Jerks in History

[J. Beckert]

It is also hard to sit here in the early 21st century and judge how people lived nearly two centuries in the past. Because we are all human we all have opinions and dogma that we have formed mainly through our experiences in life. We all try to be objective, but often times we are subjective. We cannot help it because it is in our nature. I believe that history can teach us a lot about ourselves.

I think you summed that up rather well, Craig. We can't judge people from another century with our views and mores. The country has greatly evovled and changed. It's not fair, but some folks lean so far to one side, it seems they just can't let some things go. And that distorts the entire study. If people in the Civil War era had the same mores and opinions we do in the 21st. century, this whole thing would be rather boring.