American History - For all

American History - For all the Europeans caterwaul about Americans' failure to understand American history, it'd seem (says George Will) that the Euros could study ours a bit more, especially as re their current attempt to craft an EU Constitution:

"Asked to which participant in America's constitution-making he would compare himself, Giscard replied: 'I tried to play a little bit the role that Jefferson played, which was to instill leading ideas into the system. Jefferson was a man who wrote and produced elements that consolidated the Constitution.'

Not exactly. When the Constitution's framers convened in Philadelphia in 1787, Thomas Jefferson was in Paris. When he read what the convention had wrought, he was distressed, particularly about the potential for consolidation of power in the central government.

Europeans believe that American foreign policy would profit from a deeper understanding of European history, and from the tragic sense of history that comes from such an understanding. That may be true.

This certainly is: Europe's evolving domestic arrangements would profit from what clearly has not yet occurred -- a serious study of ambiguities and difficulties that have surrounded the oldest and most successful written constitution, America's."