Schama Was Here, But Will He Return?
Seattlest saw British historian Simon Schama speak Friday night at Town Hall. The format was a interview, sort of, by some lady from the Seattle Times, who basically prompted Schama to summarize his new book.
That part was pretty boring.
Rather a waste of the man's brilliant, incisive mind (best revealed, in our view, in his amazing meditation on nature, Landscape and Memory), having him give a verbal abstract of his book.
But Schama offered some brilliant digressions during the q&a (despite the best efforts of his narcissistic questioners, which we will describe below). Notably his contention, in a discussion of founding father hagiography, that "history should never be used for feel-good thumbsucking." He also compared the Bush administration to a "Hanoverian oligarchy" (a comparison that is both unexpected and, to us, completely incomprehensible). And he wore hot red kicks.
The book--it's called Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution--surveys the heretofore undertold story of black American slaves who fought with the Loyalists during the Revolutionary War because the British promised them freedom. Those who got it faced a difficult transition. Some felt as if the British reneged on promises of resettlement, a feeling shared by a later generation of freed slaves, after the Civil War. The 18th century freedmen and women did not, unfortunately, coin a memorable slogan like "Where's my forty acres and a mule?" So it's left to Schama to tell their story, from diaries and reminiscences. We just started the book and it's fabu.
After the summary, the audience got to ask questions. This was a mistake. We, as an audience, had an average IQ of 12. Here are some phrases that should not appear in a well-crafted question:
"I love talk radio"
"And yet"
"I wonder if"
And our personal bane, "I guess my question is." If you have to guess at your own question, maybe you ought not be asking it.
Questioner #1 was an emotional black woman who, after five minutes of personal essay, asked if white people will ever understand the effects of slavery. (Schama argued that it might help if whites read about it.)
Questioner #2 was a former history teacher who recounted his dramatic personal story in trying to teach unvarished history to youngsters. Perhaps, sir, but need kindergartners really know about the syphillis epidemic of 1582? Schama sidelined into a discussion of the study of the past, ending with an spontaneous appeal to the audience to join him in launching a campaign to ban the term "social studies."
Questioner #4 was former Monorail board member Cleve Stockmeyer, who evidently fills his considerable free time composing long-winded "questions" that are really condemnations of the Bush administration. He even turned to the audience, as if he were filling some great public need. Preaching to the choir just a bit, we think. He proposed that America doesn't always live up to its democratic ideals. Schama challenged him, asserting, "You could say that about any country."
After the questioning came the book signing. We skipped out, but suspect that Schama faced yet more babbling from the riff-raff. Don't let anyone tell you that being a public intellectual is easy.
Digression--this, from a New Yorker review of Rough Crossings by historian Jill Lepore, may be our favorite lead of a book review ever:
What with the noise, the heat, and the danger of being forced back into slavery, sometimes it’s good to get out of the city. Such, at least, was the assessment of Harry Washington, who, in July of 1783, made his way to the salty, sunbaked docks along New York’s East River and boarded the British ship L’Abondance, bound for Nova Scotia.
