WORKS IN PROGRESS

Book-in-Progress: Ray Raphael is working on an inclusive, popular narrative of our nation’s birth, casting people from diverse levels of the social hierarchy as “founders.” Seven lead characters drive the story forward, interacting with one another and evolving over the entirety of the Revolutionary Era. If other popular histories position known celebrities at center stage, this book spotlights life-sized people from all walks of life and lets the reality of what they did stand. The Constitution’s framers and ordinary farmers, bankers and blacksmiths, slave masters and slaves help shape the story, as they once shaped the course of a newly emerging nation. (Read Introduction.)

This is Raphael’s most ambitious project, an alternative to the core narrative, restrictive and riddled with mythologies, we all know so well. While People’s History of the American Revolution presented the Revolutionary Era from a bottom-up perspective, this work blends the bottom-up outlook of “revisionist” historians with a more traditional approach. General George Washington and Private Joseph Plumb Martin, for instance, combine to drive the military tale. Whereas Founding Myths dissected the familiar tales of our national origins, the challenge here is to construct a compelling story, with lively protagonists and dynamic scenes, but tell it honestly, without allowing narrative forms or nationalistic politics to distort and redirect history.

Forum Magazine, journal of the Phi Kappa Phi honor society. Raphael has recently guest edited a special issue on “Founders” for summer, 2006. Gathering contributions from many of the nation’s preeminent Revolutionary scholars (Alfred F.Young , Carol Berkin, Gary Nash, Gordon Wood, Jack Rakove, Richard Beeman, Woody Holton, and Pauline Maier), he presents a broad view of our nation’s founders, both insiders and outsiders. In the first article, Young establishes the importance of including ordinary people within our nation’s founding narrative. Berkin then makes a case for treating women as founders, and Nash nominates African Americans and Native Americans for inclusion as well. Then starts a gradual progression up the social and political ladder. Raphael shows how ordinary farmers and artisans from rural Massachusetts overthrew British authority and moved toward independence well before Lexington and Concord or the Congressional Declaration of Independence. Wood next discusses the critical role of the “middling sorts” in the cities, an incipient middle class formed of artisans, mechanics, and shopkeepers. Moving inside chambers, Jack Rakove outlines the history of our nation’s first governing body, the Continental Congress, and Richard Beeman discusses the group traditionally labeled as “founders” — delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Finally, Holton and Maier extend the notion of “founders” to include some of those who actually opposed the 1787 Constitution, the so-called “Anti-Federalists.” All these groups played significant roles in founding the United States of America and establishing national ideals such as freedom and equality. If we take the words “we, the people” seriously, we must include each of their stories in the master narrative of our national origins. To obtain a copy of this issue, write: Pat Kaetz, Editor, at kaetzjp@auburn.edu.

Founding Myths for elementary and middle school. Marie Raphael, middle school teacher and author of young adult novels (Streets of Gold and Boy from Ireland), is considering writing about several of our national creation myths for a youthful audience. The book would be co-authored by Ray Raphael and tentatively titled Better Yet: Amazing Tales of our Patriotic Past. Since the American Revolution is often featured in elementary and middle school curricula but revisited only briefly by older students, how we tell the story at that initial stage is of critical importance. Tale-by-tale, Marie and Ray hope to show that it is “better yet” to honor the deeds of the real people who made the Revolution. Paul Revere, for instance, is no longer the lone rider; he is accompanied by a highly organized and well prepared resistance network.

Textbook Improvement. There is no reason history textbooks should be perpetuating nineteenth century mythologies in the twenty-first century. Ray continues to work to update our core narrative of the American Revolution. See Rate Your Textbook.

The Grammar of People’s History. Why and how do people’s histories get hidden by the myth-making inherent in story-telling and nation building? What is it about our linguistic habits, our memory, our collective psyche, and our social/political structures that makes us reduce the contributions of the many to the legends of the few? In the dynamics of historical processes, what is the relationship between the individual and the group? How do individuals affect history, and how are they affected by history? How are some individuals chosen for the core narrative, while others are forgotten? Who makes that choice? What do we gain and loose by transforming group dynamics into tales of personal achievement — and why is this tendency so difficult to resist? Can we take what is positive about mythology and somehow integrate it into a responsible telling of history? While some of these questions are raised and briefly discussed in previous works, and Raphael’s narrative works reflect these concerns, he hopes someday to tackle them directly on the analytical level.

Corrections to previous books. Try as we might, we can never quite get it right. All works are in progress. The end of any book project is always somewhat arbitrary, determined at least in part by the author’s patience. Once the book is exposed to public scrutiny, mistakes are observed — here are some from Ray’s Revolution books. If you see more, please let him know so he can post them on this site and correct in future printings.

People’s History of the American Revolution:
* In the hardback edition, most slaves with only one name were not listed in the index. This has been corrected in the paperback edition.
* The hardback edition (p. 9) stated there were as many religious pacifists as there were soldiers in the Continental Army. This is incorrect, although there were about 80,000 people who belonged to pacifistic religious sects.
* The myth that “Sam” Adams (should be “Samuel”) issued the “signal” for the Boston Tea Party is implied, although not explicitly stated (cloth, 18; paper, 22).
* The number of slaves who fled to the British from Washington and Jefferson needs to be revised (cloth, 262; paper, 331). See Founding Myths 185 and 319-320.
* Some of the sources for the numerous stories of common people could bear closer scrutiny. Tales appearing in 19th century local histories should be properly deconstructed.

First American Revolution:
According to Revolutionary historian John Bell, John Howe’s spy report (195-196) is dubious. It did not appear until 1827, and it may have been conjured to please an American audience. Much of this material, however, duplicates the report by Captain Brown and Ensign D’Bernicre, which is definitely authentic. (See footnote 66, 251-252.)

Founding Myths:
In the fall of 1774, John and Samuel Adams were delegates to the First Continental Congress, not the Second Continental Congress (139).
Patriots dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor, not 742 chests (69).

More Tree Talk:
The takeover of the Pacific Lumber Company by MAXXAM was in 1985, not 1986 (171).