My Life With History takes the reader through the Wild West, the maturing of the American frontier, the Great War, the 1929 stock market crash and ensuing Great Depression, the Second World War, and the early years of the Cold War. It is a window into the good and the bad of a world no longer recognizable.
In his 1969 review of the book, Stanley J. Folmsbee writes:
"A feeling of nostalgia will suffuse a host of readers who will recall similar experiences, such as auto travel on bad roads, the struggle to stay alive during the Depression, fights to preserve intellectual freedom, and the blizzard of Chattanooga at the time of the American Historical Association meeting of 1935." (Folmsbee, 401)
The Historiographical Importance
While those who truly can look back at these historical events with feelings of been-there nostalgia are gradually finding themselves replaced by new generations who know little of their trials and tribulations, Folmsbee's review makes an important point for historians not alive in 1935. History is no abstract entity; once upon a time, it was somebody's present. Moreover, after that, it became "the good old days," years before it became textbook history.
Ray Allen Billington writes of Hicks: "He views his autobiography as a source document for future historiographers and hopes that it will help them understand why he and his generation wrote history as they did." (Billington, 165) Here, Hicks succeeds stunningly, as Billington says next. As a person, an autobiography expresses opinions and views on the world honestly so that future readers may peek into the mindset of the people of their day. As a historian, Hicks allows readers an even greater glimpse into the past.
John Donald Hicks
Born a small-town pastor's son in rural Missouri, and never outgrowing his roots, Hicks's early life reveals a lot about the way 19th-century rural Americans lived. He lists chores expected of him and his peers that if requested of adolescents today might cause a riot. He talks fondly of the Populist Party, a party that he made the subject of much of his historical writings.
He explains the differences of lifestyle between the East Coast and what he refers to as the "Middle West" -- the frontier no longer a frontier, with its title eventually shortened down to "Midwest." He recalls the effects of the Depression and the two major wars of the early 20th-century on the American people and lifestyle. And he offers a view into the European mindset of the time, as well, with a chapter dedicated to his time in England and a chapter concerning his retirement adventures in the rest of Europe and the world.
As Academic History
What most historians and students of history will enjoy most, though, is the wealth of information he writes concerning the history of academia. Modern readers will find it telling of the times and of Hicks himself that he taught high school at sixteen; that he achieved his Ph.D. in half the time it now takes to acquire a doctorate; that he achieved his full professor status in even less time, with tenure. Not to mention, there are whole stories to tell of the evolution of the varying academic institutions whereat he taught.
A wealth of history and insight into human psychology is in every autobiography. The autobiography of a historian is no different. From his childhood to the year of his retirement, John D. Hicks delights and entertains the reader with numerous tragedies and comedies, lessons and fatuities.
Sources
Billington, Ray Allen. Review of "My Life With History: An Autobiography." The Journal of American History 56 (June 1969).
Folmsbee, Stanley J. Review of "My Life With History: An Autobiography." The Journal of Southern History 35 (August 1969).
Hicks, John D. My Life With History: An Autobiography. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1968.
Robert Marcell - Robert Marcell received a B.A. in History in 2007 and an M.A. in the Social Sciences in 2008.
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