The microphone of the present
A history magazine worth reading, and other recommendations
I used to love reading news magazines. I grew up reading Sports Illustrated, always starting at the back page to read Rick Reilly’s column. When traveling by plane, I used to pick up The Economist or The Atlantic or Wired or Slam Magazine.
These days I’m more likely to listen to a podcast or read a book on my Kindle. You can download a magazine on Kindle, but it just doesn’t have the same satisfaction as bending back the cover and flipping through the stories.
These days you can easily mix and match stories from different publications. Whatever pops into your feeds. Online magazines are constantly publishing stories. No need to wait for the next issue to arrive.
I still read one physical magazine, a subscription gift from my older brother. It’s the gift that keeps on giving, because the subscription auto-renews and he keeps forgetting to cancel it.
The magazine arrives every season:
Lapham’s Quarterly embodies the belief that history is the root of all education, scientific and literary as well as political and economic. Each issue addresses a topic of current interest and concern—war, religion, money, medicine, nature, crime—by bringing up to the microphone of the present the advice and counsel of the past.
Even though it only arrives four times per year, I rarely end up reading the whole thing. It’s too dense. Each issue includes excerpts of texts written by historically relevant contributors. Ancient philosophers. Public intellectuals. National leaders. Practitioners. Reformers. Each issue is book-ended with opening and closing essays by modern writers.
Abridged rather than paraphrased, none of the text in the Quarterly runs to a length longer than six pages, others no more than six paragraphs. Together with passages from the world’s great literature, each issue offers full-color reproductions of paintings and sculpture by the world’s great artists.
Also included are cool graphics and charts. In a time of cheap attention-grabbing content, Lapham’s Quarterly invites readers into a calm headspace to ponder the human condition.
In the most recent issue, Summer 2022, the topic is Education. Selected authors include Saint Benedict, W.E.B. Du Bois, Maria Montesorri, Shakespeare, and Isocrates.
One of the texts included is by labor leader Cesar Chavez, from Autobiography of La Causa, describing his experience in school in Yuma, Arizona in the early 1930s. He says he was “bored to death” and would “just go to sleep.” After waking up early to do several hours of farmwork, he would walk to the schoolhouse. If it was cold, he would make pit stops at the warm houses of relatives along the way. The worst part, he remembers, was being punished for speaking his native language.
When we spoke Spanish, the teacher swooped down on us. I remember the ruler whistling through the air as its edge came down sharply across my knuckles. It really hurt.
The embarrassment and confusion could be worse than the physical punishment. Some teachers were very cruel, he recalls, while a small few were understanding.
It’s a terrible thing when you have your own language and customs, and those are shattered. I remember trying to find out who I was and not being able to understand.
A biography of Chavez by Miriam Pawel describes his real education during these formative years:
At night they gathered around fires and listened to the grownups tell stories.
Abraham Lincoln didn’t have much schooling, but he was also fond of stories and was rarely seen without a book in hand. Lapham’s includes this clip by Lincoln, from a letter to a political ally, describing the Kentucky environment of his youth:
We reached our new home about the time the state came into the union. It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up. There were some schools, so called, but no qualification was ever required of a teacher beyond “readin’, writin’, and cipherin’” to the “rule of three.” If a straggler supposed to understand Latin happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizard. There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education.
The modern age is defined by epic culture wars. History shows us that education has always been smack dab in the middle of culture wars. We’ve long debated questions of patriotism, freedom, and fairness — and we’ve long argued how to teach our values to the next generation.
History can inspire us with stories of individual heroism. It can also offer a dose of humility, reminding us that we are small actors upon the stage of the universe, wrestling with giant waves of events. And as much as we strive to improve our formal methods of education, history reminds us that many of our geniuses walked a different path.
I don't know how the future will play out, but I'm grateful for a quarterly publication that takes time to catalogue the experiences of the past.
Netflix Recommendations
How to Change Your Mind
This docuseries is based on a Michael Pollan book by the same name. It’s about the history and modern applications of psychedelics. After decades in the wilderness due to the war on drugs, psychedelics are now making their way back to their original habitat — the world of scientific research. Pollan is not encouraging the indiscriminate use of mind-altering drugs. He is inviting folks to be open-minded about the therapeutic potential of psychedelics.
What’s In a Name?
Dave Chappelle is a controversial comedian, but that didn’t stop his alma mater from recognizing his artistic contributions. The show is a 40-minute speech at the Duke Wellington School of the Arts. Chappelle speaks about his education and his philosophy of art and freedom. The speech takes a different tone from his usual comedy routines, with a surprise twist at the end.
Trainwreck: Woodstock ‘99
I don’t actually recommend watching this docuseries, but, like a trainwreck, it’s hard to look away once you start watching. This is a story of hubris gone wrong. It’s a story of greed and self-delusion. It’s the same old story of leaders who lie to themselves and others, with disastrous consequences. Human psychology should be a mandatory subject taught in school.
Like a Rolling Stone: The Life & Times of Ben Fong-Torres
Fantastic story about a journalist who “defined the era” of Rock N’ Roll as a writer and editor for Rolling Stone magazine. His coming of age story is just as interesting as his work and the musicians he covered.
ICYMI
Selected historical posts by Cholla Express:
Camelback Mountain
Veterans Memorial Coliseum
Prohibition in Arizona
The Phoenix
