There have always been history junkies.
The kid at the Wild West theme park who announces, unasked, that Kate Fisher actually outlived Doc Holliday and went on to marry somebody else.
The Civil War reenactor who spends so much on uniforms his wife threatens to leave.
The family members who haven't spoken in years over whether or not Abner Doubleday actually invented baseball.
But a more serious problem -- unless you're the wife, above -- is getting young people to appreciate history.
It's possible. A young man told me recently that while there is a certain amount of bullying and even racism in his high school, there is overall a tremendous sense of community in his town. It's a town with a rich history dating from the American Revolution -- George Washington actually did sleep there, and so did Martha, for an extended period. There are many beautiful old Colonial, Canal Era, Victorian and Arts and Crafts buildings -- Gustav Stickley's school was a few miles away -- as well as examples of mid-century skyscrapers. The historical societies have frequent programs where teens are made to feel welcome and extensive local history archives accessible to students working on term papers -- actual, physical archives, including letters with original signatures.
"We're all part of the community, so we're part of it's history," this young Hispanic teen said.
He reminded me of a St. Patrick's Day evening some years ago. A group of African-American men in their late teens and early 20s were standing on the sidewalk in front of the Episcopal Church singing Irish songs in perfect harmony. Not just When Irish Eyes are Smiling, more obscure and seriously native songs. As a woman dropped a bill into the baseball cap perched on the hood of a car, she looked quizzically at the tenor. He smiled and said, "This is Morristown, everybody's Irish on St. Patrick's Day."
Now, Morristown, NJ, is hardly Brigadoon, but somebody must be doing something right reaching young people with local history. If only we could bottle that.
A local author and historian, Alex Perriello, made an attempt to do that with his Revolutionary War novel, Jacob's War.
At first it seems Jacob's War resembles some of the Rita Mae Brown books that jump back and forth between contemporary Virginia and scenes of the Revolutionary War in the same part of the state. With Corgies. Always Corgies.
But Perriello adds another element. Time travel.
Ok, I admit, this is not my genre. Time travel makes me thing of that Star Trek movie where Ensign Chekov asks some random person on a San Francisco street, "Can you tell me vere to vind the nuclear wessels."
But, a friend who also read the book pointed out the history is accurate and his audience is young. And young people could probably relate to his narrative.
He sets part of the story at the Inn at Millrace Pond in Hope, NJ, practically next door to me. His description of the Inn is pretty accurate. He gets the geography right in a number of other paces, too, although he invents a truck stop, which is nice for a reader who knows the terrain.
The overall tale is quite interesting. The protagonist, Jacob Von Etten, is looking for a place to hide from British soldiers when he finds himself in another time. The narrator stumbles upon Jacob in an area where drivers are on the alert for deer, not Revolutionary War soldiers.
A couple of modern-day history buffs outfit Jacob with some modern equipment and clothing which helps when he gets back to his own time, but, it turns out he needs more support he can only get from the 21st Century.
The narrative is handled well and holds the reader's interest. One can only hope it finds a young teenage audience and helps bring them into an interest in earlier times.
