Because of the influences it has on the present. You covered at least a little of the Revolution and the Civil War, because they were important events in what became an important country (and around the time of the Civil War, not after the Great War. ) Yet a strong argument could be made that neither of those events would have occurred without two different instances of the same Great Awakening that has periodically gripped us, and will likely continue doing so for some time. I understand your rationale, even agree to a certain degree, but when predominantly secular states look at Americas rather significant religious population and chalk it up to the Pilgrims without considering the Great Awakening, they're missing a BIG part of the story. We don't believe in hanging witches any more; we do still believe in things like abolishing slavery and livable working conditions.