History

Seafaring reenactors exchanged gunfire with pirates yesterday in a day of nautical adventure at Penn's Landing. The two-hour spectacle brought to life the classic book series Horatio Hornblower by novelist C.S. Forester.

The other day, President Reagan said, "How we vote on Nov. 4 may influence the course of history. " Remember this, and vote for Bob Edgar as the next U.S. senator from Pennsylvania. Help restore dignity and sanity to the Senate. His voting record as a U.S. representative reveals his consistent concern for humanity. Sylvia and Milton Casper Philadelphia.

Margaret Perry became hooked on history when she researched the past life of her house. Now she is chairwoman of the Wrightstown Historic Commission, which is preparing for the township's 300th anniversary this September. To expose her home's history, Perry poked around in the oddest of places. She remembers chipping whitewash off a flat stone that is part of the wall behind her oil furnace. After several hours' work, she uncovered the carving R M 1744. "I was excited," she said.

About 2,000 Cub and Boy Scouts from Pennsylvania, Delaware, Ohio, Maryland, New York and Virginia participated in the 80th annual Valley Forge Pilgrimage and Encampment over Presidents Day Weekend. Gen. Daniel Morgan was this year's theme person.

The public debate continues over the decision to have mandatory African and African American history studies in the Philadelphia schools. Here are a variety of opinions on the subject. The decision to require African American history in Philadelphia public schools is good one - and long overdue. The need for a comprehensive approach to understanding the role of African people in the development of the United States is illustrated by a factual question raised by The Inquirer's coverage of the controversy over the decision.

It is true that Lawnside has a long, rich history. It is also true, say James L. Carter and other residents, that its history is a lot longer and richer than most people realize. Carter, 73, a retired clinical social worker, believes the common perception is that Lawnside, the oldest black incorporated municipality in the North, was settled in the 1840s. That was when Ralph Smith, a Quaker abolitionist from Philadelphia, bought the land and subdivided it into plots that were farmed by freed slaves.

Before this season, the 76ers hadn't been the No. 1 playoff seed in the NBA East since 1982-83, hadn't won an Atlantic Division championship since 1989-90. As they look ahead to a second-round playoff matchup against the Toronto Raptors, the Sixers haven't won a best-of-seven playoff series since 1984-85, when they swept Milwaukee in the Eastern Conference semifinals. They have dropped their last six best-of-seven series, including the last two seasons against Indiana in the second round.

A typical corporate history used to be like the Great Soviet Encyclopedia - an unreliable chronicle intended primarily to appeal to the regime in power, a tale told by a toady. Virtually nobody read one. No longer. More and more these days, corporate histories tell all. Their authors are no longer mere literary Jezebels, and sometimes their books are even read by people with no direct tie to the subject company. Today, when companies order up a history - and more of them are doing it - they are likely to turn the job over to a serious business historian instead of a hack.

According to one editorial salute to Barbara Tuchman, the "stuffy professorial reviews" of her best-selling works of history didn't matter because "she made readers care about a thousand dusty yesterdays. " She made readers care, but the premise that readability need be the enemy of accuracy, or can excuse its absence, is mischievous and silly. The truth is that Barbara Tuchman, magical though her touch was, would have done well to take the serious reviewers more seriously.