BY TOM DURWOOD
Early in his career one of our finest writers, John McPhee, wrote a memorable book about Bill Bradley called A Sense of Where You Are. In it, the writer developed the idea that Bradley, the best college basketball player in the country, succeeded not due to athletic ability but because of his “extraordinary range of vision.” This constant and accurate sense of where he was in relation to the shifting patterns of his teammates, the opposing players, and the basket gave him an edge as important as any physical skill.
It is this same idea that University of Maine Professor Anne Knowles now takes up in a fascinating new approach to history.
Robert E. Lee, she argues, did not have a clear sense of where he was, and paid the price for it. That is, his limited understanding of the battlefield topography was a significant influence on the decisions he made during those three days at Gettysburg. Had he known more accurately where the Union positions were, for example, he might have endorsed Longstreet’s recommendation.
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We are all like Robert E. Lee: each of us is influenced by our geography.
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“If Lee had looked longer and harder, from more vantage points, at the Union position … he might have been more willing to swing south below the Round Tops to attack the Union from behind.”
If we don’t stand where he stood and see what he saw, Prof. Knowles argues, then we really don’t get it.
There is a deep well of wisdom in Prof. Knowles’ approach. A growing number of scholars are discovering that we are all like Robert E. Lee: each of us is influenced by our geography. Richard Florida, Jared Diamond, Robert D. Kaplan and Benjamin Schwarz are just a few of the people measuring how the powers of place can affect our cities, our careers, our health, our food, our identities and our cultures. All of our lives and all of our stories are richer for an appreciation of where we are.
For more please see my interview with Prof. Knowles:
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