Did you know that thirteen of the first fifteen United States presidents owned slaves?   This stat is quite well-known among historians,  but perhaps not so much by the general public.   Thanks to former First Lady Michelle Obama,  we now also know that slaves built the White House.   But did you know that most early First Ladies felt compelled to supplement the household expense budget  (doled out by a parsimonious Congress)  with their own “servants” from home? The fact of

I don’t have any verified homesteaders in my family tree  –  well, maybe a few  –  but it is always tempting in times like these to compare the current challenges to what our pioneer fore-fathers actually endured. I’ve always taken solace from historical comparisons,  but as a historian,  I have to admit we’ve never seen anything like this. Since the first ill-fated cruise ship arrived in port with quarantined passengers,  I’ve been collecting clippings and scouring the inter

I belong to an alumni association which is more social club than academic,  and was reminded recently of our penchant for creating what we lovingly call “new old traditions”.   In other words,  making it up as we go along.   The book that brought back these fond memories is  “Inventing American Tradition  –  From the Mayflower to Cinco de Mayo”  by Jack David Eller.   (Reaktion Books, London, 2018)   Of course,  the book is a great deal more serious than we ever were,  but it

As a historian I recognize that every generation thinks that the next is going to hell in a hand-basket.   I personally was raised with constant admonitions about how easy I had it compared to my parents’ generation which spent their childhood in the Great Depression and came of age during World War II. In the current context I am certainly not comparing my coddled Boomer upbringing with what has come to be known as the Greatest Generation,   or the pioneers who braved the un

It is embarrassing to open a sentence with,  “I was taught”.   I like to think of myself as a free-thinker even in my developmental years,   but a headline in today’s news triggered the phrase,   and I just can’t shake it. With the commemorations last fall of the 100th Anniversary of WWI Armistice,   many learned historians and pundits have chimed in with fresh looks at “what we were taught”  (sometimes known as revisionist history)  which challenge long-held beliefs.   On th

I have history envy.   I doubt that it’s a very widespread malady, though possibly infectious.   Therefore, in the public interest I have compiled a list of symptoms to watch for: I often wonder what it would be like to go to work in a historic building situated on a narrow cobblestone street just steps from the first capitol of the state of Missouri (in St. Charles), as a colleague of mine does.   We’re talking late 18th-early 19th century here.   The Missouri River flows ri

Two hundred years after the first Pilgrims, Dutch East Indian employees and English Cavaliers arrived on these shores (and began the long, agonizing process of wresting it from its original owners)  90% of the non-Indian population still lived within 50 miles of tidewater.   Despite America’s well-known penchant for looking westward, we actually have a long tradition of facing East, across the Atlantic, back to the old country. The reason is, we depended upon Europe for every

Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, Toni Morrison, has admitted in interviews that she writes the story she would like to read herself.   Unfortunately, doing what we want and doing it well is a gift that only a talented few possess. I do identify with her sentiment, however.   After all, I design tours that I would like to take myself.   Sometimes – alas – I turn out to be the only one with a craving for that particular excursion.   I have a backlog of fantas

We have certainly come a long way from the days when American schools began to introduce media – ever so cautiously – into the curriculum to stimulate interest and enhance the learning experience.   As a Boomer, I was constantly subjected to experimental instructional programs sparked by the launch of Sputnik, which sent the entire American educational system into a panic and launched a massive effort to “catch up” with the Soviets.   I consider myself lucky to have survived.

When I was in junior high, my history teacher planted a trick question in a pop quiz that made a lasting impression on me. He asked us to name the oldest democracy in the world. Sadly, not one of us had a clue, and undoubtedly that was the point. He wanted to make sure we got the message, so rather than bloviating about it to closed ears, he dropped this bombshell in a test. For those of you who don’t know, the answer is the United States of America – a possibility none of us

I was recently on the receiving end of a flattering and wholly unexpected accolade recognizing many decades of volunteer work promoting and preserving the history of South Dakota. This is what I do for fun, and despite the fact that my tour business grew out of my love of history, it is rare when the two cross paths. One is a vocation and one is an avocation. I get it. And I’ve always known that I am regarded as something of an oddity by each of these groups. As a sophomore i

“Seeing the elephant”, I’m told, is a purely American phrase which gained popularity in the early 19th century. Coincidentally, the first circuses reached these shores from Europe in the 1830’s and they invariably included exotic animals that no American had ever seen. They were HUGE – almost overwhelming – and they spawned a phrase that has been inextricably associated with the Westward Expansion Movement ever since – though it doesn’t appear that it started out that way. Li

Andrew Carroll in his excellent new book (Here is Where) about what he calls America’s “forgotten history”, raises the question about the difficulty of learning from history when so much of it is either mis-remembered, or worse, just plain invented. Personal memoirs are particularly suspect because the author often has an agenda aimed at protecting either his own or his ancestors’ reputation. I personally think it’s titillating to locate a less-than-pure member of the family

One of my ever-lasting passions is for movies which toy with the space-time continuum, or time travel. There are tons of them out there, so many that they can even be broken down into sub-categories. But the reason Hollywood keeps making them (and movie-goers keep watching them) is the very human urge to search for something better. This is escapism at its finest, because it actually poses an alternative outcome, even though it often turns out that what the protagonist had in

My grandfather was an original subscriber to American Heritage Magazine, the classy hardbound history magazine written and edited by some of America’s most distinguished historians and scholars of the fifties and sixties. Civil War historian Bruce Catton, was the founding editor, and remained at his post for many years. David McCulloch began his career there as an editor and contributor. I remember spending many happy summer hours pouring over the issues which had arrived ove

One of the hallmarks of our tours is that we offer the opportunity to walk where history happened. When you think about it, this really is a powerful motivation. While American history is a great deal shorter than that of the rest of the world, one can still get goose bumps standing in actual ruts made by covered wagons filled with the hopes and dreams of pioneers a hundred and fifty years ago. Experiences like this occur nearly every day on one of our Vanishing Trails Expedi

I read recently that, according to a Netherlands travel study (plus followup research conducted by psychologist and consultant Shawn Anchor), anticipation of an upcoming trip gives travelers the greatest satisfaction on the happiness scale.  It’s nice to have reinforcement, but I don’t need research to tell me that people look forward to vacations!  I hear every day from people thinking about signing up for a tour, or already on the roster. I’ve known for years how much our p

If you have ever surfed the upper reaches of the cable channels in desperate search of semi-literate diversion, you have probably run into the numerous channels which seem to be determinedly devoted to “history lite”. You know the ones I’m talking about. They feature shows called “Ten things you didn’t know about…” or “America: the Story of US”; “How the States Got Their Shapes”, “America’s Book of Secrets” , “Unsolved Mysteries” or “Who Do You Think You Are?” This last one w

When we were first developing the Lewis & Clark Trail as a Vanishing Trails Expedition I kept track of all the books I read in my research, and in fact I’m still reading Lewis & Clark books, sixteen years after my first scouting trip of the trail.   I don’t necessarily recommend every book on the list but I have read them all, and I share it with our participants on the trail if they are interested.  I’ve lost track of how many I’ve now read, but it is only a fraction of all

It probably won’t come as much of surprise that I am crazy about history.  I don’t ever remember not being interested in everything historical, despite exposure to the usual succession of dry-as-dust history teachers in both public schools and college.  This of course, is the standard reason for being turned off by history and it irks me that this is the case.  Because it is my experience that EVERYONE is interested in history when it is presented as a living, breathing event