History in the Margins — Pamela Toler

Road Trip Through History: The Harry S. Truman Library and Museum

by pamela on May 23, 2013

Recently My Own True Love and I took a week-long road trip that looped down the Mississippi, across to Little Rock, through northwest Arkansas, up to Kansas City and back to Chicago. For much of the trip, historical sightseeing was out of the question. All we could do was make lists of sites and museums that we’d like to see next time. After all, we had miles to travel, people to see, meetings to attend, a blogging workshop to teach. * When we reached Kansas City, our time was our own and we were ready to be history nerds. Our first stop was the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum. (Okay, it’s in Independence, Missouri, but the two cities have run together into an amorphous urban blob.)

The library tells Truman’s story well in a variety of formats: a 45 minute documentary of Truman’s life using vintage black and white footage and stills, a family friendly interactive display about his life from childhood through retirement, an excellent and even-handed display setting his often controversial presidency in historical context***, and a charming display of his letters to Bess. (Not every presidential library has a lifelong love story at its heart.)

In addition to Truman the president, we were introduced to

• Truman the near-sighted patriot who memorized the eye chart so he could enlist in World War I
• Truman the candidate of the Prendergast political machine who earned a reputation for honesty building roads in his home county
• Truman the piano student
• Truman the failed businessman

Excellent though the permanent exhibits are, I was particularly taken by a special exhibit on Truman and American Regionalist painter Thomas Hart Benton, who painted the allegorical mural in the museum lobby: Independence and the Opening of the West. Benton is a long time favorite of mine; Truman was less sure he liked the Missouri painter’s work. (He described the main figure in Benton’s The Kentuckian as a “long-necked monstrosity.”) The exhibit chronicles the parallel lives of president and painter, born five years and fifty miles apart, and the unlikely path that led to their friendship and collaboration. Benton and Truman: Legends of the Missouri Border will be on display through October 14. If you’re in the area****, make sure you see it.

And while you’re there, pick up a Truman bobble-head doll and a bag of Republican Poop. I resisted and I’m still regretting it.

* We did spend a day at Crystal Bridges, the fabulous art museum in Bentonville Arkansas. Not exactly historical**, but well worth the visit.
** Though there was a fascinating eighteenth century portrait of Lafayette, who apparently looked a lot like a young Jack Benny.
*** His presidency included the decision to drop the atomic bomb, post-war housing shortages, firing the popular General Douglas McArthur****, the implementation of the Marshall Plan, the Berlin Airlift, the beginnings of the Cold War, and Senator Joseph McCarthy’s anti-communist witch hunts.
**** You’ve got to love a man who tells Time magazine “I fired him [MacArthur] because he wouldn’t respect the authority of the President…I didn’t fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was, but that’s not against the law for generals. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail.” Give ‘em hell, Harry.
*****My Own True Love and I define “in the area” pretty loosely. Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and Kansas City, Missouri, are not exactly next door to each other.

Children of the Days: a Calendar of Human History

by pamela on May 21, 2013

Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano, who reached a wide American audience in 2009 with Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, has built his career on a genre-defying blend of history, fiction and political analysis that he describes as “obsessed with remembering”. In Children of the Days: A Calendar of Human History, he compresses that obsession into a form modeled on the medieval book of days.

Instead of a typical “today in history” almanac, Children of the Days is a series of one-page responses to historical events, people and ideas–closer to riffs than essays. Each is tied more or less to a specific day of the year.

Beginning with the reminder that January 1 “is not the first day of the year for the Mayas, the Jews, the Arabs, the Chinese or many other inhabitants of this world” and ending with the Hebrew meaning of “Abracadabra”, Children of the Days is unabashedly multicultural. Galeano has a strong bias in favor of historical anecdotes from Latin America, Africa and Asia, but he never romanticizes the non-Western world.

