Old Wisdom, That's Not So Old

    "Millions of young people were dragged along the same powerful currents, sharing a sense of desolation, feeling bitter and scornful over the betrayal of our hopes by the politicians, the businessmen, the military leaders."

    Now, you might think the above sentence is something recently written by a columnist or essayist of some sort who is describing the situation in the world today, post-COVID. I mean, we've had a pandemic, we're hip-deep in racial and religious bigotry, and we've got threats to liberal democracy from both the Left and Right. Even the most optimistic person has to be thinking, "These are not the best of times." But, dear reader...you would be wrong. Those words were typed by the historian Aaron Sachs, in his new book Up From The Depths: Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and Rediscovery in Dark Times (Princeton University Press, 2022). He's referring to the disillusionment of many Americans who came of age a century ago and had fought in World War I. It reminds us, or at least it reminds me, that these so-called "unprecedented" challenges that we face have been experienced before. Sachs reminds us that the incredible pace of change in the modern world, and the discontinuity that these changes bring, can leave many feeling unmoored, feeling "as though we have been completely cut off from the wisdom of history." This is a story about an historian, a biographer...and America's Bible! Tell 'em, Sancho. Buckle-up, you bi-peds. This is gonna be a long, but informative one! 

    A man named Lewis Mumford was part of the above-mentioned, WWI generation. He served and returned home to America where many were celebrating the centennial of Herman Melville's birth. Believe it or not, during the last part of the 19th century, Melville's writings had been overlooked for quite some time (Really, Boss? Herman Melville? Forgotten? C'mon...!). Hold on, Sancho. Fortunately, smarter people prevailed and Melville's work was soon to experience a renaissance. This renaissance would be a lifeboat for Mumford. 

    You see, Lewis Mumford was a biographer. And a quite gifted one who had the vision to recognize the importance of Herman Melville's work. Mumford, like many others, had struggled psychologically during the war, and that struggle would continue to haunt him as he returned home. Modernity, at first, was not kind to him. But as he worked his way through Melville's writings, he saw a kindred spirit who also struggled against the currents of modern times. And even though this process was emotionally taxing for Mumford, Melville's influence on him was huge. As Sachs so eloquently puts it, "It was Melville, more than any other intellectual or artistic ancestor, who helped him to cope with his own sense of overwhelming and then develop his own vision." [italics added] And as I devoured this wonderful journey through time and literature, it suddenly hit me that maybe this could help us today, all these decades later, to cope with our own sense of overwhelming. 

    Herman Melville was just 21-years-old when we made his way to New Bedford, Massachusetts, the center of the whaling world, at that time. Although his family was a prominent one with proud Revolutionary roots, they had fallen on hard times. So as he made his way in that whaling world to try and make a name for himself outside of his family, he found the gauntlet of harsh conditions, multiple ships and captains, and constant need for medical treatment a little much. At the end of his maritime career he lived in the South Seas among a people called the Typee (which would be the title of his first work in 1846). After enjoying a leisurely existence among the Typee, he returned to America for medical treatment and the knowledge that he must become a writer. 

    While Melville's bibliography contains well over 20 works, it is Moby Dick that stirs the imagination and is his greatest gift to us and the world. Sachs talks about Moby Dick as something that is inter-weaving. It threads "fiction and fact, past and present, storms and calms, and most importantly, fate and free will, submission and defiance, culture and nature, doubt and faith, "civilization" and savagery, grief and good cheer, chaos and order, land and sea, darkness and light." [italics added] I know that's a lot to take in, my friends, but I'm going on my third reading soon (it takes a lot of extra gym work to buckle down for Moby Dick) and I'm still a novice. But I find innumerable instances of everything that Sachs describes above. Quite simply (or maybe, not so simply), it's all about the human condition. And as his biographer, Lewis Mumford recognized this early. Due to his time in World War I, Mumford knew it was not simple, and he knew of what Melville spoke. He would be grateful, as any reader should, that Moby Dick was a modernist questioning modernity. It looks backward and forward; it embraces science but also critiques science; it tells a classic adventure (that is told time and time again in our present-day, from The Godfather to Star Trek). As Mumford concluded in his biography of America's greatest novelist, "Melville's work, taken as a whole, expresses that tragic sense of life which has always attended the highest triumphs of the race, at the moments of completest master and fulfillment." [italics added]

