When tricorn hats replace knowledge

"True history is the enemy of reverence. We do the authors of American independence no favors by embalming them in infallibility, by treating the Constitution like a quasi-biblical revelation instead of the product of contention and cobbled-together compromise that it actually was. ... Instead of knowledge, we have tricorn hats." (Simon Schama, Newsweek, "The Founding Fathers, Unzipped")