A FRESH LOOK AT HISTORY

LIBRARY NOTES:    A FRESH LOOK AT HISTORY
PAUL BIRKHEAD
     
      The subject of history often gets a bad rap.  While some might see it as a waste of time or even boring, learning about American history can actually be beneficial to understanding today’s society and prove quite interesting to boot.  Rowan Public Library has several resources that can assist you in digging deeper into our nation’s past.
    Have you ever heard of a place in the U.S. that goes by the nicknames “Atomic City” and “The Secret City”?  Well, I hadn’t until I came across a book at the library called The Girls of Atomic City.  The author Denise Kiernan does a remarkable job telling the story of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where 75,000 people (mostly women) crowded into a small hamlet just outside of Knoxville to work on a top-secret project during World War II.  The majority of the people who lived and worked in this seemingly non-existent town were involved in enriching uranium for use in the Manhattan Project, which produced the first atomic bomb.  Denise Kiernan interviewed as many of these women as she could (some well into their eighties) to tell this fascinating and little-known story.
    Sometimes we don’t appreciate what we have until it’s gone.  That can easily be said about America’s World War I veterans.  Did you know that nearly five million Americans fought in what is still known as the Great War?  The last American veteran, Frank Buckles, died just two years ago at the age of 110.  Now there is no one remaining who can tell us what it was like to serve and fight in that particularly savage conflict.  Fortunately, we can still read about American veterans’ experiences in that war.  In the early 2000’s, Richard Rubin, travelled across the country interviewing veterans from World War I who were still able to tell their stories even as they reached centenarian (100+ in age) or super centenarian (110+ in age) status.  Rubin’s recently released book, The Last of the Doughboys, is a fascinating read, made even more so because every one of those veterans are no longer with us.
    Sometimes historical events and places are not marked or recognized in any form or fashion.  Take for instance the train platform in New Jersey where Edwin Booth (brother of John Wilkes Booth) saved the life of Robert Todd Lincoln (the son of Abraham Lincoln).  Does that site still exist or is it marked in any way?  Do people walk by every day without realizing that an historical event occurred right below their feet?  Andrew Carroll was always curious about that particular event and made himself a note to find out the answers one day.  Over the years, that note was followed by several more and Mr. Carroll decided to travel around the country seeking out these places.  Here is Where: Discovering America’s Great Forgotten History tells the story of his interesting quest for answers.
    As we celebrate a key event in our nation’s history this month, let’s not forget that we can always discover new things about our past.  Stop by Rowan Public Library and take a fresh look at history.