History All Around

On second thought

Posted by John Dickson in Personal memory on August 25, 2011

Saw this verse in a poem which should give pause to those of us who want to travel back in time.

“The past is a cannibal country Where only the dead are happy Those who go there on a journey Return hollow eyed and beaten. Some stay there, And are eaten.” The Travel Advisory, by Michael Perkins

However, I will interpret this as having more to do with personal memories, and not history, so back to the time capsule.

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Why are battlefield sites so peaceful

Posted by John Dickson in Brown Signs, Colonial, History in our surroundings on August 12, 2011

Ever heard of the Battle of Hubbardton? Neither had I, until this past weekend when driving south in Vermont we came upon the “brown sign.” Turns out, it is the only battle fought “entirely in Vermont” during the Revolutionary War. The “entirely” is important since within a month there was a second battle in Bennington, Vermont in the southwestern corner of the state, bordering Massachusetts and New York. Turns out, as well, that it was a pivotal battle on July 7, 1777 to forestall the British in their march from Ticonderoga, in their belief that they could contain the revolution to the rebellious New England colonies by controlling the Hudson and cutting them off from New York and all points south. Or, at least that’s what we read in the clean and informative visitor center.

I have found over many years of reading history the difficulty of conveying the unrolling of a battle through the printed word. Too many groupings, elements and terrain leave me confused. Hubbardton was no different, but they did have a relief map with lights which lit up as the taped narrator walked the observers through the chronology of the colonists holding the ridge, then giving way, but seeing a vulnerable opening in the British flank which did allow them to achieve one objective of delaying the British advance south.

Moving from that well-designed explanation to the actual site proved a setback, as we tried to imagine troop movements coming from which valley? Proceeding to which points on the ridge and down which hill and where was the log/brush fence?

It didn’t matter to us, since we were more interested in the beautiful scenery on a summer Sunday looking out over the forests and the hills. The only sounds were the wind through the trees, an occasional bird, and our voices.

It was so serene it was hard to imagine the fog of war where we standing no matter how long ago, and how quickly the battle transpired on just one morning. The fact that over 100 soldiers died where we were walking added an eerie presence to the serenity. The field becomes less a battlefield than a cemetery.

This calm proved no different from other battlefields I have visited, like Gettysburg or Little Bighorn or Isandlwana in South Africa.

We learned there is a large reenactment at Hubbardton every year, and since next year is the 240^th anniversary, the congregating reenactors will reach the hundreds.

Given the deaths on the battlefield, shouldn’t there be a memorial service instead?

The view from Monument Hill, with battlefield visitor center. Hubbardton, Vermont

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Golden Eras

Posted by John Dickson in History in our surroundings, International on July 20, 2011

A funny thing happened on the way back to the Golden Era. In fact many funny things, since one way back became the story line in Midnight in Paris, a Woody Allen movie. The main character in this story, a Hollywood screen writer who travels to Paris with his fiancé in 2010, is able to transport himself back to his vision of the Golden Era – Paris in the 1920s with its cultural, expatriate scene.

The movie certain portrayed an exceptional Golden Era. Hemingway and the Fitzgeralds, partying with Cole Porter, Picasso and Gertrude Stein and Salvador Dali. Exciting, young, energetic, late nights, cafes, dancing and drinking and discussing writing and painting abstract expressionism.

The funny thing was that the young screen writer met and fell in love with a woman muse from that era, but she had a her own concept of the Golden Era – Paris at the turn of the century with Toulouse Lautrec and Degas and Gaugin. They, too, whom the couple met, had their idea of the Golden Era and then the young screen writer moved to the logical conclusion that every era will think back to an earlier one and romanticize it as a Golden Era.

My own Golden Era? Several. Pre-Kennedy assassination 1960s. Or, revolutionary Boston. Westward expansion into Ohio and Kentucky. Times filled with hope and confidence, new ideas that mattered and hard work with a purpose.

What are yours?

These remain, though, nothing but romance, glossing over other uncomfortable realities about those eras. The movie’s protagonist admits to having a nightmare of living in a time without anti-depressants and antibiotics.

Still, one has to wonder. Will these years be viewed as anyone’s Golden Era? It’s hard to imagine. Where’s the romance in 140 characters of Twitter, self-absorbed blogs (like this one!) or deleted e-mails? Where are the new ideas and ambitious undertakings when our government is hopelessly in debt and incapable of addressing our inability to fund projects that will carry the next generation.

You want bold ideas and projects? Go to China. We just came back from our first trip to China, and would have never gone were our daughter not living there. It is hard to miss the double BOOM going on there. One the day we left, they were inaugurating the longest bridge over salt water in the world and a high speed train between Beijing and Shanghai.

