Austin Scholar #28: The Incomplete Life of Johnson
(& How We Should Be Teaching History)
Hey, y'all!
James Boswell’s Life of Johnson, arguably the most influential biography of all time, is known for its accuracy in “depicting the authentic humanity… of Johnson.”
But, if you take the time to do a closer look at the real life of Samuel Johnson, you’ll find that Boswell’s biography is completely misleading and is missing the most crucial aspect of Samuel Johnson’s life.
So, I have to wonder, if this trademark biography is inaccurate, what other foundational historical works are also false representations of history? Maybe we’re teaching history all wrong.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
This week from Austin Scholar...
Austin’s Anecdote: The incomplete life of Johnson
How we should be teaching history
Scholar’s Sources: More missing history…
After less than eight glorious weeks of not-summer, I’m officially back in school. And starting on Day 1, our Alpha guides introduced us high schoolers to our three-week intensive Alpha Bootcamp.
Doesn’t that sound fun?
Basically, we have to do a ton of assignments to prove we know how to learn on our own and to show that we have what it takes to meet Alpha’s high expectations.
And, of course, academic expectations are higher than ever for me this year (since it’s my junior year), so I’ve been crushing my apps since Day 1.
It’s been a lot of work, but I am so motivated to do well this year (especially after my two weeks in Oxford).
My junior year is going to be great. I can feel it.
Austin’s Anecdote: The Incomplete Life of Johnson
Who is Samuel Johnson and why should I care?
That is the question that Professor Basker posed during a seminar at Oxford Academia.
And I’ll be honest: at the beginning of the seminar, I couldn’t have cared less about Samuel Johnson. All I was thinking about was if someone had stolen my water bottle that I accidentally left in the quad.
But when Professor Basker, in his wise, grandpa-esque voice, began the story of Samuel Johnson, all of my thoughts about my missing water bottle vanished.
As Professor Basker spoke, it was as if I could see the life of Johnson around me. Johnson transformed from a sickly, OCD-ridden child into a powerful voice of literature.
Professor Basker spoke about James Boswell’s biography of Samuel Johnson, Life of Johnson, which is acclaimed to have captured Johnson’s very personality on paper. The biography explores the monumental achievements and contributions of Samuel Johnson.
Johnson first established himself as an influential thinker during his fifteen-year employment (from 1738-1753) writing for the first modern magazine: The Gentleman’s Magazine. (A writer–pretty cool.)
During that time, Johnson was also publishing the incredibly popular The Rambler essays: two essays a week for two years. (He basically wrote a newsletter?!)
He also wrote the first dictionary of the English language to have every single word and definition and an example in one place, and his Shakespeare anthology (published in 1765) is the reason we still study Shakespeare today. (Okay, very impressive, but was the Shakespeare thing really necessary?)
And, because of his crazy awesome dictionary and his other brilliant works, he was awarded an honorary master’s degree from Oxford and became an honorary Fellow at University College at Oxford. (Um, absolute icon?!)
At this point in the lecture, I felt like I knew why we were learning about this guy. He was a transformative thinker who did a lot of cool literary things and studied at Oxford.
But then, Professor Basker asked us another question:
But what about the significant things Johnson had done that weren’t in Boswell’s biography?
He showed us a legal defense written by Johnson, in which he was asked to provide legal defense for a Scottish slave. Johnson wrote an extraordinarily passionate defense, arguing for the freedom of the slave.
In the end, it was this case in which Scotland abolished slavery, and Johnson’s remarkable defense encouraged it.
Not only that, but Johnson published many pieces expressing his incredibly strong anti-slavery beliefs, and used every avenue he could to call for equality among men.
Somehow, strangely enough, Johnson’s abolitionist thoughts and works were ‘misplaced’ and not included in Boswell’s biography. Boswell’s biography is praised for its brilliant reflection of Samuel Johnson, but the biography seems to be missing a core part of Johnson’s work.
Why wasn't this in his biography? Samuel Johnson single-handedly abolished slavery in Scotland, but Boswell didn't deem that important enough to put in the story. Why didn’t Boswell, who captured so perfectly Johnson’s literary achievements, describe Samuel Johnson’s revolutionary abolitionist accomplishments?
It all makes sense when you consider one crucial fact: Boswell was pro-slavery.
Such a significant part of Johnson's life, arguably the most significant, was completely forgotten because the author of his story disagreed with him.
How many times has this happened? How many historical figures have been misrepresented–their lives thrown away–because someone disagreed with them? How much has been left out of history?
How We Should Be Teaching History
That one-hour seminar was one of the most perspective-altering hours of my entire life–and it was a history lesson.
Now, let me be clear: I'm not a history person.
I have trouble memorizing dates and ordering wars and remembering what was the tipping point during the French Revolution.
But I loved this seminar. I took pages of notes the entire time.
Maybe Professor Basker was onto something here. Maybe we're teaching kids history wrong.
Instead of asking them to memorize boring facts, what if we told them to ask themselves, what's not here?
No matter how you look at it, history is written by individuals, from individual perspectives. Sometimes those perspectives are clearly biased and some are unintentionally clouded – but they’re biased just the same.
Sometimes history is written as objectively as a person can get, but other times it has huge pieces missing – like Boswell’s biography of Johnson missing an entire facet of Johnson’s life, arguably the biggest.
Okay: why don’t you try this with your kids?
Give them an article on some dramatic historical event that’s boring to learn about in school.
Then ask them what their initial thoughts on the topic are. What’s the story here?
Next, have them look for places where the narrative might not make sense–where there are inconsistencies and jumps in logic.
Then give them a source on the same dramatic historical event that comes from a different angle or lens, offering a new perspective on what really happened. Now, they can see the full story.
Ask them: How do you think this happened? Why has this event been misrepresented? Was it because someone just didn’t think something was important? Did the author’s bias cause pieces of history to go ‘missing?’
After going through this exercise, I guarantee you that in searching for inconsistencies and making connections, your kid will have a deeper understanding of the event and will practice more complex thought than memorizing some dates would ever allow.
Sometimes we won’t have information on what’s been left out.
But when you’ve adopted the mindset of “there’s something missing here and I want to figure out what,” it takes you from just memorizing dates and topics, to being Sherlock Holmes trying to figure out what the real story is.
It turns learning history into an adventure.
Plus, teenagers love it because we get to say that our school books are wrong, which is literally so much fun.
Learning history has so much potential to be so life-changing for every student. Making absurd connections and weaving together the story of our world is within reach for anyone. You just have to ask yourself: What’s been left out?
Scholar’s Sources: More Missing History…
While I was doing some research for this newsletter, I stumbled across some other insanely perspective-changing articles. If you want to dive into more missing history, here they are:
14 Big Facts That Were Left Out Of History
10 Figures Left Out Of the History Books
6 Big Moments In History That People Forgot About Immediately
I’m not a history nerd, but all three of these lists were extremely intriguing and made me want to crack open my history books and find out what more could be missing from the archives.
Thanks for reading. Go crush the week! See y'all on Sunday.