American Heroes: Profiles of Men and Women Who Shaped Early
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American Heroes: Profiles of Men and Women Who Shaped Early
American Heroes: Profiles of Men and Women Who Shaped Early America. Edmund S. Morgan. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 2009. 278 pages. $16.95 (paperback).
American Heroes: Profiles of Men and Women Who Shaped Early America is a collection of seventeen insightful essays by Pulitzer Prize winner Edmund S, Morgan showcasing obscure and famous characters of early American history. The essays are an eclectic collection of previously published and new articles illuminating characters as diverse as Columbus, John Winthrop, and William Penn, along with obligatory sketches of Washington and Franklin.
These articles written from 1937 to the present reflect the work of a piercing intellect transcending traditional modes of thought to illuminate how people shaped and were shaped by the prevailing wisdom of the times. Professor Morgan strives to show us the formative influences that allowed people to think that slavery was a positive good for both master and slave, or that allowed otherwise rational beings to fully believe in the existence of witches. He does not provide an apologia, but rather strives to show how we are creatures of our times. He delights in characters that are able to transcend conventional wisdom and embrace new visions and ideas, often at the expense of their reputation and more. No doubt his future counterparts will do the same for the paradigm of our times.
A perfect illustration of how historical perspective influences human opinion and action is presented by the opening portrait of Christopher Columbus. Struck by the gentleness and generosity of the native Caribbeans, he proclaimed them the best and mildest people in the world with kind hearts and a generous nature. How then to reconcile the resulting slavery, exploitation, and genocide of a peace loving people living an Eden-like existence? The very same document provides an early clue. Columbus noted that the inhabitants were cowardly, had no knowledge of war, and were “fitted to be ruled and to be set to work”. Seen through the prism of modern sensibilities Spanish actions are cruel and greedy. But the Spanish believed that they were redeeming the minds and souls of the natives by bringing them the blessings of Civility and Civilization. Men who didn’t work were little better than animals. Men who didn’t believe in the one true religion were condemned to eternal damnation. So the natives must be saved in spite of themselves. And if they refused to see reason then they must be destroyed in order to be saved. Much like any theory of conquest devised by the conquerors this belief system rationalized away the worst abuses of an exploitive system. Professor Morgan shows us that self-serving philosophies are often most fervently believed by the people that they serve.
Even the earliest essays in this collection, dating from 1937, display a totally modern sensibility. There are no condescending generalizations about women or minorities that so often mar earlier works of contemporary historians. The author gives a fascinating overview of the mores of the time in his essays on The Puritans and Sex and The Problems of a Puritan Heiress. His explanation and rationalization of Puritan actions concludes that “in matters of sex the Puritans showed none of the blind zeal or narrow-minded bigotry that is too often supposed to have been characteristic of them. The more one learns of these people, the less do they appear to have resembled the sad and sour portraits that their modern critics have drawn of them.” The Puritans knew that humans were weak and sensual, and that few people could live up to their absolute code of moral values. They took human nature into account when pronouncing sentence for moral lapses, often meting out more lenient punishment than the maximum ascribed by law. This presents is a far more nuanced glimpse of Puritan life than you would expect to find in essays first published in 1942.
The final essay of the collection is a departure from the general theme of early American Heroes. A writer’s choice of subject often illuminates the character of the author, and this case is no exception. The Epilogue is a paean to The Genius of Perry Miller, a groundbreaking contemporary of Morgan “who transformed our understanding of what the founders of New England founded”. Few people are given the chance to review and reflect upon their own body of work, but Professor Morgan’s conclusion is an apt description of his own work as well as Perry Miller’s. “His achievement was a series of books the like of which had not been seen before, the record of a mind that craved reality and reached for it through history”. He could have been writing about himself.
Stephen Donnelly is a consultant for the insurance industry and a Westfield State College alumnus.
American Heroes: Profiles of Men and Women Who Shaped Early America is a collection of seventeen insightful essays by Pulitzer Prize winner Edmund S, Morgan showcasing obscure and famous characters of early American history. The essays are an eclectic collection of previously published and new articles illuminating characters as diverse as Columbus, John Winthrop, and William Penn, along with obligatory sketches of Washington and Franklin.
These articles written from 1937 to the present reflect the work of a piercing intellect transcending traditional modes of thought to illuminate how people shaped and were shaped by the prevailing wisdom of the times. Professor Morgan strives to show us the formative influences that allowed people to think that slavery was a positive good for both master and slave, or that allowed otherwise rational beings to fully believe in the existence of witches. He does not provide an apologia, but rather strives to show how we are creatures of our times. He delights in characters that are able to transcend conventional wisdom and embrace new visions and ideas, often at the expense of their reputation and more. No doubt his future counterparts will do the same for the paradigm of our times.
A perfect illustration of how historical perspective influences human opinion and action is presented by the opening portrait of Christopher Columbus. Struck by the gentleness and generosity of the native Caribbeans, he proclaimed them the best and mildest people in the world with kind hearts and a generous nature. How then to reconcile the resulting slavery, exploitation, and genocide of a peace loving people living an Eden-like existence? The very same document provides an early clue. Columbus noted that the inhabitants were cowardly, had no knowledge of war, and were “fitted to be ruled and to be set to work”. Seen through the prism of modern sensibilities Spanish actions are cruel and greedy. But the Spanish believed that they were redeeming the minds and souls of the natives by bringing them the blessings of Civility and Civilization. Men who didn’t work were little better than animals. Men who didn’t believe in the one true religion were condemned to eternal damnation. So the natives must be saved in spite of themselves. And if they refused to see reason then they must be destroyed in order to be saved. Much like any theory of conquest devised by the conquerors this belief system rationalized away the worst abuses of an exploitive system. Professor Morgan shows us that self-serving philosophies are often most fervently believed by the people that they serve.
Even the earliest essays in this collection, dating from 1937, display a totally modern sensibility. There are no condescending generalizations about women or minorities that so often mar earlier works of contemporary historians. The author gives a fascinating overview of the mores of the time in his essays on The Puritans and Sex and The Problems of a Puritan Heiress. His explanation and rationalization of Puritan actions concludes that “in matters of sex the Puritans showed none of the blind zeal or narrow-minded bigotry that is too often supposed to have been characteristic of them. The more one learns of these people, the less do they appear to have resembled the sad and sour portraits that their modern critics have drawn of them.” The Puritans knew that humans were weak and sensual, and that few people could live up to their absolute code of moral values. They took human nature into account when pronouncing sentence for moral lapses, often meting out more lenient punishment than the maximum ascribed by law. This presents is a far more nuanced glimpse of Puritan life than you would expect to find in essays first published in 1942.
The final essay of the collection is a departure from the general theme of early American Heroes. A writer’s choice of subject often illuminates the character of the author, and this case is no exception. The Epilogue is a paean to The Genius of Perry Miller, a groundbreaking contemporary of Morgan “who transformed our understanding of what the founders of New England founded”. Few people are given the chance to review and reflect upon their own body of work, but Professor Morgan’s conclusion is an apt description of his own work as well as Perry Miller’s. “His achievement was a series of books the like of which had not been seen before, the record of a mind that craved reality and reached for it through history”. He could have been writing about himself.
Stephen Donnelly is a consultant for the insurance industry and a Westfield State College alumnus.
