The more I study history, the more I realize that we aren't quite as perfect as we thought. Everyone has a feeling that the world is getting better, and that things are better here and now than they ever were. In some cases, that might be true. In other cases though, it isn't. Are we freer than ever? We're definitely more free than a 19th century slave on a southern plantation. But we aren't as free as a mountain man on the frontier. Do we have a better government? We certainly have more infl...