Of course, the trade-off is that they can ignore delaying criticism of the projects, such as environmental or structural safety issues. No need to consult with all the stakeholders, residents, or taxpayers.

Still, one does get the strong sense that our moment has passed. We have passed the torch to a new generation, and we have built a bridge to the 21st century. It’s just that they both are in China. The Golden Era, but they would probably give it another term, like the Era of Heavenly Rejuvenation.

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What’s Your Linden Oak?

Posted by John Dickson in History in our surroundings on June 14, 2011

photo credit: JDickson

I rode the Washington Metro to work for several years, slogging it from the Maryland suburbs to downtown DC. My stop was Grosvenor, just past the Medical Center (NIH) station. Between those two stations, the track comes out from the underground, and then it makes an odd curve. When I did think of it (which was hardly ever,) I assumed the curve followed the road, Rockville Pike, an extension of Wisconsin Avenue. Until last weekend.

On a jog around the neighborhood, a friend pointed out a historic marker on the side of the road and told the brief story of Linden Oak. The original plans for the Metro had the Red Line going right through this old white oak tree, which was older than the country. A local politician and activist led a fight to preserve the tree, and you guessed it, the Metro designers changed the course of the Red Line to include an odd curve going around the tree.

The white oak is the official state tree for Maryland, so designated because of the Wye Oak which had reached an age of over 450 years. Still, it was the Linden Oak which earned the honors of the Bicentennial Tree in 1976, perhaps because of its association as a protest tree. More recently, it has surpassed the Wye Oak which was toppled by a storm in 2002. So the Linden Oak, a babe not quite 300 eyars old, is now the largest and oldest white oak tree in the state.

Of equal interest may be the career of Idamae Garrott, the politician instrumental for saving the tree. She won terms as a County Council member and state legislator in both the House and the Senate. Her obit in the local paper gives a flavor of her energy, her political style (“paralysis by analysis”) and her tenacity serving the county for over 40 years. Yet, her obit makes no mention of the “Linden Oak.” It had to have been just one small paragraph in a long book of legislative struggles at the local level.

What’s striking is history finding its way into the most random of places, unobserved and unknown by the thousands of passers-by, every single day. A history of a tree, of a civic activist, of a major urban transportation system.

It gives us pause. How many of these stories surround us? How many times during the course of the day do we pass by a spot which may or may not have a marker, but certainly has a compelling story? What’s your Linden Oak?

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If Only the English Had Listened to Paul Revere

Posted by John Dickson in Colonial, Public Affairs on June 7, 2011

We all make mistakes. Some of us have an easier time admitting that we made them though. Some of us are in the national spotlight and are making mistakes to stake out an exclusive claim on our nation’s independence heroes for our own political ends.

Cue Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann, two prominent political figures. Does it matter that they are on the right of the political spectrum? Actually, it probably does since they both channel the colonists who engaged in the 1775 tea party to demand liberty.

In mid-May, Minnesota Congresswoman Michell Bachmann was “not” campaigning in New Hampshire which traditionally holds the first Presidential primary elections, tried to ingratiate herself with the local crowd by saying “You’re the state where the shot was heard around the world in Lexington and Concord.”

A few weeks later, former Alaska Governor and VICE-PRESIDENTIAL candidate (!) Sarah Palin was also “not” campaigning in Boston when she tried to re-write the role of Paul Revere in claiming our liberty this way: “He who warned the British that they weren’t going to be taking away our arms, by ringing those bells, and making sure as he’s riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be secure and we were going to be free.”

It’s great material for John Stewart or David Letterman. They might even say it’s too easy for them.

Their followers try to deflect, by saying these missteps do not really matter; that the liberal media is out to “get” them while giving Barack Obama a pass. Most likely, colleagues on their side of the political aisle are fuming, as these gaffes detract from serious candidates who have announced they are running for President.

It would be interesting to imagine members of their staffs, trying to prep and brief them for their next non-campaign stops. They will either have bookmarked Wiki-Pedia to get the latest tidbits of history in each stop or they are carrying around with them a seventh grade U.S. history textbook, maybe even copies of Scholastic magazine.

And, it would be more than entertaining if the other Wiki (of leaks fame) could dredge up some of the cables from other countries’ embassies in the U.S. so that we could see how they are trying to interpret the politics of our next Presidential election.

Here’s how the cable might read from the UK Embassy: “So Paul Revere was warning us? If only we knew? Had we listened and just allowed them to keep their guns for hunting, North America still might be our colonial empire.”

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