...for the Better All The Time thesis. Nothing like a little historical perspective:

Terrorist attacks, a war in Iraq and natural disasters aren't so bad compared to other tough times in America's past, from the Revolutionary War to the Cold War, history professors say.

Asked to compare eight difficult periods of the nation's history, 46 percent of the 354 professors who responded to a nationwide survey agreed the current era was the least trying. The Civil War, 55 percent said, was the toughest.

None of this is to say that the problems we have today aren't real. Of course they are. But by and large, life has gotten safer, cleaner, easier.

I wonder what these scholars would say if asked what the future will be like? Would they expect the trend to continue or would they think we've peaked?