7 Questions With Cele Seldon, Co-Author of 100 Things To Do in Charleston Before You Die

Lynn and Cele Seldon make up the team that is Seldon Ink and have spent more than 25 years as travel journalists. With a keen focus on the Southeast and a particular love of the Carolinas, they have written hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles about the region. Their work has appeared in Southern Living, Taste of the South, The Local Palate, Cruise Travel, South Carolina Living, South Carolina Magazine, TrailBlazer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Charlotte Observer, various in-flight publications, and many AAA magazines. Their new book, 100 Things to Do in Charleston Before You Die (Reedy Press) was released in February 2018. Lynn also contributed to the highly anticipated anthology of essays honoring Pat Conroy, Our Prince of Scribes (University of Georgia Press), due out in Septmeber. Follow along on their adventures at www.seldonink.com or @seldonink. They are presenters at the Decatur Book Festival 2018, Labor Day Weekend.


1. How and/or when did you get you hooked on history?
I’m not sure I would say that either of us are hooked on history. But we are hooked on travel. And so much of travel is history-based. You can’t visit the South without getting a huge history lesson on the Civil War. And you can’t visit New York City without learning how our nation evolved with the arrival of the first immigrants. And you can’t visit Greece without a history lesson on ancient Greek civilization. You get my point. History is wrapped up in travel and travel is wrapped up in history. And we were both bitten by the travel (and history) bug as young adults.

2.  What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?
The opportunity to travel has opened up a world of curiosity. And much of that curiosity centers on history. How did cultures develop? How do (and did) people live, both in our own culture and in the cultures of others? History has made us stop to ask why, how, when, where. And we use that curiosity to constantly learn about the world around us.

3.  How is history part of your professional career?
In writing travel stories for magazines and travel books, like 100 Things to Do in Charleston Before You Die, we are constantly having to research the history of a place, people, building, attraction, customs, etc., and translate that into an interesting and compelling story of where to go and what to see. Although we travel and visit places to see what they offer today, it’s the history of the location or destination that complete our stories.

4.  Why is studying/knowing history important?
Everyone should have a curiosity in the world around them. The hows and whys are as important as the what and wheres. Life would be pretty boring if we didn’t question or ask about the past. And how can we make the future better without knowing how we got here in the first place. To me, they go hand in hand.

5.  What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?
I’m kind of partial to the WWII era. As a Jewish woman, I’m fascinated by the Holocaust and all of its implications. And how the world changed after the war. It really was the beginning of a fascinating era. As a Southerner, the Civil War era is also part of my fabric.

6.  What sets Charleston apart as a destination?
Charleston has become the darling of the Southeast for her grace, beauty, history, and oh-so-Southern dining and hospitality. She charms visitors with her lush Lowcountry landscape, Civil War history, antebellum plantations, cultural and artistic opportunities, James Beard Foundation award-winning chefs and restaurants, shopping, and the gracious and welcome reception from residents. Naturally you can find tons of suggestions of where to go, what to see, where (and what!) to eat, outdoor recreation, events and entertainment, and where to shop ‘til you drop in our new book, 100 Things to Do in Charleston Before You Die, available on our website, www.seldonink.com.

7.  How did you become travel journalists? Any advice for others who want to become travel journalists?
Lynn came by it honestly as a young army officer stationed in Germany who took advantage of being in Europe. He traveled around on weekends and started writing for Stars & Stripes, the Armed Forces newspaper, as a creative outlet. Once he returned to the states, he had amassed a portfolio of clips and decided to try making a career of it. I, on the other hand, went the easy route and married into his already established travel journalism business after a corporate career in marketing. As far as advice goes, visit a book store and buy magazines and study what they are covering. Research the publication, the editor, and the topics extensively. Then travel with your eyes wide open. Look for places and people (and history!) that inspire you. And that would make a good fit for your targeted publications. It really isn’t rocket science.

