Martin J. Sherwin & Lee White: The Bush administration does not appear to believe that our way of life depends on access to our history
[Martin J. Sherwin is a professor of history at George Mason University. With his co-author Kai Bird, he won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in biography for American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (A.A. Knopf, 2005). Lee White is executive director of the National Coalition for History.]
In 1941, at the dedication of his presidential library, Franklin D. Roosevelt clearly articulated why the nation's archives and presidential-library system are so vital to our democracy.
"To bring together the records of the past and to house them in buildings where they will be preserved for the use of men and women in the future, a Nation must believe in three things," he said.
"It must believe in the past.
"It must believe in the future.
"It must, above all, believe in the capacity of its own people so to learn from the past that they can gain in judgment in creating their own future."
Unfortunately, the National Archives and Records Administration, and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission and presidential libraries, both of which it oversees, are in serious jeopardy. The U.S. Senate has just held hearings on overturning President George W. Bush's executive order 13233, issued in 2001, which gave presidents, former presidents, their heirs or designees, and former vice presidents broad authority to withhold or delay the release of their records. Despite the fact the House of Representatives passed legislation to revoke the order, the Senate has not yet been able to bring a similar bill to the floor. That is an outrage.
At the same time, there is also a continuing controversy over millions of White House e-mail messages that are missing or have been destroyed. Add to that the Bush administration's request for zero funds, for the fourth year in a row, for the historical-records commission, which assists with preserving records and supporting editing projects; the need for additional staff members and capital repairs, not only at presidential libraries but throughout the National Archives; the need to digitize collections; problems in the archive's declassification program — and we clearly have a crisis.
It is in the nature of the political process of governments that much of what we believe about contemporary decisions will be revealed by historical research to have been incorrect, or at best partially correct. And I submit that our democracy cannot remain robust without the constant historical auditing of our government's behavior....
Read entire article at Chronicle of Higher Ed
In 1941, at the dedication of his presidential library, Franklin D. Roosevelt clearly articulated why the nation's archives and presidential-library system are so vital to our democracy.
"To bring together the records of the past and to house them in buildings where they will be preserved for the use of men and women in the future, a Nation must believe in three things," he said.
"It must believe in the past.
"It must believe in the future.
"It must, above all, believe in the capacity of its own people so to learn from the past that they can gain in judgment in creating their own future."
Unfortunately, the National Archives and Records Administration, and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission and presidential libraries, both of which it oversees, are in serious jeopardy. The U.S. Senate has just held hearings on overturning President George W. Bush's executive order 13233, issued in 2001, which gave presidents, former presidents, their heirs or designees, and former vice presidents broad authority to withhold or delay the release of their records. Despite the fact the House of Representatives passed legislation to revoke the order, the Senate has not yet been able to bring a similar bill to the floor. That is an outrage.
At the same time, there is also a continuing controversy over millions of White House e-mail messages that are missing or have been destroyed. Add to that the Bush administration's request for zero funds, for the fourth year in a row, for the historical-records commission, which assists with preserving records and supporting editing projects; the need for additional staff members and capital repairs, not only at presidential libraries but throughout the National Archives; the need to digitize collections; problems in the archive's declassification program — and we clearly have a crisis.
It is in the nature of the political process of governments that much of what we believe about contemporary decisions will be revealed by historical research to have been incorrect, or at best partially correct. And I submit that our democracy cannot remain robust without the constant historical auditing of our government's behavior....