A lesson learned from THE EXPLORERS, by Amanda Bellows

The modern world was paved by invisible heroes.

          One of the historical trends that has fallen out of fashion in recent decades, was the old obsession with what was known as the “Great Man” theory of History. Early historians of ancient and medieval times were pioneers of the notion of researching and understanding past peoples, but they also gravitated to the notion that only daring and charismatic leaders could move the needle of History, and that we are all just doomed to live forever in the shadows of their achievements. Historians of recent decades have focused much more on the lives of ordinary people through the ages, and how much their movements and contributions were essential to actually enacting the ideas of the so-called “Great Men.” Amanda Bellows’ light, highly readable survey of The Explorers: A New History of America in Ten Expeditions, details the stories of ten relatively ordinary Americans who played a massive, largely unheralded role in pushing the nation forward into new and unknown frontiers, and whose achievements were often buried by “Great Men” who took all the credit for their expeditions.

            Bellows does include well-known historical explorers whose names still echo in History books, notably John Muir and Amelia Earhart, pioneers of environmental preservation and aviation respectively. Even as the most famous and beloved of the explorers covered in the book, both Muir and Earhart had to overcome major cultural obstacles to achieve what they did. Muir had an early illness that left him nearly blind, and faced a general national contempt in the late 1800’s for the whole notion there was any inherent value in the natural world. Earhart faced both a general belief that women could not handle the stress of flight, and an entire plane cockpit design that was inherently uncomfortable for a woman (she had to get creative with her bathroom use).

            Perhaps even more fascinating than Muir and Earhart are all the other explorers Bellows studies who are less well known to general audiences. Nearly all Americans have heard of Sacagawea, and the assistance she gave in aiding the success of Lewis and Clark’s grand expedition through the Louisiana Purchase. Less well known is what a difficult life she led, from being sold into slavery at a young age and forced to bear her captor’s children, to trying to raise said child on the expedition while she was dealing with various physical ailments. In spite of these traumas, she risked her life on numerous occasions for the expedition, and earned the gratitude and respect of her far more famous expedition leaders. Many have heard of the famous black North Pole explorer Matthew Henson; not as many know of the life of intense poverty and discrimination he faced, even after his famous exploits (Henson’s fellow white explorer Robert Peary claimed all the glory at the time for the North Pole’s discovery, and he referred to his very-much-equal partner as his “faithful colored boy” for the contemporary racist media). Many have heard of the famous writer Laura Wilder, but her stories of survival on the American prairie are a testament to the myth of “rugged individualism” which still plagues American life; the famous cowboys of the prairies could have never survived their exploits without the invisible labor of all the women who sustained them, as Wilder herself helped her struggling community in North Dakota to survive the harsh winters of the late 1800’s. One of the “explorers” whose story I knew the least about prior to reading Bellows’ book was the fascinating Florence Bailey, a Gilded Age writer who launched a crusade to save the decimated bird populations of North America, which had partly been destroyed by Gilded Age fashions that demanded a heavy use of feathers in all designs. Bellows ends her book with the first woman astronaut Sally Ride, conquered the vastness of space while keeping secret her status as a lesbian, which would have disqualified her from such a position back in the 1980’s.

            Overall, Bellows’ book is a fascinating survey of ordinary people who pushed themselves into extraordinary achievements, often while never getting the acknowledgement that the white male leaders of their eras received. It’s not a particularly deep book, but it is a great jumping off point for anyone who wants to do more of a deep dive into some of the great explorers of History. Most of us may never be destined to be “Great Men,” but we can all still move the needle of History in a positive way just by following our daily passions to try and better the world, even if it’s just one rescued bird at a time.