    Because Mumford was born when he was, whaling ships were by his time, a thing of the past. After petroleum was discovered in Pennsylvania late in the 1850s, the need to hunt the great whales was unnecessary (but disgustingly, continued). Mumford traveled the seas on large steel battleships powered by that Pennsylvania petroleum. I'd like to imagine that Mumford silently cursed his late birth so that he could not enjoy the great masts whaling ships sailed by Melville. But, like Melville, he was shaped by his time at sea. And like Melville, Mumford knew that he "must become a writer." 

    Mumford, however, did not write fiction. He is remembered for his histories of cities and the environment, as well as his commentary on civilization. I was fortunate enough to read excerpts of his works in college. He was frighteningly gifted. He might not be a household name now, but he was one of the foremost intellectuals in this country by the middle of the 20th century. Sachs tells us that, "Your attitude toward ecology, modern architecture, and even social media has probably been shaped by Mumford's eerily prescient writings." Mumford has been called "the last of the great humanists." Sachs asserts, with full-throated volume, that "It is time for a Mumford Revival." How cool is that!

    For me, the most compelling argument for a Mumford revival is his insight into the world around him. He corrects a flawed understanding of history, held by people of a certain ilk. He was one of the first public intellectuals to recognize the threat of fascism in the 1930s. In 1939 he wrote Men Must Act, imploring Americans to confront the threat that Hitler posed. I have no doubt that he would have raised his voice in defense of liberty against the current fascist threats from the Middle East and Russia. Soon after that he wrote Faith For Living, for "those survivors who would reach the shore."

    Mumford knew, better than most, that the past offers wisdom. Far from being stupid or not worth the time to study, the past can help us find out who we are and where we come from; and most importantly, the thoughts and ideas that work and teach us about the human condition. These troubled times we live in have been experienced before...by Mumford and by Melville, and by many others. It is by seeking the wisdom of the past that we, as human beings, may bring about a renewal. To quote Mumford, again, "I but remind the reader of those durable ideals of life which in the past have kept humanity going during its most anguished and shattered moments. Forgetfulness of these ideals has helped to bring the very catastrophe we must now live through, remembrance of them may help us to survive it." [bold added]

    This revival that I would welcome is enough to greatly encourage all of you to read Up From The Depths. It is this wonderful "art of discovery" that distinguishes Aaron Sachs' treatment of Mumford's and Melville's influence on him from other works of history. This type of rediscovery requires pauses and head-turnings (like most things), and a willingness to flash back and forth in time, and open yourself up to the unexpected. Sachs' book is a wonderful example of this art of rediscovery.

    Up From The Depths is "a story of two modern wanderers, convinced of their aloneness but still looking for connection." [I'm pretty sure we can all relate to that.] The book starts in 1927, the year Mumford began his biography of Melville. The chapters alternate between Mumford's biography and Melville's. Some of the best works of history, for me anyway, alternate between the past and the present. Because it is this type of genre that shows how similar Melville and Mumford were, even though they were separated by decades. They met uneven success, were married and had children. Both suffered the death of a child, and experienced estrangement and dissatisfaction in their marriages, though their affection for their wives lasted until their final days. 

    Sachs' story is about the relationship between the past, present, and the future. As someone who studied history and literature and continues to bathe in both, I know it's a bit of a dork thing to write about. But it's about the cataclysmic changes between the 19th and 20th centuries, and how we hear the echoes of the past. The book also offers you a tether, or a lifeline, as it were, if you feel unmoored and alone as a result of the dizzying pace of modernity all around you. By telling "the story of these two modern wanderers" Sachs shows us the possibility of connection despite the years and the changing circumstances that separate them. And through that, maybe we can connect just a little better, and maybe...just maybe...learn a little something about ourselves. 

write to Peter: magtour@icloud.com