Yale educated New York publisher and Vermont sheep farmer, Richard M. Ketchum, who commanded a sub-chaser in World War II and wrote an engaging series of books about 18th century American history, certainly enjoyed his share of praise from all the approved sources. 

Ketchum passed away in 2012, but in 1997 Pauline Maier of the New York Times Book Review concluded Ketchum’s Saratoga was “vividly described with a vast range of sources.” David McCullough called it “more than a brilliant, gripping account of one of history’s most important battles, it is a vivid, needed reminder of how hard-fought, gritty, sweat-soaked, god-awful, heroic, and all-important was the American War.”

Park that praise there for a moment and consider some of Ketchum’s very vivid observations about the summer of 1777:

Twenty-six years after publication, I’m wondering how “official media” might respond to Ketchum’s narrative today. We are always prone to forget history by virtue of our own intellectual sloth, but I fear we’re facing a more pernicious danger these days. We can only learn certain heroic lessons if they are imparted to us by the proper ethno-gender-identity, and we are likely to see the sins of “dead, white males” amplified, just for the sake of decrying “white supremacy.”

Pre-Christian cultures, all over the world, were absolutely savage by our standards, but we make that observation today at our peril, and we wonder why the third world remains impoverished: we’re not allowed to make negative cultural judgments, even if that means the roads never get repaired and the bribes never stop flowing.

History tells us there really were great men and women who sacrificed everything for the cause, who demonstrated real bravery, but the intersectional malaise keeps us from imparting those stories and nurturing the very virtues we need to move forward.

If you haven’t read Ketchum, do so, and, even better, get your grandchildren in on the find. Western Civilization is at stake.