Books 2021: An Antidote to Our Culture of Historical Ignorance

Author: Barbara Tuchman

Review by: Phil Bolton, founder and publisher emeritus, Global Atlanta

Phil Bolton at his home in Avondale Estates

To deal with the scourge of the COVID pandemic, I took up walking to and through Legacy Park on the outskirts of downtown Decatur. One day on my way there, I came across one of those small pop-up “take-a-book-for-free” libraries nestled in a tranquil copse next to a trickling stream.

And there it was amidst an array of nature books for children: “Practicing History,” a compendium of essays by the historian Barbara Tuchman. The cover’s deep red brick veneer had an academic cast and its portrayal of the Delphic Sibyl from the Sistine Chapel warned that those who pass this way may never be the same again.

I felt as if I had come across an archaeological find, a sort of time capsule containing the wit and wisdom of one of the foremost historians of our time, known for her classic Pulitzer-prize-winning entries including “The Guns of August,” which outlined the foibles and idiocies of dynasties caught in the historic webs leading to the devastation and horror of World War I.

The essays in “Practicing History” were written in the decade from 1963 to 1973 and display the fruit of her development from a novice reporter to one of the most celebrated historians of her time. Her range is astounding. Her focus is not only on the rapture of studying history but on the challenges of providing a comprehensive awareness of the context of historic events and the individuals dealing with them.

It’s not the sort of book that can be read in a single sitting. Rather, its depth and insight should be ingested slowly. I could only wish that some of our policy makers had been force fed its contents over the years. If they had actually responded to it our entanglement in Vietnam, all the military missteps that have followed in its wake may have taken a different cast.

But these historical essays are in a sense ageless. At a time when dialog in the U.S. is marked by so-called “cancel culture” that often stifles discussion, we would do well to resurrect Tuchman’s brilliant intellect and apply her dogged pursuit of perspective to the warp and woof of today’s historical debates.

Those who ignore her wise gaze and analysis of the lessons of history may be doomed to relive its curses. They also will miss an enthralling visit to the past and a sustaining vision of a hopeful future for the United States.