Historical Fiction and Social Justice
By: Sarah Lyall-Neal
Tags: Historical Fiction, Books, Social Justice, Reading, Civil Rights

A couple mornings ago, I started discussing the Cuban Missle Crisis with my husband while we were making breakfast. He rolled with it sharing a memory of seeing a movie about the same historical event with his dad when he was younger. There’s a reason he didn’t question my discussion of not so current events, he’s been with me long enough to know there was a book involved in my line of thinking.

The book in question was Edge of Eternity by Ken Follett, the last of his Century Trilogy. In the Century Trilogy, Follett does so much more than entertain, he uses human perspectives to teach history. Having been born 24 years after the Cuban Missle Crisis occurred, I only understood it on an abstract historical level. I was taught to believe the crazy soviets tried to bomb us poor innocent Americans and thank goodness Kennedy put an end to the madness.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Cuban Missile Crisis, it was a confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union that took place between the 16th of October and the 20th of November 1962. The United States had an interest in stopping communism in Cuba and the Soviets wanted to protect Cuba’s autonomy. The situation escalated when the United States started putting ballistic missiles in Turkey, which was too close for comfort for the Soviets, and the Soviets started putting ballistic missiles in Cuba, which was too close for comfort for the Americans. Both superpowers were looking out for their own interests.

What I didn’t understand prior to reading Edge of Eternity and subsequently researching the Cold War, was how close my parents and grandparents had come to being wiped off the planet. If either country would have fired one of the missiles, it would have had a devastating effect on the world as we know it.

Follett helped me to step into the shoes of not only the Americans but the Soviets as well. As you read, you are immersed in the dance of diplomacy happening on both sides. I hadn’t had that experience so intensely since I read All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. All Quiet on the Western Front was written from the perspective of a young German soldier who was experiencing the depravity of World War I.

I was in college at the time and I remember the exact moment when I finished the novel. I sat on my parent’s couch, clutching the book in my hand, thinking “those dang Americans how could they?” My next thought was, I’m an American and cognitive dissonance ensued.

Events rarely happen in a vacuum, but looking back it can be easy to point out our own strengths while focusing on the foibles of others. History books rarely teach what the enemy did right or even what their motivations were. Children are usually taught from the hero vs. villain perspective. In my case, the Americans were the heroes and anyone who opposed us was just showcasing their poor judgment.

Photo by History in HD on Unsplash

A few days passed and I continued reading (Edge of Eternity clocks in at 1098 pages), the Cuban Missile Crisis ended and the focus switched to the situation in East Berlin and simultaneously the problems in the southern United States. Again, I started to see parallels that I hadn’t before.

In East Berlin, the communists had a police force who ruled via brutality. Anyone who was even suspected of being anti-communist might be punished horrifically. Follett illustrated this brutality by showing his character’s escape attempts across the Berlin Wall. One character fell across the wall and ended up paralyzed and another was shot as he was crossing.

In the United States, during the same time period, African Americans living in the south were being ruled by a police force that utilized barbaric tactics against them. Follett took his readers to the streets of Montgomery and showed how the police handled peaceful protests with water canons, nightsticks, and dogs.

How was the treatment of African Americans in the southern United States any different than the treatment of East Berliners during the same time period? If you can’t see the difference, you are not alone.

Despite what was happening in our backyard, we were over in Germany acting like peacekeepers and valiantly providing support to East Berliners who made it over the wall. From my position as armchair quarterback, this seems a bit hypocritical.

Reading historical fiction provides us with insights we couldn’t obtain by looking at history through the purely factual lens of a textbook. The fictional characters take us by the hand and escort us into their worlds and help us understand how and why things are happening from a human perspective.

Photo by Vince Fleming on Unsplash

After experiencing these insights, I found myself thinking about what future historical fiction writers will have to say about the times we are living in now. How is it possible that 60 years after the civil rights movement started, we are still fighting the same fight? Why do African Americans and other minorities still have to be afraid of the police?

There is still a deep divide in the United States between the haves and the have nots. The top 1% of the country has more money than the bottom 80% according to the Brookings Institution. Americans are further saddled with 1.6 trillion dollars in student loan debt, which disproportionally affects middle to lower-class families.

This article is likely making me sound unpatriotic, but that is far from the case. I love the United States and I feel blessed to have been born here and to have been given the opportunities I have been given. I read about the past to be informed and to hopefully find ways to have a positive influence on the future.

I worry about the current push to erase remnants of our countries history, such as statues, road names, etc. I understand the desire to not promote racist figures as heroes, but we can’t pretend the past didn’t happen. The past is the best teacher we have. We can look back on the past and see what we did right and learn how we can improve upon our mistakes, but we have to be willing to admit that we do have a past…skeletons and all.