CHAPTER 45
History is to a nation what memory is to a man. That is why history is so important for the future of a nation. That is why no one has changed the course of human history more than historians.
There was a time when many people believed that “history” was a finished and refined record of past events. But today, society is increasingly learning that the history that has been handed down to our day could be likened to a court record, of two opposing witnesses to an automobile accident, both giving two differing testimonies as to what has happened, both viewing differently, as to who was at fault.
What has been learned throughout history is that one’s perception of the facts can be greatly influenced by one’s greed or partisanship. An excellent example of this can be found in profiling voters. Campaign strategists and pollsters have learned, that most voters will vote for those who are most likely to protect their own economic interests, which gives credence to the idea that one’s perspective changes according to his or her, own special interest.
The concept of using ancient history to advance one’s interests, or in the molding of society’s values, was understood in the 1800s as it is today, and notably, by none other than John Wesley Powell and Lewis Henry Morgan, who were some of the country’s earliest students of ethnology and cultural anthropology.
These early men of science, in their studies of ancient societies, understood the importance of ancient history and that it could be used in charting a course for the future of society. Their influence in both science and government put them in positions of power, enabling them to apply the initial inertia needed to get the evolutionary ball rolling forward in both the American scientific and academic communities. This evolution revolution would act as the engine to bring about major societal vicissitudes, as it would change many widely held religious and traditional historical perspectives.
The man that “in fact undertook it was a one-armed little man with a bristly beard, a homemade education, and an intense concentration of purpose. When he assumed the joint directorship of the two bureaus he had created, Powell had in his control a good part of the Science of Man and the Science of the Earth, and he conceived both in the broadest possible terms.”370
The theory of history that these men were destined to make over, was the account of the creation of the world, which gives insight into the origin of mankind, and which was handed down to our day as ancient scripture. These impressions provided in the American culture the foundational fabric that was used in the creation of this intriguing tapestry of freedom, which Americans enjoy. These historical texts, that society calls scripture, provided the foundational material used in the creation of the founding documents of America. These documents have interwoven into them the belief that children were of divine origin; that marriage is ordained of God; and that the natural family was an eternal creation of God.
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370 Ibid., 249