William Martin's Blog
April 16, 2013
Patriot's Day, Boston, 2013
I am going to bed. No more to learn tonight. This was a terrible thing on a beautiful day on Boston's biggest annual weekend, when we celebrate the beginning of the American Revolution with the oldest marathon in the world. Somebody - or somebodies - saw a twenty...-six mile long target of opportunity. It might be Islamic terrorists. It might be homegrown wackos. We don't know yet. But they took advantage. Do not be shocked by this. Be sad for the people whose lives have been shattered. But be thankful that more were not hurt, more were not killed. Just don't call this a tragedy. A deadly hurricane is a tragedy. "Hamlet" is another kind of tragedy. Tragedies are acts of God or Shakespeare. Terrorist attacks are acts of evil and cowardice and that's what we should call them. And don't talk about a loss of innocence. Innocence is for our children and must be protected for them. But any grown-up should know that this was bound to happen eventually in another American city, as it has in New York and Oklahoma City. So, be angry. Then get over it. Then be resolute. And stop telling yourself that things will never be the same again. As soon as Boylston Street re-opens, go into town and plunk yourself down in a restaurant and order a sandwich. Then go into the Boston Public Library and get a book, because the symbolism of the library in this city is enormous, and this bomb went off right across the street from the entrance. There's a reason why we run the library's biggest fundraiser on the eve of Patriot's Day: the Revolution that began on an April morning in the fields and hills west of Boston was a product of an educated society, one that was resolute and courageous because it WAS educated. They understood the consequences of their actions and the rightness of their position. So learn from your history. And don't be afraid now.Pray for the suffering. Shake off the shock. Get back to business. Goodnight from Boston. PS. I'll see you all at the Finish Line next April.
October 28, 2012
Abe's advice to the campaigners
The debates are over. he campaign is in its third act. And what would Lincoln be thinking about it now? What advice would he give? Here are ten suggestions Lincoln might make.
•Keep Your Counsel. Better to stay silent and be thought a fool than open your mouth and remove all doubt. Romney should remember this, even when he’s speaking before small audiences of like-minded people. It’s unlikely that Lincoln would ever say anything so damning about the American electorate as Romney did about the 47%. And there were no secret recording devices back then, no electronic gotcha opportunities. Still, Lincoln was careful to say nothing until he was ready to say it. For example, he would never allow anyone else to expound for him on Emancipation until he issued the Proclamation. And he was careful not to say it until the public was ready to hear it. When Senator Sumner urged him to free the slaves of the Fourth of July, 1862, he simply said, “Wait, wait, Senator. Emancipation is a thunderbolt that will keep.”
•Keep an Open Mind. He would tell Romney not to worry about his image as a flip flopper who will say whatever he must to win a debate point or a vote. Lincoln was charged with that one, too, especially during the famed Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858. Douglas charged that in Abolition counties, Lincoln was for Abolition. In slave-favoring counties, he was not. But Lincoln then, and in his presidency, was ready to consider all options, and a change of mind might be one more example of a growth.
•Keep pushing forward, no matter the polls or public opinion. This one works for both candidates. Lincoln, like Obama in the first debate, sometimes appeared exhausted by the weight of his office. But he soldiered on. And like Romney after his 47% stumble, Lincoln had to confront the possibility of losing the 1864 election, but he put it out of his mind and soldiered on.
•Keep to your principles. If you have something you believe in - Romney and his tax cuts, Obama and his executive order opening the pathway for citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants - hold fast. Once Lincoln issued his most important executive order, the Emancipation Proclamation, he never wavered. In 1864 his political allies would ask him if he would reconsider the policy in order to win the presidential election. He said that he could never send freed black troops back to slavery. “If I did, I would be damned in time and eternity.”
•Keep learning from history. Lincoln would like to know that President Obama invoked him in the first debate. Isn’t it amazing, Obama said, what can happen when people work together? Obama cited the achievements of Lincoln’s administration in spite of the Civil War: the Homestead Act, the Land Grant College act, the transcontinental railroad. Of course, Lincoln might point out that the great advantage he had was control of both houses of Congress and strong allies who pushed his legislative agenda.
•Keep human nature in mind when you consider historical precedents. Lincoln would remind Obama that the kind of partisanship that has dogged him throughout his presidency is the rule rather than the exception in Washington. Obama wishes for something that generally doesn’t happen in American politics, subject as it is to the foibles and flaws of human nature: cooperation. It's a rare commodity among self-interested politicians. So prepare for partisanship.
