I vividly remember a shopping spree I had several years ago in Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC. Richard and I had made our first trip to our nation's capital and had fallen in love with the place. So much so that we weren't disturbed when we had to stay an extra day because South Florida had been clobbered by Hurricane Jeanne. The hotel of course wanted to get rid of us, so we arrived early at the airport, checked in and went shopping.
Since I'm always looking at the books, I thought The Stranger and the Statesman would be the perfect souvenier. This is the story of how the Smithsonian Institute came to be. It a story that I bet most American's have no knowledge of yet we flock to the variety of Smithsonian Museums in droves. The museums do exactly as their benefactor intended, for the increase and diffusion of Knowledge among men. James Smithson never set foot in America and his motives for leaving his estate to the US is sketchy at best.
Most of us also wouldn't know that once this fortune arrived, the Congress allowed it to be squandered away before John Quincy Adams stepped in to save it.
Sometimes reading the story got bogged down in the details of English royalty and France during its Revolution but what I learned from this book astounded me. It has grounded me back to knowing how fortunate we are to live in America and what a truly wonderful country this is. The Stranger and The Statesman is not a quick or easy read, but it is a history lesson you won't soon forget.
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