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Arts & Culture
From terrible to atrocious
Photo illustration by Liz Zonarich/Harvard Staff
Harvard faculty suggest biographies of notorious historical personalities
Crafting biographies of malevolent individuals is daunting, noted Harvard historian Fredrik Logevall. “Somehow, we must portray monsters as human and intricate if we are to grasp why they acted as they did.” To support this aim, we solicited Logevall and other Harvard educators for book recommendations focusing on controversial historical figures that enhance our understanding of humanity’s darker tendencies.
‘James Henry Hammond and the Old South’
by Drew Gilpin Faust
Jonathan Hansen
Senior Lecturer on Social Studies
James Henry Hammond — who held the position of governor of South Carolina from 1842 to 1844 and served as a U.S. senator from 1857 to 1860 — was, Hansen noted, “arguably one of the most eloquent defenders of slavery in American history and a genuine jerk.”
“Rising from poverty, he achieved something few could at the time: marrying a wealthy Southern belle and rapidly becoming affluent. An absolute polymath, he was as intelligent and gifted as Jefferson, equally interested (and accomplished) in agronomy as he was in economics and politics.”
“The unfortunate reality, as frequently seen in American history, is that he chose the racial rather than the class perspective (consider Edmund Morgan’s ‘American Slavery, American Freedom’); had he allied with other impoverished individuals in his vicinity (state, region, nation), one can only speculate what he might have accomplished. In Faust’s narrative, his tragic existence mirrors a familiar American tragedy. Her account is a clear, empathetic reconstruction of a remarkable, pitiful, ultimately despondent individual.”
“It reflects what I consider a triumph of history as an endeavor in moral imagination. Under Faust’s guidance, Hammond’s narrative evolves into a tragedy — envisioning the possibilities that could have emerged had Hammond made different choices.”
‘Nixon Agonistes: The Crisis of the Self-Made Man’
by Garry Wills
Joyce Chaplin
James Duncan Phillips Professor of Early American History
“He is ‘President of the forgotten men,’ symbolizing ‘affluent displaced individuals who cried out at … rallies, heartbroken, wealthy, yet lacking style,’ self-identified ‘rugged individuals,’ caught in ‘mandatory technological interdependence.’ In this way, Garry Wills critiques a man (and his supporters) in his biography of a genuine villain: Richard Milhous Nixon,” Chaplin explained.
“Before Watergate, ‘Nixon Agonistes: The Crisis of the Self-Made Man’ (1969) hinted at the 37th president’s ominous potential. Wills maintains that Nixon was the last genuine liberal. However, by the 1960s, classical liberalism had lost its ethical credibility. Nixon’s relentless self-promotion as a self-made man captivated few. The ascent of wealth and privilege without effort returned to favor, while radical dissent against authority and entitlement was gaining traction — two distinctly non-liberal viewpoints were at odds. Indifference to Nixon’s rise — or, worse yet, derision of it — ‘would vex him and foster animosity.’ Was Watergate the culmination? Merely for Nixon. The aggrieved ‘rugged individuals’ embedded in ‘mandatory technological interdependence’ remain present today.”
‘G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century’
by Beverly Gage
Ariane Liazos
Lecturer, Harvard Extension School
Liazos often assigns literature focusing on complex or nefarious characters in her biography-writing course to help pupils comprehend that their role is not to “laud heroes or vilify villains” but instead “to create detailed narratives that enable us to better grasp intricate individuals and the societies they occupied.” Beverly Gage’s biography of J. Edgar Hoover achieves precisely that, she stated.
“Today, Hoover is notorious for his abuse of power as the FBI director for 48 years. He initiated unprecedented levels of governmental surveillance and repression. He directed unlawful wiretaps, disseminated false rumors, and even fabricated evidence to
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suppress factions he considered dangerous, actively focusing on supposed communists and Civil Rights campaigners in particular. Although he claimed to be a nonpartisan law enforcement official, he utilized the FBI to bolster those who aligned with his own ideological perspectives.
“Gage undoubtedly does not shy away from illustrating his numerous abuses of authority, but she also endeavors to ensure her audience perceives Hoover as ‘more than merely a one-dimensional tyrant and scheming politician.’ As she articulates, ‘This book is less about critiquing him and more about comprehending him.’ She achieves this, as any proficient biographer does, by enabling her readers to recognize his humanity, starting with a compelling narrative of his deeply troubled upbringing. She crafts a depiction of a highly intelligent, ambitious, ruthless, flawed, and profoundly contradictory individual.
“Nevertheless, the additional and essential message that Gage masterfully communicates is that, despite his current notoriety, Hoover enjoyed significant popularity not just among political elites but also a considerable segment of the American populace. In doing so, she prompts us to refrain from demonizing a single figure and instead reflect more honestly on our collective history. As she remarks, ‘To examine him is also to examine ourselves, at what America valued and contended over during those decades, what we accepted and what we chose to overlook.’”
‘Stalin’
by Stephen Kotkin
Fredrik Logevall
Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs, Professor of History
“Crafting detailed studies of malevolent figures is challenging,” Logevall stated. “Somehow, monsters must be rendered human and nuanced if we are to grasp why they acted as they did. One work that achieves this splendidly is Stephen Kotkin’s ‘Stalin,’ a multi-volume biography of the Soviet leader.
“This biography is grand in scope, a textured, analytically sophisticated narrative that draws from extensive research across a diverse range of sources. Furthermore, it is truly a ‘life and times’ examination, in which Kotkin employs his historian’s skills to contextualize Stalin’s life, placing him within the larger setting in which he ascended to power. In doing this, Kotkin skillfully balances the roles of individual agency on one hand, against deeper, structural forces on the other, while also illuminating much about those who shared the spotlight with Stalin, notably Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky. The two volumes reveal what the third will undoubtedly also illustrate, and what more recent history clearly shows: that while circumstances can shape leaders, the converse can also hold true.”
‘King Leopold’s Ghost’
by Adam Hochschild
Louisa Thomas
Visiting Lecturer on English
“There are villains, and then there is King Leopold II, the figure at the heart of Adam Hochschild’s insightful and unsettling narrative regarding the Belgian who appropriated the lands surrounding the Congo River, exploited them, and devastated its inhabitants,” Thomas stated. “‘King Leopold’s Ghost’ not only sheds light on the long-ignored transgressions of the tyrant but also recounts the stories of those who suffered due to them and those who resisted. That endeavor remains, now and always, vital for keeping us conscious of the ethical dimensions of human interactions.”
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