The Men Who United the States by Simon Winchester (Review)
If you scroll through my reading list, you’ll find more history tomes than popular history. It’s not that I’m opposed to the more accessible option, but typically when I am interested in a subject, I want all the details. What I find when I pivot to a popular-history option, it usually takes a bit of an adjustment because it feels like I’m missing out on information that I expect to be forthcoming. This sensation is not a complaint but a point of setting expectations for potential readers of Simon Winchester’s very enjoyable book.
Relatedly, Winchester’s writing is a touch more ornamental than I generally prefer, but that’s hardly a complaint. Once I adjusted from the stylings of D the book for what it was, I enjoyed Winchester’s personal experience and travels just as much as the historical stories. Winchester wrote a conclusion based on his home experience in Sandisfield, Massachusetts, a town of 900 people. He told about how the volunteer-run Sandisfield Times helped connect people in the community—a microcosm of his larger story on bringing the country together. It was lovely and a fitting conclusion for the book. Winchester weaves stories into his larger theme and the result is a delightful diversion.
The Men Who United the States made me think of John Adams comment: “I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.” This book has as much poetry as it does history, and it compares favorably to a Sunday drive through the early days of the United States. Here are some of my thoughts and notes from The Men Who United the States.
Winchester began his book with a Whitman excerpt from “Leaves of Grass” in 1888: “Think of the United States today—the facts of these thirty-eight or forty empires soldered in one—sixty or seventy million of equals, with their lives, their passions, their future—these incalculable, modern, American, seething multitudes around us, of which we are inseparable parts!” It is disheartening that just a century later, the U.S. looks more like Europe and its petty squabbles. Winchester noted in 2013 when he wrote this book that the United States too quickly became a mongrel nation to maintain the tribalism of Scotland or other nations, but I wonder if Winchester would have the same assessment after the 2020 election.
It was fun seeing how a city like New Harmony, Indiana helped set the stage for the 1849 gold rush. Learning how an attempted utopia brought together the early geologists who helped turn the country’s attention to what lies beneath the land may played a small role in the movement to “Go West!” but it played a role nevertheless. These strands of history are some of the stories I find most interesting. The little pieces that seem unlikely to have an effect can come together for something much more than the sum of its parts.
Winchester pointed out that the development of northern railroads decreased the use of waterways as transportation modes to the south. This drove goods to the north, which was another contributing factor (far secondary to slavery) as a cause of the confederacy.
One of the memories that stuck with me from first learning about the Transcontinental Railroad Golden Spike was the golden spike the combined the east-coast and the west-coast tracks. Winchester talked a bit more about the spike and specified that David Hewes, a friend of Central Pacific Railroad’s President Leland Stanford, commissioned one spike out of 14 ounces of 17-karat gold. His gold “Last Spike” was engraved with the inscription, “May God continue the unity of our Country as this Railroad unites the two great Oceans of the world.” It may be due to Winchester’s theme that it seemed so essential to unite the country in bygone days. It seems a stark contrast to the stark divisions we have today.
Winchester pointed out that with the explosion of television sales with only limited broadcast options had a unifying effect. Because so many across the nation suddenly had a television, it became a point of commonality that everyone was enjoying the same entertainment. Today, people have so many entertainment options that it is no longer the same universal experience to watch the same shows and movies. There was one related point I would have enjoyed hearing about. While Winchester discussed radio’s role in unifying the nation, it seems like he missed a key element in not discussing FDR’s fireside chats and his efforts to combat the fears of the depression and WWII. My past reading on Roosevelt suggests this was critical during his presidency, and it seems like a related point for what brought the United States together.
The corollary effects from television were quite interesting. Winchester noted changes like the water company needing more available water when communities all went to the restroom during commercials. Electric companies experienced a surge in demand once shows ended and people moved to other activities. The food industry introduced TV dinners. It’s one thing to be united by a shared cultural experience, but it’s remarkable for so many facets of the country to have changed all because of television.
As suggested in my introduction, I generally prefer digging deeply into a subject rather than a survey book about a collection of topics. Still, in the current political climate, it was reassuring to hear that it is possible to bring a country together. It was also reassuring to hear a reminder of how much we have in common as a country. The Men Who United the States was an enjoyable read with interesting stories from history and interesting stories from Simon Winchester’s own experiences visiting different lands while researching his book. The result is one-part history and one-part travelogue to create a most enjoyable read.