7 Questions With Erin Hromada, Office of the House Historian

Erin Hromada has worked in the United States House of Representatives for eighteen years.  Currently, she is director of the Office of the House Historian, U.S. House of Representatives.  She has an undergraduate degree in history from what is now Meryhurst University in Erie, PA.  She also earned an MA in history and a MLS from the University of Maryland.  The Office website is http://history.house.gov/

1.  How and/or when did you get you hooked on history?

I realized that history was my favorite subject in 3^rd grade.  At that point it was more Social Studies oriented, but I loved learning about different cultures and the world.  After reading Johnny Tremain in 7^th grade, I was hooked on the Revolutionary War and the Constitution.  I still have my high school copy of the Federalist Papers.

2. What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?

Outside of work, I am always talking about history.  Whether it is talking to my three young sons or my neighbors, history is never really in the past. 

3.  How is/How was history a part of your professional life/career?

I have what I would call my dream job.  Every day I get to go to work to preserve the institutional history of U.S. House of Representatives.

4. Why is studying/knowing history important?

To be a good citizen, you need to know the history of your country.  This allows you to answer the questions about how we got there and we should be going.  Knowledge is power.

5. What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?

I still enjoy the Colonial Era of U.S. History.  The founding fathers stood up for what they believed in and then created a government. 

6. What is the origin and mission of the Office of the House Historian?

Our office existed off and on since the bicentennial.  The Historian’s Office works with the Office of Art and Archives.  Together, the offices preserve, collect, and interpret the heritage of the U.S. House, serving as the institution’s memory and a resource for Members, staff, and the general public.  Our website is: http://history.house.gov and our Twitter is @USHouseHistory .

7. What are some of your favorite stories or little known facts about the House of Representatives?

I love the quirky stories about the House.  The section on Historical Highlights on our website has been baby for a number of years.  Some of my favorite stories are about Former Speaker Joe Cannon.  I have also authored a blog post titled, “We Can't Make This Stuff Up” and “We Can't Make This Stuff Up Either".

I also love to talk about Jeannette Rankin of Montana. She is the first woman to serve in Congress.  This year is the Centennial of her service.  What makes Rankin even more interesting is the fact that she was elected before women had the right to vote nationally.  

7 Questions with Jessica Spotswood, Author

Jessica Spotswood is the author of the historical fantasy trilogy The Cahill Witch Chronicles and the contemporary YA novel Wild Swans. She is also the editor of the historical anthology A Tyranny of Petticoats: 15 Stories of Belles, Bank Robbers, and Other Badass Girls and the forthcoming The Radical Element (Candlewick, 2018). She lives in Washington, DC with her playwright husband and a very old cat named Monkey. Jessica also works for the DC Public Library as a children's library associate.

1. How and/or when did you get you hooked on history?

I think I got hooked on history when I was in fifth grade and read Gone with the Wind. While I realize now that it's very problematic, at the time I was totally enchanted by Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler. My grandmother was also very into genealogy at that time and compiled a family history that fascinated me. The summer I was twelve, my grandfather swam in the Senior Olympics in Baton Rouge and my grandmother took me along to tour historical houses and plantations along the River Road and in New Orleans. When I got home, I started writing the first of three sprawling GWTW knockoffs that I worked on throughout high school. They were all about headstrong girls who fought with their sisters and kissed boys and rode horses during the Civil War. (I fought with my sisters and rode horses and wanted to kiss boys?)

2. What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?

I grew up in a small town just outside Gettysburg, PA, site of perhaps the most definitive battle of the Civil War. As a child, my family took hikes and had picnics on the battlefield. As a teen, my friends and I hung out at Devil's Den and tried to take pictures of ghosts in Triangle Field. History felt tactile and ever-present to me. My father is an enormous history buff with a study full of books about generals and presidents and statesmen. I was fascinated with history, but I didn't see myself reflected in any of the history books or westerns on his shelves. Maybe that's why I fell in love so hard with Gone with the Wind; it was historical, but the heroine was a girl! 

3. How is/How was history a part of your professional life/career?

My first published books, the Cahill Witch Chronicles, took place in an alternate version of 1890s New England where magic had been outlawed by the patriarchal priests of the Brotherhood. While it was alternate history, I did a lot of research into the fashion, home decor, technology, and etiquette of the 1890s and then shifted things a bit. And then in 2014 I had the idea to put together an anthology of historical fiction and fantasy about American girls throughout history, which became A Tyranny of Petticoats. 

