When I retired, I had the GI Bill available to me, and I thought it would be a good time to use it.  I wanted to attend a state school, and earn a PhD in History.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough undergraduate history credits to warrant entry into graduate school, so I applied as a non-degree-seeking student to get the undergraduate credits I needed.  I could do it in a semester.  No biggie.  The school said, you already have a degree.  Go away.

Okay.  I’ll study on my own.  So I’m doing my own reading and evaluating of the subject.  The more I read, the more my area of interest expands.  I initially started with US history, post-Civil War.  Then I started reading Durant’s 10 volume set of world history (I’d never taken a world history course — what a mistake that was).  I’m still interested in what prompted the roots of the Progressive Era.  I still despise Progressivism (but I do kind of understand some of the things that brought it about).  For anyone who thinks today’s attack on American ideals is new, they are sadly mistaken.  This is the culmination of a century or more of concerted effort to bring down the free enterprise roots of America and replace it with the Big Government Big Brother State.

It’s going very slowly, but it is fascinating.