I still have an irksome obsession attached to my recollection of the Durant books stuck in the trash. It occurred to me that the perpetrator who threw away the books wasn’t mad at the books or their owner. It is possible that he wanted to erase history. Today in the era of Trump, we show signs of what Jane Jacobs defined as “rushing headlong into a Dark Age.” Some pundits have made a strong argument suggesting that Jane Jacobs’ book Dark Age Ahead may have predicted the rise of Trump. Amnesia is the chief symptom that besets a nation when it is entering a dark age. In other words, when people forget history, their cultural norms, or knowing right from wrong, the dark age becomes the new reality. Examples of forgetting history include the alt right factions of our culture and the GOP who no longer remember the core principles of our democracy.
Jane Jacobs has been described as an autodidact, a term I dislike because it sounds arrogant. An autodidact is simply a person who was self-taught. Jacobs did not have a college degree, but she was a brilliant observer of what made cities work and flourish. Her books and articles are held to be legendary among urban planners, architects, academics and civic leaders. Self-education goes well beyond the formal constraints of school. There are many so-called autodidacts. Among my favorite are Emily Warren Roebling, who built the Brooklyn Bridge, and Eric Hoffer who wrote notable books, including his seminal work “True Believer” that gets to the truth about how mass movements are born and take root in a culture. Hoffer labored as a migrant farmer and a longshoreman but spent his free time in the public library studying, of all things, history.
My story began with picking three great history books out from the trash, and it ended up making me think about our democracy. The prerequisites of a democracy require literacy and knowledge. Every American is expected to participate in a democratic government by voting. In order to vote, you have to be able to read and write, but you also have to know American history. Immigrants seeking American citizenship are required to know the answers to 100 questions about American history. Among the 100 questions there are facts that most naturalized Americans might take for granted, like knowing that the Bill of Rights provides for our essential rights and civil liberties. As Americans, we are expected to think. Some of us might take our thinking to a higher level by continuing to educate ourselves throughout our lives. History does matter. The future of our democracy depends on it.