4. Why is studying/knowing history important?

I think it's important to know where we've come from in order to celebrate the accomplishments and triumphs -- and to realize the mistakes and injustices of the past so that we can hopefully prevent them from recurring. Plus, there are lots of awfully good stories.

5. What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?

I'm pretty fascinated by the latter part of the Victorian era. I think there's something about the contrast of the old-fashioned romance of the Victorian upper class - carriages and gas lights and corsets - with the beginning of modern social movements, particularly the suffragettes!

6. You recently edited A Tyranny of Petticoats. Please tell us about it.

The contributions of women - especially women of color and queer women - have too often been erased from history. Tyranny is fifteen short stories about girls throughout American history, from an escaped slave girl posing as a sailor boy on board a pirate ship off the coast of the British North America in 1710 to a black girl who's protesting Vietnam with her girlfriend and gets caught up in the riots of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. 

The official blurb is: Crisscross America - on dogsleds and ships, stagecoaches and trains - from pirate ships off the coast of the Carolinas to the peace, love, and protests of 1960s Chicago. Join fifteen of today's most talented writers of young adult literature on a thrill ride through history with American girls charting their own course. They are monsters and mediums, bodyguards and barkeeps, screenwriters and schoolteachers, heiresses and hobos. They're making their own way in often-hostile lands, using every weapon in their arsenals, facing down murderers and marriage proposals. And they all have a story to tell. 

7. What are the hallmarks of successful young adult historical fiction?

I think successful YA historical fiction gives a sort of wonderful texture to history by strongly anchoring it in the specific details (fashion, food, music, home decor, etiquette, politics) of an era while also showing how its themes are relevant today. A great example for me is Kekla Magoon's beautiful story "The Pulse of the Panthers," set in 1968 California, in which the Black Panthers' visit to a young black girl's farm prompts her to learn the truth about her grandfather's death. It combines the personal with the political and feels very firmly set in the 1960s but also (unfortunately) still very resonant.

7 Questions with Kevin Lyle, President of Politicraft

Kevin Lyle is the President of PolitiCraft, Inc., and Rachel Lyle is the Director. The mission of PolitiCraft, Inc is to transform traditional civics learning by developing students’ social-emotional skills, literacy skills, systems thinking tools, and design learning mindsets, while fostering improved communication, civil discourse and real-world civic engagement both locally and nationally. PolitiCraft is a narrative-based ACTION CIVICS card game that guides students through varying levels of civic engagement. Through game play, students are guided by the cards to craft narratives based upon a student selected civic issue, informing them of the multiple pathways available to achieve real change in their school and community, while fostering greater civic participation nationwide.    http://www.politicraft.org/

1. How and/or when did you get you hooked on history?

I got hooked on history at an early age, starting first with an interest in aviation and then aerospace.  From the Wright Brothers, to Lindbergh, to the Mercury astronauts, I devoured whatever I could find at the public library.  Growing up through the missions to the moon, Skylab and the Space Shuttle, I was an avid collector of books and magazines documenting these events, knowing they would be “history” someday.  Some of those items even came in handy when my two daughters were in school.  I then developed an interest in politics and our political system, fed by the Watergate scandal in my early teens.  One of my favorite photos, and the one my family laughs at the most, is my smiling as 13-year-old behind Walter Cronkite on the steps of the Supreme Court on the day the verdict they ruled on the Nixon tapes.

2. What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?

As a Political Science major in college, history was a basic component of the curriculum.  It fostered a curiosity about why things happen, where the answer virtually always lies in an understanding of the what happened in the past.  That curiosity is even stronger today, as putting events into perspective now, as things change so rapidly and seismically, seems more important than ever.

3. How is/How was history a part of your professional life/career?

My career has spanned a number different fields, with both the earliest and most recent ventures touching the most on history.  Working in journalism in my twenties, and on PolitiCraft over the past 5 years, history was always a piece of the puzzle.

4. Why is studying/knowing history important?

Understanding the people and events that preceded us is, in my opinion, the only way we can successfully navigate today.  We certainly learn from mistakes, but we also learn from all the successes, the people, the events and the beliefs of what has already happened.

