(HOST) Recent events have inspired commentator and Vermont Humanities Council executive director Peter Gilbert to think about how history informs the way we makes sense of the present.
(GILBERT) I’m struck by how often these days the news brings history to mind. The election, the new administration, the economy – they all invoke historical memory. And that helps us put daily events in perspective, helps us make sense of them – at least temporarily – until the passage of time converts current events that we’re living through into history.
This recession invokes historical memory, making us think of the Great Depression. Some of us have personal memories of it, others know it through inherited stories, things we’ve read, photos and film we’ve seen. We ask ourselves how close the analogy is between then and now. We ask, how is that aspect of the past like and unlike some aspect of the present? How much does that bit of history help us understand the present, and where does the analogy break down? Because every analogy, like every simile or metaphor, takes you only so far before that comparison between unlike things leads you not toward greater understanding, but away from it.
Other recent reminders of history: on the 67th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor President-Elect Obama named Eric Shinseki, the first Asian American four-star general in American history, as his Secretary for Veterans’ Affairs. And we’re about to witness the swearing in of our first African American president – a man from the Land of Lincoln in the bicentennial year of the Great Emancipator’s birth.
We’re offended by recent allegations of brazen corruption in Illinois – because they betray our aspirations for our country, ideals that come from the mixture of history, literature, ethics, religion and art that constitutes the humanities. But the good news here is that such allegations do offend us. That means that idealism is alive and that the lessons we’ve taken from an imperfect past don’t deter us from imagining a better future.
I’ve been especially struck by the fact that the next president’s administration may be dramatically affected by, of all things, a history book. Just three years ago, Doris Kearns Goodwin published a terrific book about Lincoln’s political genius. The timeliness of her book and the power of her thesis about how Lincoln formed his cabinet may have caused President Elect Obama to follow, to one degree or another, a similar strategy as Lincoln and create in his advisors a similar "team of rivals." And the influence comes not so much from Lincoln’s actions themselves, but from a historian writing about them.
In difficult days such as these, but also days rich in meaning and hope, people yearn for understanding, solace, meaning, and connections with others. For that reason and many others, more people are visiting their community living room – the local library. People are also reading more for many reasons, but it makes sense: after all, books are the principal storage places for ideas and information, feelings and experience. And so in these challenging but exciting times, we need these things and community more than ever.