforcing Democracy.


The Social Contract: Wikipedia
Rousseau On the Social Contract - Nigel Warburton
The Partially Examined Life - Hobbes

Resources for Further Understanding:
The Social Contract: Rousseau's Book - Text
The Social Contract - Rousseau, Audio

Thomas Hobbes (5 April 1588 – 4 December 1679)

In some older texts known as Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury, was an English philosopher, remembered today for his work on political philosophy. His 1651 book Leviathan established the foundation for most of Western political philosophy from the perspective of social contract theory.

The notion of the social contract implies that the people relinquish their sovereignty to a government or other authority in order to receive or maintain social order through the rule of law. It can also be thought of as an agreement by the governed on a set of rules by which they are governed. Social contract theory formed a central pillar in the historically important notion that legitimate state authority must be derived from the consent of the governed.

Like many of the philosophers of his time, Hobbes also contributed to a diverse array of fields, including history, geometry, physics of gases, theology, ethics, general philosophy, and political science. His account of human nature as self-interested cooperation has proved to be an enduring theory in the field of philosophical anthropology. He was one of the main philosophers who founded materialism.

The Elements of Law Natural and Politic

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a major Genevois philosopher, writer, and composer of the 18th-century Enlightenment. His political philosophy influenced the American and French Revolutions and the development of modern political and educational thought.

His novel, Emile: or, On Education, which he considered his most important work, is a seminal treatise on the education of the whole person for citizenship. His sentimental novel, Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse, was of great importance to the development of pre-Romanticism and romanticism in fiction.

"The Social Contract"
Rousseau's "Social Contract" explores the foundation of society. Breaking with John Locke's belief in self-evident truths, Rouseau argues that society and law is the product of general will rather than enlightened reason. Listen.

The Wikipedia Conundrum

Many teachers today forbid their students from using Wikipedia, yet it is arguably the richest information resource of all time. An encyclopedia which draws on users to expand the scope and depth of the information contained "within" it.

The arguement of those teachers may be that it is "unreliable" , a lazy man's refuge. Yet in the end, how is that different from any other works of humans? The very act of committing words to paper is an act fraught with the perils associated with the human condition. . . that each of us brings the perspectives and prejudices of his/her own arc of experience to the task of conveying a "truth" or a set of "truths".

The physicist Stephen Hawking, in a speech celebrating the new millenium at the Whitehouse said ". . . common sense is just another name for the prejudices that we have been brought up with."

Wikipedia is no more or less useful than any other resource but it does provide an effective launchpad for exploring almost any idea, event, person or theory.

To deny students access to the rich resources contained within Wikipedia is tantamount to denying them access to the wisdom of their elders or their teachers. Instead they must be taught to appreciate Wikipedia and to be aware of its limitations - as Ronald Reagan put it to "trust but verify". Reagan was speaking of the complexities of the US-Russian relationship, but he could very well have been speaking about the task of researching, or in an even broader sense the process of learning.

A good teacher need not fear Wikipedia, unless the depth of understanding that he or she themselves bring to their discipline and teaching is so shallow as to grant Wikipedia the power of absolute truth. A good teacher will use this resource as a means of stimulating students to seek out pathways to greater understanding, a solitary brainstorming session where ideas, links and resources lead us to drill deeper into the resources that lie beyond the gates of the wiki kingdom.

Wayne D. King
2010

God's Final Touch

Signed image available here
Open edition image available here.