As with so many other things in America, the history profession is at a crossroads. Both amateur and professional historians are faced with seemingly insuperable difficulties in the dissemination of historical facts. The major culprit that has all but stifled not only free speech, but also the teaching and writing of history is “political correctness.”

Political Correctness is a strange creature. It has many heads, and many hearts. The creature breathes a fire that can consume the truth. It is fed and nourished by well-meaning, but naïve people, as well as dogmatists who have political axes to grind.

Most reasonable people will applaud the effort of historians to become more inclusive. Far too many individuals have suffered from historical neglect. However, inclusion does not mean domination by some political agenda. The freedom to express one’s self is vital to a free and vibrant society. History must be free to search for, and to tell the truth as much as is humanly possible.

The fear of hurting someone or some group’s feelings is a viable one. The fear of stating the truth is totally unacceptable in a free and open society. If any adage has the power to influence, it is the adage that states, “The truth shall set you free.”

Fear of offending, fear of being labeled prejudicial, bigoted, and closed minded, has frozen the exchange of ideas. History of all disciplines is required to devote itself to the pursuit of the truth. Oliver Cromwell once told a portrait artist to paint him with all “his warts.” History must represented with all is warts as well as its beauty. We are not doing future generations a favor by ignoring the facts.

History is filled with both negatives and positives. Some of the greatest and most positive events in the course of mankind’s existence on this planet have come about due to some overtly negative action. The struggle to overcome the difficulties involved with “man’s inhumanity to man” is one of the most sublime.

It is true that American history is filled with less than humane treatment of indigenous peoples. The wholesale destruction of American Indian civilizations is less than a proud legacy of European conquest of the new world. The enslavement of Africans to work the fields of the New World remains a blot on not only the white masters, but also the native tribal chieftains who sold their own people into bondage.

The first and best lesson I learned in a history class is not to judge the past by the standards of the present. To be true to ourselves and our posterity, we must adhere to that simple rule. Parents, educators, clergy, and anyone interested in promoting a healthy, well-rounded society should remember that the understanding of history remains one of best tools to the understanding of the present, and more importantly, our future.

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