"History is not the past — it is the method we’ve evolved of organizing our ignorance of the past. . . . It’s what’s left in the sieve when the centuries have run through it.”
Sunday, April 24, 2022
The people who teach us history aren’t always historians
April 22, 2022 at 8:00 a.m. EDT
When documentarian Ken Burns debuted “The Civil War” on PBS in 1990, columnist George F. Will declared the nine-part series a “masterpiece of national memory” in which “our Iliad has found its Homer.” That was high praise for a 37-year-old New Hampshire filmmaker fresh out of the used-record-store business, and it was a bit demoralizing to me, a young U.S. historian fresh out of my PhD studies at Georgetown. With Burns’s opus, my chosen profession had just pole-vaulted into the Golden Era of history film documentary, while I was still using library card catalogues and reading dead people’s mail. Book writing, I feared, would be condemned to play second fiddle to “Ashokan Farewell,” the haunting violin theme that packed such an emotional wallop in “The Civil War.”
Ironically, it’s a new book — “Making History: The Storytellers Who Shaped the Past” by the British historian Richard Cohen — that has me thinking again about the magnificence of “The Civil War,” and more broadly about the whole endeavor of my profession. Sprawling andwildly ambitious, idiosyncratic and also consistently readable and engaging, “Making History” dives deep into the way history-driven scholars and artists — from Burns to Shakespeare to Herodotus — have shaped the collective memory of humankind. Championing both famous and largely forgotten historians as well as storytellers, filmmakers and photographers, Cohen’s volume offers memorable anecdotes and reasoned judgment as it explores themes including the foundational mythos of the Old and New Testaments, the Roman era, the contributions of history-maker historians from Julius Caesar to Winston Churchill, Black American history from George W. Williams to Ibram X. Kendi, historical works from medieval texts to the New York Times Magazine’s recent “1619 Project,” and the failure of Japan to prosecute war criminals after World War II.
A former London publishing director and the author of “How to Write Like Tolstoy,” Cohen clearly prizes narrative flow over ivory-tower historical analysis, stressing novelists’ and playwrights’ ability to conjure the atmosphere of past times and places instead of just recording facts. In that regard, he places Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” as the most vivid way to understand the Napoleonic Wars — a view that might have been shared by Tolstoy himself, who refused to call his masterpiece fiction while also denying that it was a historical chronicle.
Cohen’s valorization extends to more recent historical novelists such as Shelby Foote, Joyce Carol Oates, Toni Morrison and Gore Vidal. He even creates the genre “History as a Nightmare” and anoints Soviet novelist and political dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn its master practitioner. To his credit, Cohen also quotes novelist Vladimir Nabokov dismissing the entire novelists-as-historians trope: “Can anybody be so naïve as to think he or she can learn anything about the past from those buxom best-sellers that are hawked around by book clubs under the heading of historical novels?” Nabokov asked. “Certainly not. . . . The truth is that great novels are great fairy tales.”
Saturday, April 23, 2022
The basics of toxic positivity
Some believe positive psychology can be boiled down to a fake-it-'til-you-make-it style of rebranding. "Our obsession with positivity is all around us," Goodman writes: "Struggles are now 'opportunities.' Triggers are 'teachers.' Grief is now 'love with nowhere to go.' Weaknesses are actually 'emerging strengths.'"
-Gail Cornwall from Salon.com
Positivity (always reframing negativity to somehow make it positive) IS toxic.
Michael G. Long (Editor) 42 Today - Notes
This book is a collection of articles about Jackie Robinson who integrated major league baseball on April 15, 1947. This was the most significant civil rights development since Reconstruction. The most amazing things is how Robinson was the best person for the job. Branch Rickey, owner of the Dodgers, picked well.
Today a national icon, Jackie Robinson was a complicated who walked thru a minefield in his short life integrating the national pastime. Few knew of his inner turmoil, his activism, and his true place in civil rights history.
Foreward P. X1
FACTS
Born in Cairo, Georgia. Father abandoned the family. The mother led the Robinsons to Pasadena, California.
Jackie Robinson was a lifelong Republican, a Rockefeller Republican. He was shaken when the Republicans nominated Goldwater in 1964. Voted for Nixon in 1960 but later regretted it.
There is Jackie Robinson the baseball player and there is Jackie Robinson the civil right icon. The latter has a complicated history. Perhaps he has never received proper recognition for his civil rights activity and positions.
Rachel says that the Pee Wee Reese incident never happened.
He promised Branch Rickey that he would not fight back for three years, but he did fight back after that. Those three years led to his early reputation as a mild Uncle Tom. Jackie was a natural fighter.
He had his agreements and disagreements with other civil rights icons like MLK, Jr. and Malcolm X. Jackie Robinson was nothing not complex.
The white sportswriters missed the integration story.
#2 A Methodist Life
Jackie Robinson was a Methodist. This greatly influenced his life. He was nurtured at Scott Methodist Church. Rev. Downs was his liaison with Branch Rickey, also a Methodist.
Methodism may have helped shape Rickey's correct vision that Robinson had the qualities to survive the racism and taunting that he would have to endure. At the same time, Branch Rickey was a capitalist trying to fill the stands and make money.
Robinson was a Republican. He voted for Nixon in 1960. He was stunned when the party nominated Barry Goldwater in 1964. He voted for Lyndon Johnson in 1968. Did he officially identify as a Democrat before he died in 1972?
#George Vecsey Jackie Robinson Ball
Jackie Robison was the epitome of aggressive baseball smarts.
