Lessons From History Biographies

  Dictatorial governments are inherently destructive, and ultimately ineffective.             “As awful as that dictator was, he did get stuff done!” That is a myth that has been used throughout modern times to try to justify the very existence of global autocracies, and one has that sadly grown in stature in recent decades as nations around the world have embraced more authoritarian political movements. After all, democracies and societies devoted to individual freedoms are inherently messy and complicated, and people often grow frustrated with just how slow and unwieldy they can be in responding to crisis. However, the myth that dictatorships are more efficient is largely a product of propaganda, and instead history has shown that these societies contain within them the seeds of their own destruction. Whether it takes months, years, or decades, a government that is run by goons and sycophants who are mostly devoted to tryin...

  Your personal demons and disappointments do not need to define you. Many stories have been told of how important the process of going through failure can be for learning lessons and setting people on a more successful life path. I thought about my own story as I read John Reeves’ latest biography of Ulysses Grant Soldier of Destiny , which focuses on the years from Grant’s embarrassing tenure as a California soldier in the 1850’s, to his ultimate triumphs in the American Civil War. For seven years, my goal in life was to become a full-time History instructor at the community college level, and I kept telling myself that if I stuck to it and kept working hard, I would eventually achieve my dream (all evidence that those jobs are virtually impossible for Social Science instructors to find at community colleges notwithstanding). One day, I was called into an interview for a school I had long worked at, and I drove away from it convinced I had gotten the job and had to start planni...

  Reason and science are vital to humanity’s advancement in politics and society. One of the common questions I get from students whenever we’re learning about the American Revolution is who my favorite Founding Father is. It’s a difficult question to answer that’s fraught with perils, as all the Founding Fathers had major blind spots and failures by modern moral standards, and some of their flaws were truly unforgivable (with all the modern debates over what is and isn’t “woke education,” try to explain with a straight face to a young person of color that they’re supposed to worship Thomas Jefferson as a hero). However, one choice I’ve found myself leaning toward a lot in recent years is Benjamin Franklin, a man who was in some ways very much of his times, and yet was also quite self-aware of that fact and constantly strove to learn and be better. While so many Founders come off today as old, dead, unknowable figures, Franklin’s bright and bouncy personality still shines through t...

Your strength can quickly become your weakness, if you cannot pivot to changing circumstances. Nigel Hamilton’s Lincoln vs. Davis: The War of the Presidents is an intriguing and at times frustrating book, especially if you’re well familiar with the Lincoln presidency and its major outline. The book sells itself as a study of the two leaders’ approaches to war leadership, yet it focuses almost exclusively on the first two years of the war (1860-1862), i.e. the time period when Lincoln often looked like a commander-in-chief who was totally in over his head, while Davis looked like he might very well successfully lead the Confederate States of America in a successful bid for independence. The book is a great read, but also frustrating in how limited its focus is; that said, Hamilton does a superb job in setting up the book’s heel turn in its final section, when Lincoln suddenly pivoted into greatness while Davis floundered his new “country” into oblivion, and that was in how Lincoln rec...

  In a great crisis, flexibility and being able to accept reality are everything.             In our tech-oriented world where people believe whatever story has been liked and shared the most, there seems to be a growing belief that reality really can be whatever we wish it to be. This is a dangerous ignoring of the longstanding historical record, which suggests that eventually actual reality will always come crashing in around you, often in a sudden and destructive fashion. The most spectacular global crisis in history was full of such examples, and these are chronicled in Phillips O’Brien’s excellent new book The Strategists , which chronicles the background and military strategies of World War II’s titans—FDR, Churchill, Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini. All of these men, to one degree or another, were shaped by the trauma of World War I, and all took away very different lessons from their experiences—some of which helped the...

  Being overly certain of your own morality is a recipe for disaster.     One historical figure I have long been curious to learn more about is Nat Turner, the famous slave who in 1831 launched a bloody rebellion against the white slave-owners in rural Virginia, a failed rebellion that had seismic consequences in the politics and worldview of the South. Nat Turner--Black Prophet is a curious book in a variety of ways. It was begun by Professor Anthony Kaye back in the 2010's, and in the wake of his death it was finished years later by Professor Gregory Downs (of my own U.C. Davis). It's a book that reads like a standard History book when discussing Nat's origins and legacy, as well as the culture in which he lived. But when discussing Nat's own personal beliefs and visions, it dives deep into Biblical analysis, so much so that it often reads much more like a Religious Studies text. The authors argue that approach is vital for truly understanding Nat's motivations, a...