5. What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?

If it is not clear by now, politics and political events are my greatest interests, specifically American history.  I’ve wondered many times where I would go if I was given the chance to travel back in time and observe first hand historical events.  Would it be the first Constitutional Convention, the Lincoln White House, FDR during World War II, the missing 18.5 minutes on the Watergate tapes or anyone of hundreds of other moments that have sparked my interest over the years?  I would love to have to make that decision.

6. What is PolitiCraft?

PolitiCraft is a non-partisan action civics card game which was created in partnership with the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), nationally recognized Civics teacher, Mary Ellen Daneels, as well as business and thought leaders in the fields of social-emotional learning, communication and civil discourse. The goal of the game, in which the students/players choose a real world issue that they care about and use the card game to guide them through various levels of civic engagement, is to inform players of the multiple pathways available to them to make real change in their community. The game has been officially endorsed by NCSS.

7. How can PolitiCraft change civics and government education?

The top priority in the game’s development was to identify and integrate key tools for engaging in civil discourse including, but not limited to: collaboration, active listening, negotiating, compromising, and building partnerships. NCSS and their C3 Framework, which emphasizes the acquisition and application of knowledge to prepare students for college, career, and civic life, helped ensure that the game would meet school standards and be a real tool for learning in the classroom. The result was PolitiCraft, a fun, interesting, challenging, and inspiring game with original artwork by a Los Angeles artist.

In addition, a comprehensive set of game resources has been released on the PolitiCraft website (www.PolitiCraft.org). Additional game materials, original curriculum, instructional videos, quizzes and other civics resources can all be found on the newly updated site. A PolitiCraft user forum has also been built for all teachers and players of the game to come together and discuss the game, trade classroom ideas, and ask questions.

PolitiCraft Inc., a registered 501c3 organization, has far reaching plans for the game. Net proceeds from the organization will be helping achieve the goal of providing the game free of charge to any schools/districts that lack the resources to purchase it, while at the same time developing new versions for different levels (starting with a middle school version), and organizing community events which will bring together students and community leaders to play through the game around an issue that needs to be discussed. Ultimately, the nonprofit wants to transform traditional civics learning and build a new generation of engaged citizens. 

7 Questions with Jayne D’Alessandro-Cox, Author of Thomas Jefferson-From Boy to Man

Jayne D'Alessandro-Cox is a historian and author from Farmingdale, Long Island, New York.  Offered a scholastic scholarship to Adelphi University in Garden City, New York. 



 
Jayne is a published author of three Christian books: A Miracle in Bethlehem, A Passover Blessing, and Happy Birthday Precious Lamb.  Her fourth book is a secular biography/autobiography, for all ages, on Thomas Jefferson's early years, entitled Thomas Jefferson-From Boy to Man.

Jayne enjoys volunteering at Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson.  Besides her family and friends, writing and exercising are her most favorite past times. She is available for speaking engagements and book signings. 

1. How and/or when did you get hooked on history? 
Having to answer this question is actually embarrassing! I had many other interests before I got hooked on 18th century history and my favorite founding father, Thomas Jefferson. In 1982, I married and moved from Long Island to Charlottesville, VA, home of Thomas Jefferson and his beloved Monticello. About 10 years ago, after driving past Jefferson's birth site property, Shadwell, for many years, I began to get very curious as to what life must have been like for the young Jefferson growing up at Shadwell. (The property has been owned by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation since the 1930's or so, and the general public is not allowed up there, but a local cattle farmer who rents the property and raises his black Angus.) My curiosity got the best of me, so I went to the book store to find a book about Jefferson's early years... for a good read, and found no book on the subject. I then went to the public library, and found that every book about Thomas Jefferson was about his life post Declaration of Independence to death. I thought that was very strange, being that I live in "Jefferson Country"! After much research, I found that there was no book about his first 31 years, prior to his involvement with the Second Continental Congress. So... long story short, almost 4 years later, my book Thomas Jefferson-From Boy to Man was published. It will be out in audio book by June 2016, and it is fabulous!

2. What role does history play or has it played in your personal life? 
As a result of writing Thomas Jefferson-From Boy to Man, I remain quite busy giving speaking engagements and book signings, which I love. (See www.jaynedalessandrocox.com) I most enjoy volunteering up at Monticello at the Visitor Center, where I can meet fellow Jefferson enthusiasts. I also enjoy Tweeting about Jefferson's life and would like to encourage your readers to join me on Twitter.

