Regrets
One of my great regrets is not taking an interest in history sooner than I did. I read little as a youngster (I was probably ADHD, but there was no such diagnosis at the time. I simply didn't retain what I read "because I wasn't trying hard enough!")
Consequently, my knowledge of history growing up was something like Dave Barry's who believed that Marco Polo discovered America in three ships the Nina, the Pinta and the Merrimac, where he sailed around Plymouth Rock and there discovered the cotton gin.
As an adult, I've tried to remedy those misconceptions and read "The Age of Federalism" by Elkins and McKittrick and it is amazing how history repeats itself.
To wit: at the time of the first real election in the recently born United States, the Federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton, among others, became very nativist and tried to exclude (and so alienated) the German and Scandinavian immigrants in the western part of the country. (That would be western Pennsylvania and Maryland and parts of Ohio, among others)
The Republicans (no relationship to the party of today) led by Jefferson and Madison, by contrast cultivated a relationship with them and consequently won the election.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
Consequently, my knowledge of history growing up was something like Dave Barry's who believed that Marco Polo discovered America in three ships the Nina, the Pinta and the Merrimac, where he sailed around Plymouth Rock and there discovered the cotton gin.
As an adult, I've tried to remedy those misconceptions and read "The Age of Federalism" by Elkins and McKittrick and it is amazing how history repeats itself.
To wit: at the time of the first real election in the recently born United States, the Federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton, among others, became very nativist and tried to exclude (and so alienated) the German and Scandinavian immigrants in the western part of the country. (That would be western Pennsylvania and Maryland and parts of Ohio, among others)
The Republicans (no relationship to the party of today) led by Jefferson and Madison, by contrast cultivated a relationship with them and consequently won the election.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
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Jan
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Sep 16, 2016 09:40AM
Make that title "Regrets"
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As an historian who is still actively teaching, I wholeheartedly agree with your "regrets." It strikes as somewhat fantastic that people react to the current memes and tropes running through as if these are new and unique!Certainly the elections of 1792 and 96 are wonderful examples (and note that the Federalists who included some of the most revolutionary radicals of the 1770s and 80s...Great read would be "Israel on the Appomattox" which chronicles the slaves freed by the Randolphs in the 1790s-1810s), but each wave of immigration inspires a "nativist" backlash. I place this in quotes because those who recoil are of the same ethnic groups who were found repulsive in the previous episodes.
Consider how the Irish (1840s-50s) were seen (a great book..."When the Irish Became White") by the WASPs of New England and New York. By the time the USA limits European immigration (forget the Root-Takihara 'Gentleman's Agreement' to limit Japanese immigration into California) in the 1920s, the Irish were well entrenched int he power structures if not hte country clubs.
Here's a poseur for you. If the United States Army was sitting in Mexico City in 1846, why did the USA only annex the northern (uninhabited pretty much) section of the country? Why not take over the whole thing? Two simple answers--the Southern States did not want a huge chunk of territory where slavery had been outlawed since the 1820s AND the southern half was well-inhabited by free brown people (mestizos). Neither the Northern states nor the Southern States wanted that.
Great read for that is "Race and Manifest Destiny" by Reginald Horseman.
Finally, I do talk a lot about history in my Goodreads blog. Please check it out.
Don: Thanks so much for the history lesson and the reading suggestions. I recently read "The Human Web." For someone relatively unversed, it strikes me as giving a good generalized background of world history. Yes, good point about the nature of "nativism". Also, "Why Nations Fail", from an economic point of view. Wish I could edit the typo in the title of my post. Will definitely check out yours.
