American Presidents and Politicians on Memorial Day

Somehow it seems fitting to be looking at two new books that discuss American values and history on this Memorial Day holiday. Both are fairly scholarly in tone and while they focus on past events, their authors’ intent is to instruct, inform and to draw lessons for today.

The Jefferson Rule by David Sehat, an Associate Professor of History at Georgia State University, spans American history and argues that rather than exploiting and blithely quoting the Founders, our contemporary politicians should be engaging in more meaningful evaluation of policy. In an accessible way, he describes the partisanship of the Founders -- actually not a very coherent group and certainly not infallible.  Sehat deplores over-reliance on their writings and cites examples from the Civil War, New Deal, Reagan Revolution and Obama presidency. At one point, Sehat quotes Tony Judt: “The historian’s task is to tell what is almost always an uncomfortable story and [to] explain why the discomfort is part of the truth we need to live well…”

Published by Simon & Schuster, The Jefferson Rule received starred reviews from Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews and has a short video intro here. Although some students may not yet have enough background to fully appreciate Sehat’s many historical references, this title is worth considering as a required summer read for AP US History.

JFK and LBJ: The Last Two Great Presidents is written by Godfrey Hodgson, a British journalist who spent years as a White House correspondent and has authored numerous books about American politics. In this publication from Yale University Press, Hodgson argues that JFK’s reputation has been inflated and that Johnson’s reputation has been downplayed and as I read, I immediately thought of applying a similar argument to the contrast in how Americans tend to view Jefferson and Hamilton.  Although biased in his view, Hodgson nevertheless provides many details and close to 30 pages of footnotes while juxtaposing the strong personalities and many accomplishments of these two twentieth-century Presidents.  

Both of these titles encourage us to actively engage with history, looking through additional perspectives and reflecting this Memorial Day on the proverb: He who tells the story rules the world.

Dollbaby: a novel by Laura Lane McNeal

I just finished a debut novel which has been compared to Saving CeeCee Honeycutt and The Help. It is a coming of age story about Ibby Bell who, after her father dies suddenly, is left at at her paternal grandmother's home in New Orleans in 1964. On the author's extensive web site, Laura Lane McNeal says: Dollbaby is … "a story of a way of life that no longer exists but needs to be told…. It is the story of New Orleans, where you learn to dance, even when there is no music."

The author goes on to extol the "shared culture" that she says is unique to New Orleans, implying that people of many races have long blended together. However, I was troubled by the dialogue in Dollbaby, especially the emphasis on speech patterns for the African American characters, but not so much for other (white) Southerners who were featured in the novel.  Maybe this was done for a purpose – after all, there was quite a bit of scholarly research on this vernacular English, beginning in the 1960's and continuing with the "Ebonics" debate in the 1990's.   It is one thing to read dialogue by Lorraine Hansberry or Zora Neale Hurston or works by Langston Hughes or August Wilson, but in this novel, I thought that comments by Queenie, Dollbaby and Birdelia felt awkward and unnatural -- at least as contrasted with dialogue from other characters. 

I did, though, definitely appreciate the attempts at weaving in historical facts such as Johnson's speech about the Civil Rights Act of 1964:

 

I would encourage any students reading Dollbaby to read or watch the speech (another excerpt is available here), especially since we are celebrating its 50th anniversary as this novel is being published.   In order to further appreciate the times, they should look at the photo montage from that era recently uploaded by the Kansas City Star. It would also be really interesting to explore the archives at Tulane University (where some of the novel is set) for local newspaper coverage from the time. Dollbaby refers to other national events occurring in 1968 and 1972, although in less detail. In her online book group guide, Laura Lane McNeal raises questions about the "political realities [that] trickle down to the personal ones." I wish that idea had been developed even more deeply in her novel and will be curious to see what other readers think.

If you read Dollbaby and are interested in learning more, the Civil Rights Digital Archive has compiled information from numerous Universities about Freedom Summer.  See especially http://crdl.usg.edu/events/civil_rights_act_1964/?Welcome&Welcome and http://crdl.usg.edu/events/freedom_summer/

Here are several more links related to Freedom Summer (1964) and the Civil Right Movement:

• Library of Congress:  http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/civilrights/external.html

• PBS: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/further-reading/freedomsummer-furtherreading/   OR http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/primary-resources/lbj-civilrights/

• UVA’s Miller Center: http://millercenter.org/presidentialclassroom/exhibits/civil-rights-act with full text of Johnson’s speech: http://millercenter.org/president/speeches/detail/3525

Post script added August 4th: I just finished Secret of Magic by Deborah Johnson and will be recommending it to others. The writing is truly lyrical - there is a sense of magic throughout the book and an understanding of Mississippi in the mid-1940s.  Like Jordan's Mudbound, this deals with prejudice and struggles for returning soldiers and their families. However, it also weaves in a children's book and tales of an earlier murder, all of which are explored by a new associate of Thurgood Marshall, Miss Regina Robichard and the fledgling NAACP.