Going East to rediscover America

Author Horace Greeley is credited with the saying, “Go West, young man, Go West!” Sage as that advice may have been in 1833, my advice for the next four years is "come East." Remarkable history always awaits visitors along the Atlantic Coast, but over the next few years, America will mark some historic milestones, and you will want to be on site for some of these.

Best-selling author David McCullough, (“1776,” “John Adams” and the recently released “The Greater Journey, Americans In Paris,”) said this in an 2002 interview, “From my experience, I don’t think there’s any question whatsoever that the students in our institutions of higher learning have less grasp, less understanding, less knowledge of American history than ever before. I think we are raising a generation of young Americans who are, to a very large degree, historically illiterate. … If we don’t know who we are, if we don’t know how we became what we are, we’re going to start suffering from all the obvious detrimental effects of amnesia.”

In a recent interview on Fox TV, McCullough urged parents to take up the gauntlet and take their children to historical sites to learn about their country’s past. The next four years provide families with opportunities to experience American history in ways that will not be repeated in our lifetimes.

America is preparing to commemorate two vital periods in American history — the sesquicentennial of the Civil War and the bicentennial of the War of 1812.

The sesquicentennial of the Civil War begins this year, and the bicentennial of the War of 1812 takes center stage in 2012. In preparation of these great moments in history, the National Park Service and state governments have been at work for a decade sprucing up exhibits, building new visitors centers and bringing the importance of these events to the forefront.

Dozens of states lay claim to portions of the history made during these two wars, but my advice is to set your itinerary around Baltimore or Washington, D.C., in order to sample more of the historical smorgasbord. Fort McHenry, the Smithsonian, Capitol Hill, Gettysburg, Antietam, Manassas and Williamsburg are all easy drives from these central points.

“The Journey Through Hallowed Ground,” a foundation dedicated to preserving national history sites along the East Coast, determined that there is more American history locations in the 240-mile swath from Gettysburg, Pa., to Jefferson’s Virginia home in Monticello than in any other section of America. And their close proximity makes the Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia corridor a veritable portal to the past.