As I think you know, Michael, my wife is a history professor. She has more than once told me about students who believe that slavery and the automobile were contemporaneous elements of American life. A colleague of hers tells the story of a student saying, “All I know about the war in Vietnam is what I learned from Saving Private Ryan.” Granted, D-Day and the Tet offensive, which at least occurred in the same century, were a bit closer in time than Yorktown and Appomattox. But the spirit of John’s indictment is certainly true, and I’m quite prepared to believe the letter as well.
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