What we support and defend

[ganulv]

More than the books they read, it was the times they lived in that shaped both the books they opted to read and how they interpreted their meaning.

Then as now, the books they read while in their collegiate courses tended not to be optional. And I submit that you have the last phrase just backwards--how they were taught to understood the books they read shaped the times in which they lived. (But this is a "chicken or the egg" type dispute in my view)

The American Revolutionary War preceded the French Revolution preceded the Haitian Revolution. It would be interesting to know what was on Toussaint Louverture’s reading list.