#10 Yohuru Williams "I Gotta Be Me"
How do you place Jackie Robinson into the history of the struggle for black equality in the latter half of the 20th Century? P. 114
His life in many ways reflects twentieth-century African American history. P. 114
He was the first 4-letter athlete at UCLA. P. 114
Rookie of the Year in 1947. MVP in 1949. First Dodger World Series championship in 1955. P. 114
Lifelong supporter of Nelson Rockefeller. P. 115
Baseball was his fourth best sport. P. 115
He redefined the game. P. 115
The narrative of his life does not fit a simple progressive scenario. P. 116
Malcom X called him an Uncle Tom. P. 116
His independence of thought made him difficult to categorize. P. 117
People saw in Jackie Robinson what they wanted to see. He was many things to many people. P. 119
He supported the Viet Nam War and had a falling out with MLK, Jr. over this. P. 120
Wife Rachel said he was not bitter. P. 121
#11 Peter Dreier "The First Famous Jock for Justice"
Part of his legacy is as a role model for athletes who desire to express their social and political views. P. 132
Robinson wrote newspaper columns. He did radio and TV shows. He led a very textured life after baseball. P. 135
Thursday, April 21, 2022
Wednesday, April 20, 2022
Brian Lamb - The Presidents - Notes
Noted historians rank America's best and worst Presidents.
#3 Franklin Roosevelt by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Franklin Roosevelt was devious. He could interview three people for a job and all three would think they were going to get the job after talking to FDR. He was called The Sphinx because he concealed his thinking. He said he never let his left hand know what his right hand was doing. Margaret, Missy, and Lucy. No wonder I admire Franklin Roosevelt.
#7 Thomas Jefferson by Willard Sterne Randall
Focuses on the Paris years and Jefferson's legal career. Randall is speaking before it has been accepted that Jefferson fathered one or more children with Sally Hemings.
#9 Ronald Reagan by Lou Cannon
Perhaps Reagan WAS brighter than people thought, but what kind of brighter? He was always an actor, always telling stories true or not. It was all about performance, performing the job of President. He cut taxes, increased the military budget, and gave us big deficits. He had this goody, goody, version of American which would admit of no faults in the country. Speaking to Brian Lamb in 1991 Cannon says most Americans are not partisan. If he was correct, the country has changed dramatically in the 29 years. Once Reagan did not recognize his own son. His advisors knew you never knew what might come out his mouth. You could not have Reagan on the loose. Nancy was certainly his protector. Ronald Reagan's world has come and gone. He was a performer and not much more.
#10 Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro
All of his life LBJ was decisive, always ready to act, make decisions. Johnson only had one goal in life and that was to be President. "I am destined to be President," he said to everyone. When his time came in 1960 he did NOT take action The reason John Connally said was that he was afraid of failing. He could not bear the thought of being a failure like his father. He did not want to be like his daddy. 'That is why he did not run in 1960. There is no doubt that Robert Kennedy tried to get LBJ off the ticket but that JFK knew he had to carry Texas and he further knew he needed Lyndon Johnson to carry Texas. JFK's admin colleagues belittled LBJ the whole time he was VP,. They kept him in the dark about many things. RFK humiliated LBJ time and time again. The vice-presidency was cruel to him. He kept hands on his finances throughout hits presidency. Lying had been a big part of Johnson's life. He had bullied and belittled others all his life but when he stepped off that plane he became President of the United States. He did a masterful job of settling down the country and putting his past behind him to become President. He calls Bobby 26 minutes after he learns JFK is dead. This will always be controversial. Caro's focus always on power. How to get it and how to use. Lyndon Johnson is a textbook study on power.
#17 James Madison by Noah Feldman
The three lives of Madison. 1) Father of thee Constitution. 2)Partisan politician. 3)Secretary of State and President for eight years each.
Different from the other Founders in that he was "all in his head." Totally cerebral. Committed to logic and reason. Hated public speaking. Hated arguing and disagreement. Diminutive in size maybe 5'6". Had migraines. Would not sea voyage to Europe. Book smart in the traditional sense. Had to know everything about subjects he was interested in meaning he had to read every book on the subject. Always better prepared than everyone else. Had to translate his book-learning into political sense. He proceeded by trial and error.
Dolley had long-term influence in the nations's capitol. In essence she was chief lady for 16 yrs since Jefferson didn't have a wife and influence continued even after the Madison's administrations came to an end. Aaron Burr was responsible for their meeting. They were close often writing each three times a day. Grew apart from Washington because the President favored Great Britain and Madison & Jefferson favored France. The War of 1812 was very nearly a disaster and could have ended the United Statute. Madison tried to fight GB by invading Canada which failed. The capitol was burned. Madison and Jefferson did not look upon Washington's last years favorable. They thought he had become a partisan Federalist. But wasn't Washington always in effect a partisan Federalist?
Personal relationships were Madison's calling card since he was never front and center stage given his laid-back personality. Despite his political battles with James Monroe Madison forgave Monroe and they remained friends according to author Feldman.
Baltimore and Fort McHenry saved the country from destruction in the War of 1812. Nobody won; nobody lost so American won.
He was paramount in getting Virginia to ratify the new Constitution 89-79 as he battled Patrick Henry.
The author gives federalism as one of Madison's greatest contributions, the idea of sharing power between the federal government and the states. Yet it has also perplexed us and led to problems.
Is the ugliness going on at Montpelier today a surprise? It shouldn’t be. James Madison was born into a slave society in Virginia. He was born in the arms of a slave. He carried a slave with him to college at the College of New Jersey (Princeton). He had a slave with him in the summer of 1787 in Philadelphia when he was fathering the Constitution. A slave closed his eyes when he died. He owned over a hundred human beings in his lifetime. He never freed them. Dolley sold them all when he died because she needed the money. But shhhhhh! We can’t bring up these things to our students.
The author would ask Madison today what he would do about our partisanship. I doubt Madison would have an answer yet I think he would side with the Republicans.
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