He celebrates not only well-known historical figures, but forgotten heroes and martyrs. He draws unlikely connections and ignores existing cultural hierarchies, discussing the significance of Tarzan’s howl at greater length than responses to Michelangelo’s David. Some themes recur: lost libraries, new knowledge, old prejudices and daring acts of resistance to tyranny. Even when his subjects are familiar, Galeano’s conclusions are always surprising

This review previously appeared in Shelf Awarenesss for Readers

What Kind of History Buff Are You?

by pamela on May 17, 2013

We’ve been hanging out together at History in the Margins for two years now: come rain, come shine, come crazy deadline schedule. With a few exceptions*, I assume you have a basic interest in history or you wouldn’t keep coming back. But just what kind of history buff are you? I’m hoping you’ll answer a few questions to give me a clue:

Have you always been interested in history or did high school history classes taught by the football coach put you off history for years?
Do you have a favorite period or theme? A cluster of them? Or are you a happy time traveler?
Do you visit historical sites when you travel? If you do, do you prefer ruins or re-constructions? Living history demonstrations or scholarly museums? (I won’t ask you to choose your favorite historical site if you don’t ask me to choose mine.)
What’s the best work of history or historical fiction you’ve read recently? (Mankind: The Story of All of Us is not a useful answer.)

Feel free to give me your answers, and anything else you’d like to share, in the comments section, by e-mail, or by whatever means of communication you prefer. (Messenger pigeons are probably not a good idea. They upset the cat.) In order to sweeten the pot, anyone who answers by the end of May will have a chance to win a copy of one of my favorite history books from the last year.

Thanks for listening. Stay tuned for more historical bits.

*Hi, Mom.

Image credit: michelangelus / 123RF Stock Photo

Prehistoric Redheads

by pamela on May 14, 2013

Like every other redhead I know, I have a mental list of notable gingers from history: Richard the Lion-Hearted, Christopher Columbus, Elizabeth I, Thomas Jefferson, Lucille Ball…* It’s a natural defense against phrases like “red-headed stepchild” and that popular playground taunt, “I’d rather be dead than red on the head.” **

Not speaking for anyone else, my famous red-head list has never included anyone from the ancient world. I picture the population of the ancient world, from Babylon to Rome, with dark hair. Red heads didn’t seem to march onto the stage of world history until Rome ran into the Germanic and Celtic peoples.

So I was fascinated to read a recent article claiming that red-hair was more ancient and more widely distributed than I knew. You can read the article here, but the basic argument is that two of the three red-hair genes can be traced to West Asia about 70,000 years ago–contemporary with the earliest humans to live outside of Africa.

Tracing the red hair gene may not be that important to the 98% of the population that aren’t carrot-tops But it is only one of the ways that DNA testing and other modern scientific techniques are re-shaping our knowledge of the prehistoric and ancient world, from the evolution of foodstuffs to the domestication of animals. The distant past is growing a little less distant all the time.

* Don’t laugh. Ball may have played a ditz on the screen, but she was a smart, tough lady in real life who made history behind the camera as the first woman to run a major television studio.

** Alas! This sort of thing isn’t limited to children. An otherwise adult friend of mine told me several times that he thinks red hair is “creepy”. He only stopped after I invoked the popular trope of red-haired temper and threatened to pop him one.

Review: The Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42

by pamela on May 9, 2013

I’ve written on this blog before about the first British invasion of Afghanistan, and the disasters that followed. In fact, I’ve written about it more than once. It’s a story that never fails to fascinate me, but when I received William Dalyrmple’s The Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42 to review I was afraid I wouldn’t have anything new to say.

Wrong.

In White Mughals and The Last Mughal, William Dalrymple introduced readers to the complicated relationships between South Asian rulers and the British East India Company in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He returns to that world in The Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42. As in his earlier works, Dalrymple reveals a version of “British India” that is not merely, or even primarily, British.

The story of the First Anglo-Afghan War has been told often and well, most recently by Diane Preston in The Dark Defile. Previous writers have focused primarily on the tangle of misinformation, paranoia and bad decisions that led to the destruction of the Army of the Indus by Afghan forces. Dalrymple broadens the story. Using not only new sources from British participants, but an array of Russian, Persian and previously unknown Afghani sources, he describes the war from both a British and an Afghani perspective. Readers already familiar with the details will be fascinated in particular by excerpts from the memoir of Shah Shuja; the deposed Afghan ruler whom the British attempted to return to the throne as a shield against Russian expansion appears as more than a shadow puppet for the first time.

Written in an engaging narrative style, The Return of a King is a nuanced account of what one of the expedition’s survivors described as “a war begun for no wise purpose.” The inevitable analogy with modern events at the end of the book is clumsy by comparison.

This review previously appeared in Shelf Awareness for Readers.

