Remember David Todd, who interviewed me at his place yesterday? David is that rarity, an engineer who enjoys writing. Today I’d like to introduce you to his latest book, “Documenting America.”
Give us a one sentence summary of your book.
Behind the history books are original sources, United States historical documents that are readily accessible, easily understandable, valuable for instruction, and well worth our time to get to know.
Why did you decide to write this book? After all, we have history books galore available to us.
Ten years ago, in a thrift store, I came across a 20 volume set of The Annals of America, an Encyclopedia Britannica publication. It contained long excerpts from a wide variety of American documents. I bought the set and began reading through it. One of the first ones I read was James Otis’ speech arguing against the Writs of Assistance in 1761. I was amazed at what he wrote, and found themes that later showed up in the Declaration of Independence. I thought, “If that was covered in my history classes, I missed it.” About the same time our local newspaper began a guest op-ed program. So I wrote an op-ed about the Otis speech, and the newspaper published it. They later published three others based on the same theme: historical documents, and the lessons we can learn from them.
So I wrote more of them, intending to shop it as a self-syndicated newspaper column. That didn’t work out, but eventually I had the idea to expand the columns and pull them together into a book. And I found American documents in many other places. I wanted America to have a glimpse into these wonderful pieces of our history, and fall in love with them as much as I did.
You’re a civil engineer, not an historian. Why should anyone want to read a history book written by you?
Yes, I should probably stick to engineering and leave history to the professionals. But I enjoy history, especially American history. It’s my favorite type of recreational reading, and I’ve studied it much. Most of the books in my reading pile deal somehow with history: letters, history texts, memoirs, biography. If I weren’t a civil engineer I’d like to be an historian.
As to why they should read my history book: well, it’s not a conventional history book. It’s not my interpretation of history so much as it’s an introduction to unfiltered history. Sure, I give something about the historical context of the document. And to entice people to read the document, I tie it to an issue in our nation today. But there’s not a lot of David Todd opinion in the book. Most of it is the documents telling their own story.
Give an example of an important document included in your book, but which might be overlooked by students of history.
In 1816 Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to a Virginia colleague, Samuel Kerchival, about proposed changes to the Virginia constitution. In this letter he included opinions on a wide range of constitutional and governmental issues, applicable to the Federal Constitution as well as to the State. I enjoyed this letter so much, and learned so much from it, that I dedicate three chapters to it. And this is just one of tens of thousands of such documents that can teach us.
In 1816 Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to a Virginia colleague, Samuel Kerchival, about proposed changes to the Virginia constitution. In this letter he included opinions on a wide range of constitutional and governmental issues, applicable to the Federal Constitution as well as to the State. I enjoyed this letter so much, and learned so much from it, that I dedicate three chapters to it. And this is just one of tens of thousands of such documents that can teach us.
Who would enjoy this book — students, adults, both? Is it primarily for history “junkies,” or would the average Joe enjoy it as well?
I have someone like myself in mind: a middle-age adult (well, maybe past middle age!). Any student of history should enjoy it, whether they are still in school or not. But it probably doesn’t have much use as a textbook since it covers multiple eras.
Does Documenting America cover a specific time period in US history?
No. Rather than cover a specific time, I purposely tried to have a wide range or years represented, to show how rich our historical documents really are. Be it 1650 and the Pilgrims, or 1895 and a partisan senator, these documents have something to teach us. In hindsight, I have the period from 1783-1817 over-represented. That was not on purpose. I suppose, if I write other volumes of this, having shown that the full range of documents should be explored, I’ll then concentrate on a specific era per volume.
What do you hope people take away from your book?
I hope they will say, “Oh, I never read that before. What a great document. Why wasn’t that covered in my history classes? I’d better find and read the whole document.” If people will find the original documents—an easy thing to do in this information age—I will have succeeded.
You can purchase “Documenting America” at Amazon, in both paperback and e-versions.
It’s also available at Smashwords as an e book.
CreateSpace offer the paper version as well.
Especially during these times, I think that learning more about our nation’s historical documents can only be a good thing. Thanks, David, for writing this book and for sharing some background with us today!
History class is about “message” not learning. It’s about being on-point in a politically correct way. It ceased to be about the truth long ago. So sad. I bet I’ll love this book!