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| From the Editor |
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Every teacher knows that a novel can
sometimes convey the mood and spirit of a historical era
or event more powerfully than a textbook. And every teacher
also knows that some novels have even made history.
These are books that every student ought to read. In this
issue, History Now focuses on six “books
that changed history,” placing each one in its historical
context and suggesting why it remains relevant today.
You are likely to be familiar with most of these books—perhaps
one of them is your favorite novel. We hope you will enjoy
what our scholars have to say about the authors, the characters,
and the historical moment that these books capture on
every page.
In “The Scarlet Letter and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s
America,” Brenda Wineapple examines the enduring
popularity of a book that is in many ways alien in its
pacing and its language to modern sensibilities. Yet students
quickly get caught up in this tale of love and secrets
and an extraordinary woman’s honor as Hawthorne
makes a distant past come alive. In “Uncle Tom’s
Cabin and the Matter of Influence,” Hollis
Robbins helps us understand why a book that is not a literary
masterpiece can nevertheless have enduring importance
in our national consciousness. While Harriet Beecher Stowe’s
account of slavery may not have started a civil war, it
certainly brought into sharp relief the sectional differences
between North and South. We can learn much about attitudes
of the day by examining the reasons why some ‘cussed’
and some praised this tale of cruelty, devotion, and the
enduring human desire for freedom. In “Rethinking
Huck” Steven Mintz suggests why generations of young
people—and older ones as well—love to travel
the Mississippi with Huckleberry Finn. Not only does Mark
Twain create a brilliant portrait of American society
in the pre Civil War era, he gives us a pair of unlikely
heroes whose adventures are, as Mintz notes, the first
in a long line of “buddy stories.” If the
book is laced with humor it is also a serious critique
of racism and it reminds us how difficult the path to
self-discovery can be. Perhaps the most famous expose
of corruption and abuse of the public’s trust is
Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. In “The
Jungle and the Progressive Era” Robert Cherny
takes a close look at the muckraking journalism of the
Progressive era and at the conditions in factories, government,
and cities that prompted reformers like Sinclair to expose
the many pressing social problems to the public. Cherny
points out how difficult it was for Sinclair to find a
publisher for his story of an immigrant family whose hopes
and dreams are dashed by the realities of industrializing
America. In “F.Scott Fitzgerald and the Age of Excess”
Joshua Zeitz analyzes the book that best captured the
highs—and lows—of the ‘roaring twenties.’
In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald central character
embodies both the ambition, the excesses, and the superficiality
of the era; in his essay, Zeitz explains the rapid growth
and underlying weaknesses of the era as well as its abrupt
end in the Great Depression. Finally, Timothy Aubry examines
a book that every teenager has probably read and identified
with: J.D. Salinger’s story of Holden Caulfield’s
odyssey in search of an authentic self. In “The
Catcher in the Rye: The Voice of Alienation,”
Aubry explains the lasting appeal of this classic tale
of a sensitive misfit who refuses to grow up in a world
whose values he rejects. Aubry carefully places Holden
Caulfield’s private rebellion in the context of
America in the 1950s, an age of optimism and anxiety,
and an era of contradictions.
As always, our master teachers have provided innovative
and thought provoking lesson plans for elementary, middle
school and high school level students and our archivist
Mary-Jo Kline has compiled a long list of additional resources
for you. Our interactive feature provides a striking visual
exploration of antebellum America through illustrations
of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel.
We hope this issue will prompt you to pack one or two—or
all—of these great books in you suitcase wherever
you are headed for your summer vacation!
Carol Berkin
Editor, History Now
Carol Berkin is Presidential Professor of History
at Baruch College and The Graduate Center, City University
of New York. She is the author of several books including
Jonathan Sewall: Odyssey of an American Conservative,
First Generations: Women in Colonial America, A Brilliant
Solution: Inventing the American Constitution, and
Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's
Independence.
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Editor - Carol Berkin, Associate Editor - Lesley S. Herrmann,
Managing Editor - Karina Gaige, Associate Managing Editor -
Brendan Hughes, Designer - Daniel Ross, Archivist - Mary-Jo
Kline, Contributors - Timothy Aubry, Robert Cherny, Steven Mintz,
Hollis Robbins, Brenda Wineapple, Joshua Zeitz.
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