Debbie Wiley | A Love Affair with History and Learning From It

I have a confession to make. History was never my favorite subject in school and for years I avoided reading all historical fiction and historical romance because of it. My younger brother, a history fan, even listed once on a questionnaire that the one thing I needed to do to improve was to read more history LOL.  I don’t blame my teachers, though, as the curriculum often didn’t connect the past with the present in any meaningful way for me. Two teachers successfully bridged that gap for me, although not enough to encourage me to read historical fiction. Instead, I stumbled upon it somewhere along the way (most likely through Amanda Quick, as my mom collected all her books) and my eyes were opened to pieces of the past they never taught us in school. In today’s environment, more than ever, I think it’s important for us to know the good, the bad, and yes even the very ugly parts of history. After all, one of those excellent teachers I mentioned drilled into my head the George Santayana quote: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Jane Addams is well known to social workers for her involvement in founding the Hull House but Jennifer Chiaverini’s THE WOMEN’S MARCH, shows us Jane Addams in her role as an active suffragist. Jane Addams is only a secondary character as Jennifer Chiaverini introduces readers to three other women who are an important part of why women can vote today. I’m almost embarrassed to admit how little I knew of Ida Wells and my total lack of knowledge of Maud Malone and Alice Paul. One other intriguing personality THE WOMEN’S MARCH mentions is General Rosalind Jones and her marches for women’s rights. It was fascinating (and horrifying) to see the various political bickering both within the groups fighting for the vote as well as ones opposing it. For readers wanting to learn more about the struggles women faced in getting the vote, STORIES FROM SUFFRAGETTE CITY, edited by M.J. Rose and Fiona Davis, is an anthology featuring a variety of women suffragettes and their stories. Notably it includes Ida Wells’ confrontation with the parade (organized by Alice Paul) that insisted black women march at the back. Mabel Lee, a Chinese American suffragette, is featured in another story. The complexity of the issues as women battled with the social and cultural mores of the time are not as different from today as one would hope and its eye opening to see the parallels.

THE BOOK WOMAN’S DAUGHTER by Kim Michele Richardson focuses on a different angle of history. Honey Mary Angeline Lovett is the daughter of a Blue, a condition that makes her both an outcast and the product of an illegal marriage. Her parents are accused of breaking the miscegenation laws and Honey is trying to forge her own path, staying one step ahead of the state social worker and sheriff who want to put her in a horrid children’s home. Kim Michele Richardson not only gives us further insight into the packhorse librarian program and how it survived after the federal funds dried up, but also into the role of fire watcher. Issues of discrimination based on race and gender are at the center of the story, but even more intriguing to me was the convoluted logic of the time that allowed a woman to marry at a young age (and not always by choice) but not live on her own. THE LOST APOTHECARY by Sarah Penner touches on the lack of power held by women in the past and is based on historical rumors that some women resorted to seeking out apothecaries who would provide poisons to handle abusive or cheating husbands.

As much as the lack of rights disturb me, the medical treatment of the past (and unfortunately even in the modern day) is even more eye opening. TAKE MY HAND by Dolen Perkins-Valdez is a fictional story inspired by a true-life court case called Relf vs Weinberger. Two sisters were sterilized without their consent in Alabama in 1973 via federal funding. Fortunately, their social worker brought this reproductive injustice to light. Dolen Perkins-Valdez’s story centers around the family planning clinic and one nurse in particular, Civil Townsend, who realizes young girls are being given an unproven birth control and then later sterilized. Her shock and anger still haunt me now, even more so as the Author’s Note points out that some women are still being involuntary sterilized today thanks to a 1927 US Supreme Court ruling, Buck vs Bell, that federally protects the compulsory sterilization of “unfit” inmates in public institutions. More so than any other historical fiction book I’ve read in years, TAKE MY HAND horrifies me especially in light of recent political propaganda. We talked about the horrific treatment of the Tuskegee airmen in school, but it seems the lessons aren’t sticking as we continue to repeat the horrors of the past.

History is important. It’s just as important to celebrate the past victories and achievements as it is to acknowledge the abuses and blunders. Books matter and I’m so thankful for authors who dare to remind us of the stories and people history brushes over. 

Debbie Wiley is a senior reviewer at Fresh Fiction. You can find more of her articles and reviews here.