History Tour

In Alaska you can drive for two solid days and still be there. I’ve visited three states on an afternoon errand out here. My routines regularly take me through Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York and I can’t list the number of times the event being discussed on my lecture took place on the geography out my windshield. It’s like being on one of those virtual adventures at Disney World. While cruising down I-91 in Massachusetts one day listening to the chapter on the Deerfield Massacre of 1704, I crossed the Deerfield River. If you stop and look you can find places where all you see is the river and the trees over it and you can almost see the French and Indians coming through them.

I have to go through Enfield, Connecticut to get to the airport. This, I’ve learned, is where Jonathan Edwards gave his famous “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” sermon in 1741. Not a happy thought for a sinner on the way to the airport, but one of the more significant events in American cultural history. Edwards was pretty much responsible for the first Great Awakening which set our society on the course of religious nutbag-ism which remains to this day.

Of course, the Great Awakening also sparked the founding of many venerable colleges including Dartmouth, whose medical center takes care of me and my family. Praise the Lord and pass the penicillin.

The town I live in was founded in 1753 by people still loyal to the king of England. Sometimes I walk along the stone fenced roads they and their children and grandchildren built and try to imagine their lives. Impossible. If you’ve ever picked up twelve rocks in a row all you can do as you stroll by mile after mile of stacked stone wall is marvel. And what did they do after a day of clearing stones? Did they go home and discuss the latest radical notions of Thomas Paine and Sam Adams around the supper table? Or did they rub some balm on their backs and just pray things wouldn’t get any worse with the King?

In Alaska you can easily find places to stand that are still so raw and untouched that you might imagine that you are the first person to ever stand there. I used to do that a lot. I think that must be a younger man’s thrill.

In New England you can easily find places to stand that are so surrounded by the fruits of the labors of those who came before you, if you stand there long enough, you can imagine ever single person who did. That may be a middle-aged history geek’s thrill, but it’s also a heck of way to get to know your country.

As heard on The Bob Edwards Show on XM/Sirius Radio July 1, 2005