Where filling that landscape and appreciating what complicated lives these people have and the fact that they were everywhere. Whenever we move into landscape be interested in who lived there before. Was it a really, really deep history. What can you find out about that, because its always deeper than you might think. Up next, a conversation with Colorado Springs historians david and jean hideler about the challenge of writing history and the importance of teaching history. Weve been writing history since 1978 for publication. We started collaborating in the 1990s. We had written separately before then but since were in the same area and field we decided to start collaborating together. I think working as a spouse team is not easy. Weve had a lot of friends who have said to us i can never do that. A lot are not necessarily in the same field. I think probably because we started out in the same field. We even took graduate courses together that that probably helped. Not that we dont disagree because there are times when we do disagree an interpretation and we have to thats where the collaboration really becomes important because we have to work out our differences. There was an idea of when you know youre at the part where you can actually start writing. He said its when you can hear the people talk, and that does happen. If you read wildly enough ask get into the archival materials with Due Diligence and an eye to what youre doing, at some point things begin to make sense and the people become real, they cease to become merely figures from the distant past but become real. Once youve done that, then books assume their own kind of logic. When they dont, you know youre doing something wrong. The hardest book we have ever written was a social history of the early republic which we thought would be something of a departure but fun to do and it wasnt. Ive mentioned to other people it was like doing a Samuel Beckett play. It was so broadly conceived that it was very difficult to do, and when we finished it, we more or less vowed wed never do anything like that again. Its actual apretty good book as it goes. But the fact of it is theres a loft blood sweat and tears on the pages. It just wasnt very much fun. So thats hard. Biography, the frame is given to you by the span of life just the way you treat the subject and the interpretation. The other issue is what to leave out. Thats key because you cant have everything. Or just becomes as many students regard history just one damn thing after another. And thats no good. So there has to be some thing of a dramatic story or narrative thread that ties it together and tells a story in way that is interesting, accessible and true. We have these book shelves installed when we first moved into the house, so we put some of our favorite books in this room which is really sort of the family room, Family Reading room. All of these books over here are a large part of our civil war collection because both of us more or less started in the civil war era, so there are some really old books in this section, but also some ones we acquired recently, autobiography of civil war figures as well as some of the artifacts that we have collected since we moved out west. We started collecting primarily American Indian pottery. A lot of this isack impha pottery which is from new mexico. These books are revolution through probably 1850. Most of these books cover that era which is the era that we cover more with our writing today. A lot of these books we use frequently as well as some of the books down in the library. We look for accuracy in books as well as the reputation of the authors though we do buy a lot of books by new scholars because there are a lot of new things coming out all the time and different interpretations of people. Most of these books and on these shelves are not that recent although there are a few here by more recent scholars. Plus we collect published papers of a lot of the people we work on, people like andrew jackson, henry clay, George Washington a lot of their papers are published so we buy a lot of their works as well. This biography by john sugdon i found fascinating. Im interested in American Indian history as i started doing a lot of work with that. Its one of my favorite books. And then see if this one is actually here. Yes, this one right here. This book right here is one of my favorites because it was one of the Ground Breaking pieces of scholarship done on the creek indians deer skins and duffles by Katherine Braun is an incredible book. I would recommend that to anybody. A lot historians write for other historians and we want historians to read our books but i think its more important that you make the books or articles, whatever youre writing accessible to a general public so theyll be interested. How many people do we run into who say history is not my thing. Part of it is they never read interesting history and never had good history teachers and professors that make it accessible and make them understand how important it is. Its certainly true that its declining. I think history is being emphasized less in secondary schools. And we have seen that at the academy and we have done some testing of of Incoming Freshman and covered that over time that their knowledge not just of history in general but American History has declined dramatically over time and that part of that is that its not a subject thats emphasized. And that is somewhat understandable because there is so much to do in high school and knowledge is expanding. But to sacrifice not just heritage but the knowledge of the past and the mistakes that people made in the past because mistakes you learn more from mistakes than you do from successes. And the youngsters coming into college now really dont know much about the successes or the mistakes. At the academy we have some of the highest s. A. T. Scores in the nation all of our students graduate in the top of their class and so it makes you wonder what the situation is with regular College Students in other colleges and united states. But it is a disturbing trend. Surveys are very disturbing where people cannot place lincoln in the proper century let alone have him central in the biggest event in American History. The founders greatest fear is this, that we would forget. It is reality that republican cannot survive ignorance. Lincoln said this in illinois in the late 18 thirties
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