The majority of U.S. high school students don't know within 50 years when the Civil War occurred.

Drawing on President Bush's reform plan, which would allow citizens to transfer part of their Social Security contributions into personal accounts, an alteration of the current system is needed to make necessary change.

History provides a sense of where we've been and lessons that can be taken forward.

There's probably a little greater case for pessimism than optimism. But I do not rule out optimism.

The arts and humanities are vastly more important in troubled times.

America somehow thinks that leadership relates to governance, and it certainly does. But society is much bigger than governance, and some of the truly great leadership of our society is outside the governance arena.

America is very decentralized in how it supports the humanities, unlike European countries where virtually everything stems from the central government.