•Keep the attention span of your audience. Lincoln knew how to deliver a stem-winder, and in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, he and his opponent went at it for hours. But people expected that. They had traveled hours to hear the debates. However, Lincoln managed, in two short inaugurals and a Gettysburg Address of only 270 words, to say more with less than any president before or since. In their first debate, Romney seemed to understand his audience and the television medium. His answers were short, self-contained, crisp. Obama went on as if he were lecturing from a podium in a college classroom.
•Keep smiling. Lincoln often said that if not for the funny stories he told, read, and enjoyed, he might hang himself. The pressures of the office are inconceivable. So are the pressures of a campaign. So keep smiling, Show that you are comfortable in your own skin. Neither candidate can do this as well as Lincoln could, but it’s worth a try. A corollary: Smiling does not mean grinning like the Joker to show contempt for your opponent. (see Biden, Joe.)
•Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. As Doris Kearns Goodwin pointed out in Team of Rivals, Lincoln drew his opponents into his cabinet and drew on their expertise, despite their attitudes toward him. He might tell Romney and Obama to the same thing.
•Keep Murphy’s Law and the Law of Unintended Consequences Embroidered in Your Mind. Neither candidate can know what’s coming in the next few weeks or, if elected, the next few years. But they should know that if something can go wrong, it will, and even if it doesn’t, it will bring results you are not expecting. When Americans assembled at the Capitol to hear Lincoln’s inaugural in 1861, they had no idea that the secession dispute would lead to a war that would be the bloodiest in American history and result in the total eradication of slavery, north and south. Presidential candidates must learn to do all that they can to control events. But they must learn to react to events, too. In politics, as in warfare, the plan never survives the first battlefield contact.
•Keep Your Counsel. Better to stay silent and be thought a fool than open your mouth and remove all doubt. Romney should remember this, even when he’s speaking before small audiences of like-minded people. It’s unlikely that Lincoln would ever say anything so damning about the American electorate as Romney did about the 47%. And there were no secret recording devices back then, no electronic gotcha opportunities. Still, Lincoln was careful to say nothing until he was ready to say it. For example, he would never allow anyone else to expound for him on Emancipation until he issued the Proclamation. And he was careful not to say it until the public was ready to hear it. When Senator Sumner urged him to free the slaves of the Fourth of July, 1862, he simply said, “Wait, wait, Senator. Emancipation is a thunderbolt that will keep.”
•Keep an Open Mind. He would tell Romney not to worry about his image as a flip flopper who will say whatever he must to win a debate point or a vote. Lincoln was charged with that one, too, especially during the famed Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858. Douglas charged that in Abolition counties, Lincoln was for Abolition. In slave-favoring counties, he was not. But Lincoln then, and in his presidency, was ready to consider all options, and a change of mind might be one more example of a growth.
•Keep pushing forward, no matter the polls or public opinion. This one works for both candidates. Lincoln, like Obama in the first debate, sometimes appeared exhausted by the weight of his office. But he soldiered on. And like Romney after his 47% stumble, Lincoln had to confront the possibility of losing the 1864 election, but he put it out of his mind and soldiered on.
•Keep to your principles. If you have something you believe in - Romney and his tax cuts, Obama and his executive order opening the pathway for citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants - hold fast. Once Lincoln issued his most important executive order, the Emancipation Proclamation, he never wavered. In 1864 his political allies would ask him if he would reconsider the policy in order to win the presidential election. He said that he could never send freed black troops back to slavery. “If I did, I would be damned in time and eternity.”
•Keep learning from history. Lincoln would like to know that President Obama invoked him in the first debate. Isn’t it amazing, Obama said, what can happen when people work together? Obama cited the achievements of Lincoln’s administration in spite of the Civil War: the Homestead Act, the Land Grant College act, the transcontinental railroad. Of course, Lincoln might point out that the great advantage he had was control of both houses of Congress and strong allies who pushed his legislative agenda.
•Keep human nature in mind when you consider historical precedents. Lincoln would remind Obama that the kind of partisanship that has dogged him throughout his presidency is the rule rather than the exception in Washington. Obama wishes for something that generally doesn’t happen in American politics, subject as it is to the foibles and flaws of human nature: cooperation. It's a rare commodity among self-interested politicians. So prepare for partisanship.
•Keep the attention span of your audience. Lincoln knew how to deliver a stem-winder, and in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, he and his opponent went at it for hours. But people expected that. They had traveled hours to hear the debates. However, Lincoln managed, in two short inaugurals and a Gettysburg Address of only 270 words, to say more with less than any president before or since. In their first debate, Romney seemed to understand his audience and the television medium. His answers were short, self-contained, crisp. Obama went on as if he were lecturing from a podium in a college classroom.
