On Thursday, February 7th, renowned historian and Choate father Joseph Ellis came to Choate to “give insight into the profession of history,” according to Choate history teacher Richard Stewart.
Professor Ellis has enjoyed great success as a historian. He is currently the Ford Foundation Professor at Mt. Holyoke University. He has published nine books, of which one, American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, won the National Book Award. Mr. Ellis received the Pulitzer Prize for Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation. Founding Brothers was mandatory summer reading for all American History students this year and other years, and the book served to prepare students for Mr. Ellis’s lecture.
“Mr. Ellis is a major historian, so it was a good idea to give students a chance to hear him,” Mr. Stewart continued.
Prior to the lecture, a group of invited students met with Mr. Ellis for dinner in the Sally Hart Lodge. “Dinner was really interesting. He [Mr. Ellis] led the conversation, but he was directing a lot of tough questions at us to try and make us think of things we had not thought of before,” commented fifth former Joe Caron. Topics discussed at dinner ranged from the upcoming presidential election to the question of reinstating the draft.
Mr. Ellis’s lecture blended anecdotes, both personal and historical, and suggestions for the way students and writers should approach history. “I am a frustrating person to live with because I am often caught in the 18th century,” Mr. Ellis shared with the students. “I work in the morning and then I teach in the afternoon. For me the two are complimentary.”
The lecture itself was a “good blend of how historians do what they do and actual history. Mr. Ellis did a good job of giving students a glimpse of what it is like to be a professional historian. It’s a creative process—history is a story,” remarked Mr. Stewart.
Mr. Ellis emphasized the importance of “not looking across the surface, but digging punch holes” when studying history. He stressed the importance of the little details and stories surrounding historical events such as General Howe’s bulldog’s escape at the Battle of the Brandywine. Mr. Ellis offered advice and instruction in the writing of history. Specifically, he expressed his belief that writing for a wide audience is better than writing more narrowly “for fellow scholars.” He concluded his lecture by analyzing the different perspectives on the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.
“I thought that it was cool when he talked about the duel, but I thought that the lecture did not exactly have a point. It kind of meandered around the topic. I thought that the fact that he focused on the way he wrote was not really informative,” commented fifth former Arline Lee.
However, fifth former Casey Riley found the lecture “very interesting and informative.” As for Mr. Ellis, he enjoyed speaking at Choate greatly: “There was a good turn out, and once the students started talking, we had a good discussion.”
Historian Joseph Ellis signs a book for a Choate student. PHOTO/NINA TARNAWSKY ‘08
