You might find the present in the past on any day of history you choose.
For instance, here’s a quote about another time:
“This is an age of the world where nations are trembling and convulsed. A mighty influence is abroad, surging and heaving the world, as with an earthquake. And is America safe? Every nation that carries in its bosom great and unredressed injustice has in it the elements of this last convulsion.”
Aside from an antique verbiage — one seldom mentions a nation’s bosom anymore — the un-lilted paragraph might be lifted from a column by George Will or even David Brooks, both of whom would surely posit answers as to America’s safety, or lack thereof, in the present moment.
In its time, however, the passage was more a prophecy than an observation. The author glimpsed a future involving a “last convulsion.” Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote it in a weekly serial published by “The National Era,” an antislavery newspaper in Washington, D.C., in 1851. The next year, the paper’s publisher wisely contracted with the author to publish the series as a book. Both were called “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”
The juxtaposition of past on present inevitably brings to mind the apocryphal aphorism, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes.” (Mark Twain is given credit; surely he’d accept it.) Mrs. Stowe made her prediction based on what she observed of the nation’s fraying cultural, political, and societal foundations in those antebellum years. Almost exactly a decade later, Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter.
At present, the United States tolerates no slavery. In 1851, the country had no Trump. Yet there are similarities that force comparison:
The toxic effects of a recent unpopular, costly foreign war. Then: The Mexican War of 1846-8. Now: Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, take your pick.
Dubious presidents. Then: Polk, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan. Now: Trump.
Long-lasting and damaging economic struggles. Then: the financial Panic of 1837, the South’s monetary dependence on slavery, the North’s industry, its dependence on immigrant labor. Now: the financial crisis of 2008, fiscal inequality, and the creation of the 1% billionaire class...and recently, the revelatory stupidity of Trump’s tariff destruction.
Geographical expansion. Then: “Manifest Destiny,” the U.S. lust for more territory, not only for more than half of Mexico, but Cuba as another slave state. Now: Greenland, Panama, Canada as a 51st state, the Gulf of “America.”
The conflict between states. Then: slave-states v. free-states, leading to shooting wars between them, such as in “Bleeding Kansas.” Now: red states v. blue states, no wars yet, but countless pockets of preparation.
Many more comparisons can be found in the history. Could Mrs. Stowe’s future vision of a “last convulsion” be justified today, looking to 2035, a decade from now?
Could history indeed rhyme?
William Kinsolving is the author of five books. He will read and discuss his book “Dangerous Times” on May 15 at The Scoville Library, along with his wife Susan Kinsolving, who will also read and talk about her novel “The Head’s Tale.”
For more and reservations, go to scovillelibrary.libcal.com/event/14014494.
Juxtaposing present crises with those of the past