Road Trip Through History: The Vandalia Statehouse State Historical Site

by pamela on May 7, 2013

The first thing you need to remember about the old state capitol building in Vandalia, Illinois, is that it is NOT called the Old Capitol.* The Old Capitol, which is not as old as the state capitol building in Vandalia, is in Springfield. What can I say? Stuff doesn’t always make sense.

Vandalia became the second capitol of the new state of Illinois in 1819**, but it didn’t remain the seat of government for long. The Federal-style building that stands today was the third statehouse in Vandalia, built in 1836 in response to a referendum to move the capitol from Vandalia to Springfield. Building a new statehouse wasn’t enough to stop the move. In 1837, Springfield was chosen as the permanent location for the state capitol. The supporters of other locations immediately lashed out with charges of corruption against Springfield-area legislators, most notably “Honest Abe” Lincoln, then in his second term as a state representative and a major Springfield-booster.

Modern Vandalians are happier with Mr. Lincoln than their 19th century predecessors were. Today you can have your picture taken with him.

The site is historically important for its relationship to Lincoln, who began his political career there, but the tour guides don’t limit themselves to Lincoln lore. Our guide served up a tasty mix of historical odd bits, the day-to-day practice of government in a frontier state, and a nineteenth century political scandal ***

If you’re in the area and looking for a history break, you can’t go wrong with the Vandalia Statehouse State Historical Site.

* Actually, the first thing you need to remember is that the town is Vandalia, not Vidalia, which is the place in Georgia where the onions come from. My Own True Love corrected me on this several times, though he assures me that I didn’t make the mistake when talking to any of the wonderful people who answered my questions in Vandalia. If I did, I apologize. I knew where I was but I was goofy with cold medicine.

**The first capitol was at the French colonial town of Kaskaskia.

*** Theopholis Smith, a supreme court justice and the first Illinois public official to be impeached–for trying to sell a seat in the legislature. Who would have thought such a thing could happen in Illinois?

Speaking of book storage…

by pamela on May 2, 2013

For the last five years I’ve visited New York City in April to attend the American Society of Journalists and Authors annual meeting. Every year I’ve made a pilgrimage to Fortitude and Patience, the stone lions that stand outside the public library on 5th Avenue. This year I finally went inside–as part of an ASJA field trip. The library gave us a double treat: an introduction to its research resources and a private tour.

Even from the perspective of someone who has spent hundreds (maybe even thousands) of hours at the University of Chicago’s wonderful Regenstein Library, the New York Public Library’s resources are pretty dang impressive. Four research libraries (plus 87 circulating branches) linked by a single catalog, an astonishing off-site book storage facility, special collections galore, and access to many, many on-line databases. Not to mention gorgeous reading rooms.

When they told me I could have a library card even though I don’t live in New York, I said, “Sign me up!”

The tour was a history nerd’s delight: a combination of stories about the past, architectural trivia, and glimpses of the library’s future use as a circulating library. Here are some of the highlights:

The battered stuffed animals that inspired A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh. (Kanga, but no Roo.)

• The marble in the main hall is the same as that used to build the Parthenon, after all the library was meant to be a temple of learning
• The building was designed with an eight-room apartment for the building’s janitor and his family. (Can you imagine growing up with the library just downstairs?)
• We got to go down in the stacks, something not allowed on the public tours. Look carefully and you’ll see something missing: books! Most of them have been moved to an off-site storage facility designed for book preservation. These days you need to request books the day before you need them.

Now that I’ve found my way inside, you can be sure I’ll be back.

Book-hoarding, 10th Century Style

by pamela on April 25, 2013

Anyone who’s spent a significant amount of time with me in recent months, whether in real life or in some virtual space, has probably heard me bemoan the state of my office bookshelves. As the photo above attests, they overflow. Loaded two deep and stacked rather than shelved, there is still not enough room. Worse, for the first time in my life I am having trouble finding things. Twice in the last year I bought a book I already owned. Once because I couldn’t find the copy I was sure I had and needed right then. Once because I didn’t even realize I owned a copy.* It makes me itchy.

Recently, a factoid has begun popping up in my universe that makes me feel even worse. According to Alberto Manguel, author of A History of Reading,

In the tenth century… the Grand Vizier of Persia, Abdul Kassem Ismael, in order not to part with his collection of 117,000 volumes when traveling, had them carried by a caravan of four hundred camels trained to walk in alphabetical order.

