A history of U.S. wars is worth a read
“Stand your ground! Don’t fire unless fired upon! But if they want to have a war, let it begin here.”
— Captain Parker, Lexington Green, 1775
“To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.”
— George Washington, Address to Congress, 1790
“It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.”
— Robert E. Lee, Fredericksburg, 1862
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“War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it.”
— William T. Sherman, Atlanta, Georgia, 1864
“No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.”
— George Patton, 31 May 1944
In an article I recently wrote for publication was this paragraph:
In his 2011 article, “Knowledge of American History Rapidly Becoming History,” Glen Ricketts reports that the most recent “Nation’s Report Card” study found that only 20% of fourth-graders, 17% of eighth-graders, and 12% of high school seniors tested proficient on a rudimentary survey of American history. Reflecting on this neglect of our nation’s story in our schools, Mr. Ricketts, who teaches history, writes, “I’m not shocked, needless to say, since things have been going south for quite a while.”
Unfortunately, those scores have continued to head south. Just last year, in a Los Angeles Times column “When American students don’t understand history, what are democracy’s chances?” Nicholas Goldberg notes that only 13% of eighth-graders now test-score as proficient in history, demonstrating an abysmal ignorance of our past which, as he points out, extends to the population at large. Of this unhappy failure of education, Mr. Goldberg writes, “History matters, as does an understanding of our government and how it works. Especially in times like these. We’re an increasingly polarized country in an increasingly globalized world — and only with informed and engaged citizens can a democracy like ours function.”
This ignorance of our past now extends to all age groups in our culture, not just to students. In those man-on-the-street interviews that appear on YouTube, we find people who don’t know why we celebrate July 4th, who can’t identify the “Father of the Constitution,” who appear never to have heard of the Bill of Rights, and who can’t name our enemies in World War II. Mention the name Taylor Swift to most Americans these days, and surely 99% of them will at least know her as a performer. Mention personages like Abigail Adams, Stonewall Jackson, Booker T. Washington, or Dwight Eisenhower, and see what happens.
This shameful ignorance is doubled when the topic is military history, which most schools and colleges have neglected for decades. Since World War II, we’ve spent more than 70 years waging war around the world, yet most Americans know little about the history of war, its purpose, its costs in blood and treasure and the reasons for our political failures in these conflicts. The military leaders quoted above, and some of today’s veterans, know as Gen. Sherman once said that “War is hell,” but most of us have never seen the face of war or even pay much heed to its consequences.
In “Don’t Tread on Me: A 400-Year History of America at War, from Indian Fighting to Terrorist Hunting” (Regnery Publishing, 2024, 526 pages), H.W. Crocker brings us an updated version of his earlier saga of our past. Here readers can learn about the French and Indian War, including young George Washington’s vital role in that conflict, the war for our independence, the wars brought on by America’s movement west, the horrific civil war between North and South, and all the conflicts since then. In this chronicle Crocker blends facts, dates and events with scores of fascinating anecdotes and details. The fighting men mentioned above are only a few of the historical figures we meet on these pages.
Moreover, Crocker’s account of these conflicts outlines American history in general. He provides background for all these conflicts, thereby fleshing out even more of our past. Reading this narrative history, which is not only informative but fast-paced and entertaining, makes this book an excellent text for everyone from ages 16 to 80, especially those interested in military history.
At the end of “Don’t Tread on Me,” Crocker deals swiftly with the tremendous problems facing today’s military services, ranging from the increasing reluctance of American youth to enlist to the misguided focus on cultural changes within the ranks to the detriment of combat readiness. And here he gives us one more reason to study our past. He writes, “As people, we need inspiration. We are, unfortunately, unlikely to find it among our current cultural leaders, institutions or politicians. But we can find it in the storied history they have disparaged.”
Neglect the past as we have, neglect the men and women who brought us such revolutionary ideas as “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” natural rights and equality before the law, and that road of ignorance leads to one destination: tyranny. Only by knowing our past — the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly — can we keep those freedoms and rights which Americans have for so long treasured.
(Jeff Minick reviews books and has written four of his own: two novels, “Amanda Bell” and “Dust On Their Wings,” and two works of nonfiction, “Learning As I Go” and “Movies Make the Man.” This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..)
