Historiography without the data, For Want of a Nail Part II

I am two-thirds of the way through Robert Sobel's For Want of a Nail, his alternate history of North America if the rebels had lost the American Revolution.

Besides being simply an enjoyable read (yes, reading is pleasurable, especially the feeling of a book in one's hands) there is a fine lesson for the writer of history to be gleaned from this book. 

The writing of history involves the marshaling of facts, figures, the citation of sources, but also involves a large modicum of creativity in arranging these materials.  Without it, history becomes flat and uninspired. 

What Sobel has done in this book is lay bare that process.  This history is not a history, but a creative illusion.  Sobel takes the apparatus of historical research, the form and function of it, and creates a beautiful and false edifice.  The historical framework is there, and he presents it elegantly and masterfully.  We get the feeling, when reading For Want of a Nail, that a knowledgeable guide is taking us on a journey.  This is the hallmark of all great works of history.  That the content is false makes little difference.

The lesson: good writing carries the day, no matter what the genre, but especially in a popular history.  History is a story to be told.  Why not tell it well? 

For Want of a Nail

I have "For Want of a Nail" on my desk again.  I think I am finally ready to read it.

This alternate history textbook written by Professor Robert Sobel in 1971 posits that America lost the American Revolution.  Sobel outlines the history of North America from 1763 to 1971.  The book is a work of fiction, but is presented as an undergraduate history textbook, complete with over 800 footnotes to non-existent books and articles.  Detailed and well-written, this book has become a type of shrine for alternate history fans.

I took classes with Sobel at New College, Hofstra, in 1988 and 1990.  He wore a suit and tie everyday, and liked to stand at the window and comment on the tulips and green grass before a lecture.  In a small liberal arts college known for its liberalism, both in dress and politics, he was conservative, and considered a 'hard' professor.  Hard meant you must do the work, and hand it in on time, a rule not widely enforced in the rest of the college.  He was primarily a business historian, but his last book was a biography of Calvin Coolidge.  I remember him looking out the window in 1990 and saying that being older was great; one could plan for the future without impediments. He died shortly after he retired, in 1999.  Shortly after that, New College was all but eliminated by Hofstra, after key faculty that kept it going retired, and due to low enrollment.

For Want of a Nail was his only excursion into fiction.  It appears in keeping with the zeitgeist.  Ada was published in 1969.  Vonnegut was reaching his zenith.  And science fiction and various fantasy type genres were reaching wider audience.