Manguel goes on to explain that the camel drivers effectively served as librarians, each responsible for retrieving volumes from his camel at the vizier’s command.

At first, I found the factoid charming: a lovely illustration of the importance of books in the early Islamic world. Then I felt a little jealous at the idea of owning 1117,000 books. Now I just feel inadequate at my inability to keep control over a couple of thousand books without the added complication of moving camels.

Something’s gonna change.

*Oh, the shame!

The Art of the Book

by pamela on April 21, 2013

Image courtesy of the Walters Art Museum

The Islamic world created illuminated manuscripts that rivaled anything that came out of a medieval monastery: Qu’rans, historical chronicles, stories of the prophets, the deeds of kings, lyric poetry, heroic epics, philosophy, scientific treatises, and romantic tales.

Caliphs, courtiers, and wealthy merchants commissioned manuscripts from the ninth century until well into the seventeenth century, when the Islamic world reluctantly accepted the value of Mr. Gutenberg’s printing press. Each manuscript was an expensive and unique production that required the talents of many artists: craftsman who ruled the pages, calligraphers, painters, illuminators, bookbinders and chest makers.

Each page was designed with a ruled frame that determined the number of lines of text on the page and the size and location of paintings, chapter headings, texts and borders. The modern viewer focuses on the miniatures, wonderfully detailed paintings often no larger than a sheet of notebook paper. For the original audience, the paintings are second to the quality of the calligraphy. As sixteenth Iranian author Qadi Ahmad put it, “If someone, whether he can read or not, sees good writing, he likes to enjoy the sight of it.” Calligraphers were not anonymous copyists, but revered artists who learned at the hand of a master.

Unlike books in English, where there are many fonts but only one script, Islamic calligraphers had many scripts to chose from, each with a different graphic and emotional quality. They could be slanted or rounded, upright or “hanging”, angular or cursive. Some were designed to be easily read, others to be decorative. Qu’rans were often written in one of the angular kufic scripts. One script was described as the “bride of calligraphic styles” and was generally used for lyric poetry and romantic tales.

You’ve got to wonder what the producers of these works would think about the modern paperback.

This post previously appeared at Wonders and Marvels.

Road Trip Through History: America’s First Interstate

by pamela on April 11, 2013

George Washington was a road builder long before he was a nation-builder. As a young officer under the ill-fated General Braddock, he helped construct a military road from western Maryland to Pennsylvania.* As president of the new United States, he dreamed of a trans-Appalachian road that would unify the new nation and aid westward expansion.

In 1806 Thomas Jefferson signed a bill that made Washington’s dream a reality.** Funded by the sale of land in what would become Ohio, the National Road was built in pieces between 1811 and 1834. It was carved out of wilderness and prairie, constructed of rock and dirt and mud and macadam over timber corduroys. When it was completed, the National Road traveled through six states, from Cumberland, Maryland, to Vandalia, Illinois, then the state capital.

The National Road became a major route not only for settlers traveling west, but for commerce. Conestoga wagons, the semi-trailers of the early nineteenth century, carried farm produce from the west to eastern cities and brought back supplies and luxuries to frontier towns. Drovers herded pigs from Vandalia to Baltimore along the road. (And turkeys as far as Saint Louis.***) As the frontier developed, the National Road became Main Street in the towns through which it traveled.

The road flourished through the 1870s, when the railroad replaced it as a major transport system. It revived at the beginning of the twentieth century, when the rise of the automobile brought with it a demand for better roads. The National Road was reincarnated as Highway 40 and expanded from Vandalia to the Pacific.

The National Road Interpretive Center in Vandalia is an excellent introduction to the history of the road–not to mention surveying methods, covered bridges, frontier road construction, the economics of wagon trains, and the development of the Illinois territory. But be warned, it will leave you wanting more. My Own True Love and I are already plotting a road trip through history along the Illinois portion of the National Road. Stay tuned.

*And helped trigger the French and Indian War in the process. But that’s a story for another day.

**Jefferson’s own dream– a road that went all the way to the Pacific–took a little longer to fulfill.

***Does anyone know how you herd turkeys? I assume you walk softly and carry a big stick.

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