Over the course of my life, I knew as much about the Colonial era as just about any school kid. What I learned in school, and that was about it. I read a lot as a kid, but the founding of our country was reserved for schoolwork.
When my father retired from a career as a Navy officer, our family returned to its New England roots, and after I got out of the Navy myself and got married, my wife introduced me to a whole unplumbed range of history in museums and historic sites.
My wife grew up in a family where they probably went to every single museum and site of every kind, and she knew them all in Massachusetts from growing up here. There were very few museums she had never been to in this state, and I had been to nearly none of them. And as we have spent our life together, we have made it a practice to visit as many places as we can.
The reason I mention this is, one can get an impression from reading a book, and one can get a quite rounded impression from reading many books on the same subject. But even with that, you are still looking at the historic figure from the perspective of another person's eyes, even if many sets of those eyes give you a fuller perspective.
But it is still someone else's eyes.
And sadly, over the years, those eyes are more critical and judgmental, and it seems to be some kind of perverse Leftist blood sport to tear people down to make a name for themselves.
Of all the things I might dislike with respect to the telling of history, the one that I have come to despise the most is this concept of judging people who lived centuries ago by the standards of today. I think it is asinine and narrow sighted. I cannot tell you the number of books I have read that I never made it through, simply because as I read, I got a whiff, then a dose, and then finally, a literary tsunami of this idiotic practice.
I like to tell this story about the reading of history, because I do find it humorous, but it displays the pitfalls.
My deceased mother-in-law was, in life, a major-league liberal. She was a community organizer type of liberal. Now, I didn't know this about her before I married my wife, but it wouldn't have made a difference to me.
As the years went on, both my viewpoints and her viewpoints became known to each of us… and we entered a phase where she would say things deliberately to get a response out of me (or to see if I would just sit and say nothing)
Needless to say, I wasn't about to sit and get baited by my mother-in-law, so I gave back in like kind when she initiated something. This went on for a relatively short period of time, then we kind of came to a mutual understanding. Neither one of us said a thing, but the understanding was there nonetheless that we would keep the peace by keeping our tongue. Not to say she wouldn't occasionally poke at me (or me at her) but after that, that was pretty much all it was. I was kind of got the impression she was doing it just to see if I would stand up for myself. (My wife says she read her headstrong mother the riot act on this...:)
In any case, I received a Christmas present from her one particular year. She knew that I was a history buff, and I read history prodigiously, so it was no surprise to me when I opened one of her Christmas presents and saw a history book. It was a fairly good-sized glossy volume, and I figured I'd put my feet up when I got home from the Christmas celebration and begin reading.
When I got home, I did just that. At first, I was puzzled. “What the heck is this?” I read little bit further, and got even more perplexed. “What the hell kind of book is this?” I thought to myself.
I immediately begin skipping through the book, preferentially stopping in key areas in American history. As I reached each section, I would read sometimes only a sentence, or occasionally a paragraph. After I had been through multiple sections in this manner, I stood up angrily and exclaimed “screw this piece of crap!”
I walked out in the garage and through the book in the trash.
The name of the book was “The People's History of the United States” by Howard Zinn.
I was appalled. I had never seen a history book quite like that one. I was even more disturbed to find out later that this was an actual textbook used in public school classrooms all over the country. I'm still appalled at that thought.
In retrospect, it popped into my mind almost immediately as I was throwing the book in the trash, that this was perhaps my mother-in-law poking her finger in my eye. After a few more seconds of contemplation, I guessed that was not the case.
Knowing how my mother-in-law used to gift shop, particularly for Christmas presents, this book was almost undoubtedly on the bargain bookshelf at the front of the bookstore when she walked in. I'd be willing to bet that she didn't pay more than a few dollars for, because I doubt you could find it inside the store at regular price.
So, every time I hear the name Howard Zinn, I think of the anti-American far left political screed that was his book, that I had the pleasure to throw into a garbage can.
So, those are the pitfalls of history. And I will be the first to admit-I love a flawed historical figure. Patton was amazing, but very flawed. Churchill as well. Washington had his flaws, too.
But in all those examples, I felt that it was the inclusion of their flaws that made them truly great, with Churchill being one of the prime examples of that, in my opinion. If I could spend a day with one man in history, beginning to end, I might well chose Churchill.
We are the sum of our good and bad. Good without Bad is pretty boring, and Bad without Good is Evil.
