[the Library Of Congress] Is A Multimedia

An Enamored Amateur Need Not Be A Genius To Stay Out Of The Ruts He Has Never Been Trained In.

The American Experience Stirred Mankind From Discovery To Exploration. From The Cautious Quest For What They Knew (or Thought They Knew) Was Out There, Into An Enthusiastic Reaching To The Unknown. These Are Two Substantially Different Kinds Of Human Enterprise.

Our American Past Always Speaks To Us With Two Voices: The Voice Of The Past, And The Voice Of The Present. We Are Always Asking Two Quite Different Questions. Historians Reading The Words Of John Winthrop Usually Ask, What Did They Mean To Him? Citizens Ask, What Do They Mean To Us? Historians Are Trained To Seek The Original Meaning; All Of Us Want To Know The Present Meaning.

Never Have People Been More The Masters Of Their Environment. Yet Never Has A People Felt More Deceived And Disappointed. For Never Has A People Expected So Much More Than The World Could Offer.

Jefferson Refused To Pin His Hopes On The Occasional Success Of Honest And Unambitious Men; On The Contrary, The Great Danger Was That Philosophers Would Be Lulled Into Complacence By The Accidental Rise Of A Franklin Or A Washington. Any Government Which Made The Welfare Of Men Depend On The Character Of Their Governors Was An Illusion.