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T.J. Stiles

@TJStiles_Author

15 Dec

Writing thread: Secondary characters in biography and history.

When writing a biography, it's easy to fall into the trap of focusing relentlessly on your subject. Writers of narrative history sometimes treat people not as characters but inanimate objects. Let's fix that.
1/11

When Jean Strouse turns to the creation of the Morgan Library, she does so through the librarian, Belle da Costa Greene. After a glorious description, she springs a surprise that makes the library chapter also about the rising Black intelligentsia in America. Stunning.
2/11

A secondary character allows an author to expand the book's scope while preserving the narrative—it's still about people & their fate. Strouse uses Greene to open a door we expect—the great Morgan Library—which turns out to lead to an unexpected door. She writes it so well.
3/11

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T.J. Stiles

@TJStiles_Author

13 Dec

A shocking thread about...historiography. Really.

Our story begins in 1901, when John Garner published his dissertation—what became for decades the standard history of #Reconstruction in #Mississippi—with adviser William A. Dunning at Columbia, the leading historian.
1/11

Garner had to answer why in 1875 an armed insurrection overthrew the elected government of Mississippi under Gov. Adelbert Ames. He started with the carpetbagger stereotype: thieving yankees came to despoil the prostrate South. But he found that Ames didn't fit it.
2/11

A few facts. Mississippi had a Black majority. Ames was made provisional governor under Congressional Reconstruction. He named its first Black officeholders & oversaw a constitutional convention that enfranchised Black men—creating real "home rule," lifting federal control.
3/11

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T.J. Stiles

@TJStiles_Author

6 Dec

Writing thread: Openings, one of my favorite topics.

In a work of history or biography, the first paragraph, often the first sentence, tells you if you are in the hands of a writer, or someone just trying to arrange research and argument in some kind of logical order.

1/9

There are books that shout, “Here’s a bunch of stuff I know about this topic,” or, “Scholarly contribution!” But real writing requires that you give the reader a reason to turn every page. Raise questions in the mind of the reader & delay the answers, as David Lodge says.

2/9

Claire Tomalin, a giant, shows how to proceed chronologically but invest the reader in events long before her subject does the stuff that made you read about him. She starts with a sentence that announces she is telling a story. Then, mystery! Suspense! (Spoiler: He lives.)
3/9

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T.J. Stiles

@TJStiles_Author

31 May

When my bio of Jesse James came out, some were upset at my portrait of a pro-slavery terrorist in the Civil War who seized the role of Confederate hero in Reconstruction politics in Missouri. I besmirched a folk hero!

Why is that? It says something about white supremacy.
1/9

I wasn’t making a leap. I just took seriously what he himself wrote & how he was discussed. His family enslaved 7 people in 1860. Proslavery politics was fierce and ugly in western Missouri, & his family was very partisan—hardcore secessionist. So why has that been denied?
2/9

There are some specific reasons in Jesse James’s case. He was addicted to violence, always in it for the money (well, money plus politics, but money first.) After his gang & Reconstruction both blew apart, he had a 3-year apolitical criminal reprise. It blurred his image.
3/9

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T.J. Stiles

@TJStiles_Author

26 May

Texas HB 3979 blocks Critical Race Theory in public schools. It's hard to imagine any prosecutions resulting. But it makes teachers vulnerable to parents' complaints—especially of the hot-take variety. And it could have unintended consequences.

Let's take a look, shall we?

1/10

Some of Texas HB 3979 is fine. It requires that students learn about founding documents, the 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments, Native American history, etc. Correct me if an amendment changes this. But it's got some wacky & dangerous language. It's a mess.
2/10
capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/87R/se…

The wording of Texas HB 3979 clearly shows its main motivation is to protect white children from any sense of the moral weight of history. But it's also aimed at a non-existent threat: teachers who are telling kids they are to blame as individuals for racism writ large.
3/10

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T.J. Stiles

@TJStiles_Author

7 Apr

Academic historians fret about not reaching the public. It's not enough to say (even if true), "I'm doing such important & interesting work." It's about writing.

First, accept that work that doesn't signal that it's for academics only can still be cutting-edge scholarship.
1/5

There are conventions for journal articles & monographs that serve a professional purpose, & signal that they are for fellow scholars. That's fine! But historians should embrace serious work that doesn't follow these conventions. It's not dumbing down to depart from them.
2/5

Second, academic historians who want a wide audience need to read fiction & compelling nonfiction journalism, & ask why it's appealing. It's not about color, an anecdote, an important fact. It's about giving the reader a reason to go on to the next page—the next paragraph.
3/5

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