The Historian's Archives

My family and I have seen several documentaries on American history, the Founding Fathers, the American Revolution, etc. Most of theses documentaries have been produced by the mainstream media outlets like The History Channel, PBS, or the Discovery Channel. We do not watch these programs, and as a policy, my parents preview whatever films these channels release before allowing us kids to see them. Overall, the channels have a revisionist tilt, and I personally have noticed that they seem to be aimed at portraying the negative more than the good. I think that because of this over-hyped negativity, most people are discouraged from learning about history, and instead leave it to the experts.

With the documentaries that I have seen, I would like to make an exception. The program John & Abigail was outstanding -- probably the best film that PBS is capable of producing. The reenactments were fascinating (the man who did John Adams fit the role perfectly, and embraced it with passion), and the story inspiring. The only improvement that could have been made to the film is to dare to include the mentions of the religious beliefs that they shared, and which permeated the lives of both John and Abigail Adams (John almost became an ordained Congregationalist clergyman, and Abigail Adams was the pious daughter of a Christian pastor).

However, throughout all the mainstream documentaries, including this one on John and Abigail Adams, I have noticed that the Christian background of the stories told is either carefully edited out of the picture altogether, or, if mentioned at all, is dumbed down and derided. A new "documentary" about America's Founders and Founding Era is out there though, not projected by the mainstream media, and does not exclude the Christian aspect. I refer to the video Drive Thru History America, hosted by Dave Stotts, a very talented and entertaining narrator, who has previously traveled around the world to do a series on the Greek and Roman influence upon western civilization, and the influence that Christianity had on those civilizations -- truly fascinating!* To get an idea of the movie, there are several video clips which can be viewed through the website.

I highly recommend this video to all; it is fit for all ages. If you think that history is boring, maybe this video (and a post I wrote) will help you change your mind. :) Our Founding Fathers (and Founding Mothers) were more than just a few motionless, austere faces peering down at you from the National Portrait Gallery. They were real human beings, with eccentric personalities and ordinary human characteristics. But we can learn from them, because they were guided by their principles, which in turn were rooted in their faith in God.

*Dave Stotts has previously hosted a similar video -- a series on the ancient Greek and Roman influence on Western civilization. He looks at history in light of the Bible, and the early history of the Christian Church. He visits many of the old cities that are named in the New Testament, and wonderfully adds a historical background to the church to whom the Apostle Paul wrote his famous epistles.

One note on these, however. Although the videos are harmless, occasionally several images of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture, which are quite lacking in modesty, are flashed. Everything else in the videos are fine; no profanity or anything like that. The narrative is homely and hilarious, and the lessons are inspiring and educational.

UPDATE: I just recently received an email from Homeschool Gold. Good news! They managed to get the website back up, and are even planning to add a forum to the website. Anyone who had a website up on Homeschool Gold, and who removed their Homeschool Gold button from their site due to its being hacked may now put the button back up. If you do not have the html code of the button saved anywhere, it is bound to be somewhere in your email box, from when you first received the code from Homeschool Gold.

Way to go, Homeschool Gold!

This morning, I received a sad email from the web administrator of HomeschoolGold.Net:

Our server was hacked last week, decimating all the sites there. You may have noticed that the button no longer works. While we were able to restore the sites from backups, we were forced to move to the only available hosting service, which unfortunately, does not allow topsites type sites, therefore homeschoolgold.net will be forced to shut down. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Homeschool Gold was just a little website were homeschoolers, who no doubt rely upon the vast troves of educational knowledge to be found on the Internet, could go to learn about other homeschoolers, or could go to websites and blogs with material to help them in their homeschooling programs. That such a site could be hacked only proves how much opposition the homeschool movement in this country is receiving.

I am going to miss the Homeschool Gold website; I hope that soon anther homeschool website like it will be created in its stead.

He was the only well-known "mainstream" Founding Father to have been born off the American continent.

He fought during the American Revolution, playing leading roles in the Battles of Princeton, Trenton, and Yorktown.

He is considered by many authorities (and myself) to be one of those individuals most responsible for our having the United States Constitution.

And finally, he was born on this day, January 11, although the year of his birth is rather disputed.

Any guesses? Go ahead and take a try. I'll post the answer in a day. :)