Anyway, getting back to history in my life-it has been my impression that visiting the places that people lived, looking at the chairs they sat in, the landscapes they saw, the books they read, seeing the brick-a-brack around their dwellings and seeing their real handwriting on letters they wrote informs me about those long gone people in ways a history book written by someone else never could.
As a result, I have visited every possible significant site and been to nearly every museum possible in this area. Just a few miles from my house, is this famous bridge which I pass near every day. I was going to be living at work for the next several days due to a major systems upgrade, so I was heading in around 9:00 AM on a bitter Tuesday morning in February, not a time I usually commute at. I decided to take a more relaxing ride through rural Concord and at least enjoy my ride in. The road was blocked due to a bridge issue, so in turning around, I realized I was at The Old North Bridge. I decided to get out and look since there was nobody around, and the bitter sub-zero wind was blowing snow granules across the ground as my eyes watered:
It was starkly beautiful. And as I looked on the bridge, I felt the history in it. Didn't just see it. I felt it.
Another great example of this is the Adams Estate in Quincy, MA. There are two parts to it-the house they lived in leading up to and during the war, and the house they lived in after they left Washington. When you visit the house they lived in during the war, you get an idea that a book cannot convey.
You know the distance between Braintree and Boston where he practiced law (about ten miles) and he rode that many times on horseback, through nasty weather, snow, and rain.
When you walked out his front door, you could see the view his family saw on that fateful day when the Battle of Bunker Hill took place, the dull boom of the cannon, the smoke...it isn't the same, of course, with trees, cars, buildings and such, but...you can get an idea of the distance.
And then, when you visit their home that the lived to the end of their lives in...you see the red chair he sat in for his famous portrait. You see his library, and the books he read. You see the china they ate off, including one crystal piece that had been broken and put back together will metal wire, which tells you something. You look out the windows and you see the fruit trees similar to the ones they likely had.
For me, the sense of history is palpable when I see it. I FEEL it deep in my heart. It isn't just words on paper.
Last year, I visited the museum in downtown Concord, MA. In it, they have one of the two lanterns that were placed in the window of the Old North Church.
I cannot express what I felt as I gazed on that historic artifact. It was deeply emotional for me. Hands had once held that lantern, and placed it in the high steeple of the Old North Church, and set in motion events that changed the world.
As for my favorite Founders? I thought this was a great thread to start, because it occurred to me...I didn't know what the definition of a "Founding Father" was. Someone who signed the Declaration of Independence? That would leave out a lot of people such as Paul Revere. So the more I thought about it, I was impressed with what a wonderful topic it was.
In any case, here are my favorites:
- George Washington. Hands down. I even have a copy of his little book sitting on my office desk that he cobbled together as a young man Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior". In my opinion, George Washington is one of the greatest men to have ever lived.
- John Adams. He was "unloved" but a great man. Under-appreciated in his time, and in history.
- Joseph Warren. What would things have been like if he had lived? A real man.
- Ethan Allen. That man was a dynamo. A real stud with a working brain and a leader of men.
- Patrick Henry. To be so outspoken, when the noose could go around the neck at any time...
- Alexander Hamilton. I know...a Federalist right behind Patrick Henry in this list doesn't seem to fit, but even though he was in favor of a strong federal government, he would be appalled at what we see today, never mind the debt)
- Benjamin Franklin. If I could choose one man who could be transported from the 18th Century into the 21st Century and expect him to be fully functional and engaged, it would be Franklin. I often thought he was America's first hippy, but that is an insult to a hard-working man...:)
Note that I didn't include Jefferson and Madison. Both were talented men with much to admire, but...George Washington saw Jefferson as somewhat of a snake, and for good reason considering the way Jefferson undercut him, painting him anonymously as a doddering, out of touch man during the course of Washington's Presidency. Washington found out Jefferson was the source, let Jefferson know that he knew, and their interactions thereafter and for the rest of their lives were perfunctory and completely cold and professional, by all accounts. I can overlook a lot of things, but one thing I have difficulty countenancing is a lack of loyalty when loyalty is entirely deserved. I admire Jefferson's peerless status as an autodidact, his intellect, and his authorship (with some assistance) of The Declaration of Independence. And I love his foresight in commissioning the Lewis and Clark Expedition. But as a person and a leader, he leaves me cold.
I feel somewhat ambivalent about Madison. The man was exceedingly brilliant, no doubt, as the Federalist Papers clearly convey, but he simply doesn't resonate with me as a leader, he comes across as more of a brainiac of the day.