THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY OF HISTORY

 As I mentioned in an earlier essay, Douglas Murray is one of my favorite social critics. He possesses a sharp intellect, dry writ, a mischievous smile, and the ability to get to the heart of the matter at hand. Just recently I came across on YouTube a series he hosts called “Uncensored History.” Each episode of the series deals with one historical figure or group as Murray interviews a historian as they attempt, quite successfully I believe, to put that person or persons in a proper historical perspective. Therefore, I highly recommend “Uncensored History” to any serious student of history.

To date, I have watched two episodes- Winston Churchill in which Murray interviews Churchill biographer Andrew Roberts and Robert E. Lee in which Murray interviews Lee biographer Jonathan Horn. Rather than attempt to “whitewash” their subjects, Murray and the biographers analyze their subjects into a prism of what I call “the good, the bad, and the ugly” of history. Simply put, all historical figures are a rich and complex blend of good and bad characteristics, motives, and actions with all-too-often ugly outcomes. But such historical analysis must be based on facts, not myths.

For example, sustained criticisms of Churchill are fueled by two myths- his supposedly highhanded putdown of a Welsh miners strike in 1912 while he was British Home Secretary and three decades later, his supposed inaction during a famine in India while Prime Minister. In Lee’s case he did little to help restore the Union following the Civil War. I will direct the astute reader to Roberts’s and Horn’s biographies respectively for full discussions dispelling these myths.

Rather than dive into a sustained study of both Churchill and Lee, I will now identify and described albeit briefly several ideas I pulled from these two episodes. These ideas are-

o   BEWARE OF IDEOLOGY- All of us have biases and if we are not careful, our biases in the study of history will lead us to confirm “what we already know” about the past rather than opening us into new vistas of learning. In my own case, I had a negative view of Ronald Reagan. I had thought of Reagan as a kind of “simpleton.” I held that view all through Reagan’s presidency until I read Lou Cannon’s masterful Reagan: Role of a Lifetime and then his Governor Reagan. I now consider Reagan to be one of our top ten presidents.

 

o   EDUCATE YOURSELF BROADLY NOT NARROWLY- Andrew Roberts during the Churchill episode particularly lamented the demise of the general reader and the rise of over-specialization. This situation is directly related to the hedgehog/fox dichotomy I have described in previous essays. We can be focused on a career without being overly narrowly devoted to one’s career to the exclusion of all other interests.  Churchill was not only a politician he also authored about three dozen books and was awarded a Nobel Prize in Literature. And in 1947, he recorded a conversation he had with his then decreased father. At the end of their meeting Churchill realized that his father departed thinking his son was only a painter (which he was). In Lee’s case he began as a military engineer, then became an army commander, and when he died was a college president expanding the curriculum to fit the needs of the students.

 

o   THERE ARE INDEED GREAT MEN (AND WOMEN) IN HISTORY- Historical events are not always driven by impersonal forces that rarely are adequately explained. These situations are usually the products of deterministic and scientific theories of history that speak with a Marxist twang. Great men and women do exist and assist in historic change in human events. Assist is the operative word here. Even Churchill and Lincoln, for example, had essential help in the great crusades they led, free the world of Nazi tyranny and preserve the Federal Union and end slavery, respectively.

 

o   HISTORY IS NOT JUST ABOUT OUR SUCCESSES, BUT ALSO OUR MISTAKES AND WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED- History is not a dream land filled with fairies and unicorns (bad humor aside); it is nuanced, contradictory, and messy. Humans are all flawed and are described as essentially sinful through Christian theology. So, all our heroes are imperfect and often accomplish great feats with mixed motives. Lee was wrong in the side he chose in the Civil War but was not entirely evil, and it is wrong for us supposedly “enlightened” persons to eradicate all memories of him and others we nitpick in our objections to them and their actions and policies. Edmund Burke was correct in his warning to his contemporaries in the 18^th century and future generations- “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.”

 

History is indeed the canvas on which our lives are richly portrayed. Some of the events are portrayed by “etch-n-sketch”, others through “paint-by-the-numbers”, while some are painted by the masters. Nevertheless, all blend together to help us walk into the future with both confidence and humility.