History Matters

Having just watched Ken Burns excellent series “The American Revolution”, I came across a short book, “History Matters”, a collection of short essays by   popular historian David McCullough, who died in 2022. Watching the TV series, I especially appreciated how Burns was candid about how complicated and violent this period in American history truly was. So often we have just a simplified and sanitized version of those dramatic and sometimes horrifying events of the revolution. I especially appreciated his descriptions of how civilians suffered in times of war and conflict, as they always do, a topic that is often glossed over.

In his essay on George Washington, David McCullough wrote, “There is this fiction of a simpler past … There was no simpler time”, he firmly believes. He refers to the “ragged, forlorn, pathetic troops of Washington crossing the Delaware in the snow and ice to attack at Christmas.” He ironically imagines one poor solder saying to other, ‘yes but at least we live in a simpler time’. But, he continues, “It was a very complicated time. It was a very dangerous time and you had to have a lot of stamina. You had to have a sense of purpose just to get through life very often, let alone in time of war.”

One thing that was simpler back then was technology. No electricity at all, let alone worries about cryptocurrency, social media, AI, and so forth. I imagine someone as scientific-minded as Ben Franklin would be fascinated by this topic but he didn’t have to deal with it. Even McCullough, who died in 2022, seems to be looking at the past through rose-colored glasses when he describes how fond he was of using his old Royal typewriter all his life. Now here I disagree with him.

Typing something up using a computer, as I am doing now, is so much easier than using a typewriter (needing carbon paper, White Out/Liquid paper, figuring out the footnotes etc.) back when cut-and-paste was truly cut and paste. I recall one term paper I was working on back in those dark ages that looked like a Venetian blind by the time I got it in order, cutting out paragraphs and then using scotch tape to link them together logically, and then of course having to retype the whole blasted thing into something presentable. No thanks for the memory. Ditto to those who recall card catalogs fondly. Clearly these are people who never had to spend time filing all those cards in proper order.

But I digress. Once while driving by the original home of John Adams, (The Adams National Historic Park in Quincy is well worth a visit, I might add), McCullough had these thoughts about Adams: “Listen please to what he said in the year 1765, more than a decade before Philadelphia, 1776: ‘Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people who have the right to that knowledge and the desire to know…They have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean of the character and conduct of their rulers.’

McCullough also quotes Thomas Jefferson: “Any nation that expects to be ignorant and free expects what never was and never will be.” McCullough encourages his readers to “think how tough our predecessors were. Think what they had been through. There’s no one who hasn’t an ancestor who went though some form of hell.”

There are other unexpected highlights in “History Matters”. One is “Harriet Beecher Stowe in Paris”, an essay about a very interesting period in the life of the famous author of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. There’s also a lot about Harry Truman that I didn’t know. One of the author’s humorous recollections is the time a student asked him if he had interviewed any presidents other than John Adams and Harry Truman.

Here’s a local reference from “History Matters”. McCullough gave a commencement address at Providence College in 2018, saying “Remember that speaking the truth, loyalty, decency, courage, and character all count.  All matter greatly still, indeed count more now than ever. We as a nation are experiencing serious bumps in the road. Don’t get discouraged, don’t give up. We’ve known worse times and come through and we will now if we never forget who we are and what we stand for. The world needs you, there’s work to be done. Let’s never lapse into being spectators only.”