Advice for the Fall Semester - 2022 Edition

It’s back to school time kids! Which means…it’s time for me to offer my yearly thoughts on how we might approach the fall semester - to start things off on the right foot in history class. This one is for students and for teachers. (Drum roll…) my advice for 2022: beware of judging historical actors by 21st-century standards.

Admittedly, it’s tempting to take a position on most of these guys from the perspective of our modern sensibilities. But I would argue that by doing so you’ll miss the mark - every single time. Why is this, you ask?

Well, the truth is, one can only get to the heart of people’s ideas, actions, motivations, perceptions, and beliefs based on what they knew, how they saw the world, and what they understood about their position in it. They cannot have known what we know in exactly the way that we know it - so maybe getting upset because they do not act like us is a bad idea.

It’s a much better idea to understand what they did and why they did it, what motivated them, how they justified their actions, and how all of this operated within the contexts of their cultures, societies, and the views of the world in which they lived.

Now, this doesn’t mean they get a pass…I tend to avoid the somewhat trite (and simplistic) forgiveness of actions because of “the times.” Plenty of people in the past battled it out over moral issues that might seem familiar to us today. For example, slaveholders certainly had the most vociferous of critics. Many vehemently opposed the institution and worked tirelessly to see it abolished. But with rare exception, even those opposed to slavery had ideas about race that would make us cringe. So, as challenging as it might be, we must strive to figure out what was going on in the past without layering on our own moralistic set of values.

I would caution you against casting historical actors as saints too - while there is a lot to admire about certain people, Abraham Lincoln or Frederick Douglass for example, even those we admire can let us down. Lincoln’s attachment to colonization and his willingness to compromise with slaveholders to preserve the Union, or Douglass’s distaste for the “savagery” of Native Americans…these are unsavory flaws that tarnish the characters of otherwise admirable figures - but these characteristics alone do not define them. So instead of placing them on our moral scale - let’s instead seek to understand them on their own terms.

Another great idea: read as much as you can and try to look at diverse takes. Look for authors who complicate rather than simplify. Remember, it’s nearly impossible to explain everything by explaining one thing - so when you see it (I promise, oversimplification is out there in abundance) you should be suspect.

If you are looking to get started with some excellent works that look at the very human historical actors…in all their complexity, here are three recommendations.

Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter S. Onuf The Most Blessed of Patriarchs: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of Imagination (Norton, 2012).

David W. Blight Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom (Simon & Schuster, 2018).

Robert Elder Calhoun: American Heretic (Basic Books, 2021).

Students…these should keep you busy and teachers…you’ll finds lots within these pages for classroom discussion.

So, that’s all for now - here’s to a successful and productive 2022-23 school year!

With compliments,

Keith