Hey everyone,

Looking for some input on an idea I have. If the SHTF and society collapses it will be up to me and my family/friends to educate our children. Math, English, and the physical sciences are easy – I can find old textbooks to help teach that – but History… that is another story.

I don’t want the standard cookie-cutter type of history that they teach NOW in school. Instead I want a history lesson that focuses on democracy, and the struggles to keep democracy, rights of the people, and the American way of life. I want a history lesson that focuses on the things that IMPORTANT. I have begun to compile a list of 100 influences. These do not have to directly effect the United States but would be items that had they never occurred may have effected to future creation of the United States. Some items, in my humble opinion are things that just DEMAND to be remembered.

Below is my starter list (in no particular order)… and I still need more so if you have any ideas please let add them.

1. Ancient Greek Empire
2. Battle of Thermopylae
3. Hannibal
4. Sun Tzu
5. Roman Empire
6. Magna Carta
7. Marco Polo
8. The Spice Trade
9. Colonialism
10. Columbus
11. Amerigo Vespucci
12. The French and Indian War
13. Roger’s Rangers
14. Green Mountain Boys
15. The Founding Fathers
16. George Washington
17. John Adams
18. John Quincy Adams
19. Benjamin Franklin
20. James Madison
21. The Declaration of Independence
22. Paul Revere
23. The Revolutionary War
24. John Paul JonesThoma
25. The United States Constitution
26. Whiskey Rebellion
27. Louisiana Purchase
28. Lewis and Clark
29. Barbary Wars
30. War of 1812
31. Fort McHenry
32. The Monroe Doctrine
33. The Alamo
34. The Mexican-American War
35. The American Civil War
36. Abraham Lincoln
37. Jefferson Davis
38. Robert E. Lee
39. Gettysburg
40. Ulysses S. Grant
41. American Indian Wars
42. General George Custer
43. The Industrial Revolution
44. Thomas Edison
45. Alexander G. Bell
46. Henry Ford
47. USS Maine
48. Spanish-American War
49. Wright Brothers
50. World War I
51. World War II
52. Pearl Harbor
53. USS Arizona
54. Battle of Midway
55. D-Day
56. General Douglas MacArthur
57. USS Indianapolis
58. Enola Gay
59. General George Patton
60. The Marshal Plan
61. The Cold War
62. The Korean War
63. The Space Race
64. Vietnam War
65. Civil Rights Movement
66. Rosa Parks
67. Martin Luther King, Jr.
68. The Moon Landing
69. Ronald Reagan
70. Operation Desert Storm
71. September 11, 2001
72. Operation Enduring Freedom
73. Operation Iraqi Freedom

I would add, in no particular order,

Sir William Blackstone
Thomas Hobbes
John Locke
St. Thomas Aquinas
Lysander Spooner
*Murray Rothbard (including Man, Economy, and State )


*The reason I recommend Rothbard over Ludwig von Mises Human Action , is simply because both cover pretty much the same material and Rothbard's work is a whole lot easier to digest. Both works give you the equivalent of an undergraduate degree in economics.

This discussion could go on forever if we let it!

Incidentally, I just read this book and highly recommend it.

Onward and upward,
airforce

Slavery (human rights...real "liberty")

Keynesianism (major impact on US)

The renaissance (impact on philosophies of government and economy)

The 30 years war (war between protestants and catholics, really bloody, led to much of the tolerant ideas of western europeans who became colonists)

Regarding democracy, you should be able to teach your kids what the founders thought of democracy, which wasn't much. What we have let slip away is our constitutional republic.

If you truly want your kids to understand history, I would strongly suggest checking out the Ludwig von Mises Institute . Yes, its focus is on economics, but it's largely economics as applied throughout history as the two are inextricably intertwined. In short, if you don't understand the economics behind historical events, you won't truly understand those events, nor will you truly understand or be able to analyze current events. Case in point: people who don't understand what money is and is not, the business cycle, and how the Federal Reserve operates are going to continue getting robbed by our current monetary system. These are things that cannot be understood without a historical perspective, however.

My wife and I homeschool our two daughters, and when they're old enough this is where I plan to go for much of the history lessons. For basic history, there are some good curricula and books suited for homeschooling that address history from an Austrian School perspective. Aside from scroogling for these things, you can also go to a homeschooling expo and conference, usually held during the summer months, and check out a wide variety of history curricula.

Flick
I want to interject a thought here. In every patriot blog, forum, and site the central theme is that we have lost all of the rights and feelings that our fore fathers had and felt.
....
What it that belief was a "CointelPro" generated belief? I read my constitution and I can do everything in that document :
1. If I am willing to stand out and demand it. Of course I will be raised up to ridicule and agents will stop by and ask me questions in my home about my reasons, but that occurred in 1779.
2. I will have to obey my side of that constitution or face the consequences.
Simply put what if we are simply perceiving that our rights are being deleted when we are the ones being deleted by our desires for both our rights and our Civil Rights and privileges.

Does this include the Bill of Rights or is it just the Main Body of the Constitution that you read?

If it does include the Bill of Rights, can you exercise our Full Second Amendment Rights and how about our Full First Amendment Rights and what about the Forth Amendment?


So do you mean that we are being deleted because we love Freedom?

Try older editions of world book or other encyclopedias...I see 60's and 70's editions on Craigslist. That won't get you Reagan and later, But history can be learned from people that lifed the events.
Older non calculator math books and slide rules, incase of EMP.