•Keep smiling. Lincoln often said that if not for the funny stories he told, read, and enjoyed, he might hang himself. The pressures of the office are inconceivable. So are the pressures of a campaign. So keep smiling, Show that you are comfortable in your own skin. Neither candidate can do this as well as Lincoln could, but it’s worth a try. A corollary: Smiling does not mean grinning like the Joker to show contempt for your opponent. (see Biden, Joe.)
•Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. As Doris Kearns Goodwin pointed out in Team of Rivals, Lincoln drew his opponents into his cabinet and drew on their expertise, despite their attitudes toward him. He might tell Romney and Obama to the same thing.
•Keep Murphy’s Law and the Law of Unintended Consequences Embroidered in Your Mind. Neither candidate can know what’s coming in the next few weeks or, if elected, the next few years. But they should know that if something can go wrong, it will, and even if it doesn’t, it will bring results you are not expecting. When Americans assembled at the Capitol to hear Lincoln’s inaugural in 1861, they had no idea that the secession dispute would lead to a war that would be the bloodiest in American history and result in the total eradication of slavery, north and south. Presidential candidates must learn to do all that they can to control events. But they must learn to react to events, too. In politics, as in warfare, the plan never survives the first battlefield contact.
October 14, 2012
A Blog's TItle
Thirty-two years ago, I published my first novel. It was called Back Bay. It "starred" a young graduate student in history named Peter Fallon, who meets a girl named Evangeline Carrington and together, they go hunting for a Paul Revere tea set buried beneath the streets of Boston. So... a literal buried treasure yarn, with plenty of buried family secrets, too. But I knew that to sell my novel to the publishers and excite the readers who had never heard of me, it would have to be something more.
So I decided to add another dimension. I would follow the passage of the treasure through time. I would bring its history to life.In parallel chapters, the story of Peter and Evangeline would alternate with historical chapters, so that we would see the way in which past and present affected one another.
It must have worked, because Back Bay became an instant bestseller and people are still reading it. They are stll reading the Peter and Evangeline adventures, too, including the latest, The Lincoln Letter, about the search for Lincoln's diary. In the novel, Washington DC comes to life as both the shiny, sleek city of today and the muddy, intrigue-filled Civil War capital. Two stories reverberate , and we are reminded, yet again, that in American politics and history, in human nature itself, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
I suppose you could say that's the biggest theme in all my books. We are the products of history... of our own personal decisions... of the seemingly insignificant choice of some ancestor, say, who took the train to Boston rather than the bus, thereby changing lives of generations yet unborn... and of course, of the grand movements of history that affect us all.
I have loved working in this historical fiction/modern mystery-thriller genre. It gives me so much great storytelling material and such a wide latitude for commentary. And now that I have started a blog again after a two or three year hiatus, I think the title is appropriate, because I will allow myself wide latitude here to comment on history and historical fiction, on writing, and on the modern impacts of subjects I write about.
I'll try to offer something - long or short, profound or trifling - at least twice a week, So check back often, leave a comment, tell your friends.
So I decided to add another dimension. I would follow the passage of the treasure through time. I would bring its history to life.In parallel chapters, the story of Peter and Evangeline would alternate with historical chapters, so that we would see the way in which past and present affected one another.
It must have worked, because Back Bay became an instant bestseller and people are still reading it. They are stll reading the Peter and Evangeline adventures, too, including the latest, The Lincoln Letter, about the search for Lincoln's diary. In the novel, Washington DC comes to life as both the shiny, sleek city of today and the muddy, intrigue-filled Civil War capital. Two stories reverberate , and we are reminded, yet again, that in American politics and history, in human nature itself, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
I suppose you could say that's the biggest theme in all my books. We are the products of history... of our own personal decisions... of the seemingly insignificant choice of some ancestor, say, who took the train to Boston rather than the bus, thereby changing lives of generations yet unborn... and of course, of the grand movements of history that affect us all.
I have loved working in this historical fiction/modern mystery-thriller genre. It gives me so much great storytelling material and such a wide latitude for commentary. And now that I have started a blog again after a two or three year hiatus, I think the title is appropriate, because I will allow myself wide latitude here to comment on history and historical fiction, on writing, and on the modern impacts of subjects I write about.
I'll try to offer something - long or short, profound or trifling - at least twice a week, So check back often, leave a comment, tell your friends.
