The United States was founded by the brightest people in the country—and we haven't seen them since.
— Gore Vidal
- 33% of adult Americans do not know when the American Revolution took place
- 50% believe the Civil War occurred before the Revolution
- 78% cannot name the source of the phrase “government of the people, by the people, for the people”
- 80% cannot describe the effect of the Emancipation Proclamation
- 71% do not know what the Reconstruction was
- 33% do not know FDR introduced the New Deal
- 58% do not know when the Battle of the Bulge took place
- 41% cannot identify the name Auschwitz
- 29% do not know the title of the national anthem
"The knowledge of all American history has become a wasteland," the researchers said. "The reason is that we are no longer teaching it."
Ordinarily I complain about society's problems, without offering solutions; but today you're in for a treat. I know the way to restore our national knowledge deficit, and it isn't some billon-dollar program. Teachers merely have to assign their students the seven novels composing Gore Vidal's "Empire Chronicles."
Vidal liked to call our country, aptly, the "United States of Amnesia." We can cure that disease for only $25 per person—the cost of a farting Donald Trump doll. Call it the $25 cure for amnesia.
The novels composing Vidal's series are Burr, Lincoln, 1876, Empire, Hollywood, Washington, D.C. and The Golden Age.
I've read each one more more than once and would best describe the novels as suspenseful, tapestry-like, and deliciously lurid.
- Burr recounts the life of the roguish Aaron Burr as he's caught up in the struggle between the power-hungry planter Thomas Jefferson and the craven financier Alexander Hamilton.
- Lincoln follows our greatest president through his entire time in the White House as he battles ruthlessly to preserve the Union and curtail the damage wrought by a crazy wife.
- 1876 recounts "America's worst year," when the winner of the popular vote in the presidential election—Democrat Samuel Tilden—loses the presidency to Republican Rutherford B. Hayes.
- Empire takes you through the era of the egomaniacal expansionists William Randolph Hearst and Teddy Roosevelt.
- Hollywood provides a behind-the-scenes look at Woodrow Wilson's time in office, with walk-on appearances by Charlie Chaplin, James Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and Fatty Arbuckle.
- Washington, D.C. portrays real-world politics during the Great Depression and World War II through the eyes of a political family not unlike the novelist's own.
- The Golden Age delves even deeper into the era, providing an inside look at the political machinations of FDR and the dawning of the Cold War.
Should you doubt the importance of my inexpensive cure for amnesia—and many of the nation's other ills—consider the words of JFK:
“There is little that is more important for an American citizen to know than the history and traditions of his country. Without such knowledge, he stands uncertain and defenseless before the world."
