How can we teach US history in a way that celebrates our heritage, acknowledges our flaws, and gives us hope for the future? Today on Homeschool Talks, HSLDA Vice President Jim Mason talks with Dr. Wilfred McClay, a history professor at Hillsdale College and author of Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story.
“For academic historians, writing a textbook is bottom of the ladder in terms of things that earn you points and raise your standing in the profession. And to write one that was more or less patriotic: doubly so. And I couldn’t do it any other way. I wasn’t going to conform to the canons of the academic historical profession as it is now. So I resisted it. But one Sunday afternoon, after I’d gone to church, I felt cleansed in my heart and soul, and very open. The phone rings and it’s Roger Kimball of Encounter Books and he makes a plea to me. There was the Holy Spirit or the mood or whatever it was, and I said yes. I hung up the phone, told my wife, and she said, ‘What? What have you done?’” —Dr. Wilfred McClay
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