3. How is/How was history a part of your professional life/career? 
Eighteen century Virginia and Early American History will remain a part of my professional life and career as long as people continue to be fascinated by Thomas Jefferson. Being that Thomas Jefferson-From Boy to Man is the exclusive book on the market today about Jefferson's first 31 years, I believe that I will continue to be involved in educating and entertaining people about this very fascinating and likeable iconic historical figure. This will keep me busy for as long as I breathe, for promoting my book it is such an enjoyable past time.

4. Why is studying/knowing history important?
Basically, history is fascinating, and I believe that to better understand who we are as a people and society, we need to know how we evolved. So it is the same with Thomas Jefferson. For me it was important to learn about the boy and his journey to manhood in order to understand the man who historians say was so complicated. After researching his early years, I don't feel that he is that complicated. I know where he was coming from, how he was raised, know what he was taught in boarding school and by whom, etc..  I feel fortunate to live in a very historical area of Virginia, which dates back to the early 1700's. As I drive the local highways, I enjoy the surrounding landscape as I drive the same roads that the early American settlers traveled, but now covered with asphalt. My mind tends to go back in time as I imagine early 18th century life for our forefathers as they surveyed the land and cultivated their crops. By learning about Jefferson's early years, I can now better understand this man of the Enlightenment who dared to question the common thoughts of his day as it pertained to science, philosophy, society and politics. So it is with the entire subject of history... learn about the past in order to understand the present, which, in turn, helps us plan for a better future.

5. What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?
Certainly 18th century America is my favorite period in history. I very much enjoy visiting Colonial Williamsburg and talking with the character actors on Duke of Gloucester Street, visiting those locations that Thomas Jefferson and our founding fathers frequented... where they went to Church, socialized, and made history.

6. Why does Thomas Jefferson appeal to you as a subject ?
I knew very little about Thomas Jefferson until about 6 years ago. Today, I can safely say I am very well read regarding his entire life, but I am most devoted to the years prior to his drafting/signing of the Declaration of Independence. When I moved to Charlottesville, VA, I discovered that "everything was Jefferson": Monticello, the University of Virginia, customs, traditions, etc. Not a day goes by that you don't hear his name on TV, radio, or at Starbucks! I had learned the basics about him in school growing up in Long Island, New York, but he was no more important than any other founding father. There were other people and places to learn about in school. I did not take any history classes in college, but majored in Business with a minor in Spanish. It wasn't until my husband and daughters moved closer to Thomas Jefferson's birthplace, Shadwell, that I became more "curious" about him, especially his birthplace, Shadwell, along the Rivanna, where he spent many years of his youth. His birthplace,Shadwell, also happened to border the property where my daughters' elementary school was located.

7. How is your latest book, Thomas Jefferson: From Boy to Man a unique biography?
It is totally unique, as it is the "exclusive" book on the market today, specifically about his first 31 years: childhood, adolescence, boarding school days, college years at William & Mary, post-graduate law years in Williamsburg, his law practice, women in his life, family, friends, events, fire, earthquakes, flood, deaths, etc. Check it out...every book, besides mine, on the market today about Thomas Jefferson, summarizes his life prior to his involvement with the Second Continental Congress in a few paragraphs...maybe 6 pages, not even a whole chapter, as if they had no real importance or significance at all. Researching for this book was no easy task whatsoever, but it is done, and I am extremely proud of it, as it continues to get 5 star reviews and amazing endorsements from readers around the country. It is very humbling to be so appreciated, as well as to have the endorsement of Rob Coles, Thomas Jefferson's 5th generation great-grandson.  An endorsement of this kind tends to tell the reader, "this is a book worth your time reading"! It is in a journal format which includes authentic Jefferson quotes, and is supplemented with historically accurate background text, meant to inform the reader.  It includes over 60 photos to enhance the readers imagination, and various appendices that further inform. 

Great news is that the audio book will be available by June 2016. The 32 year old British voice actor is fabulous, and his 16 year old son reads the young Jefferson passages....simply amazing and well worth the $29.99 investment. To read more about Thomas Jefferson-From Boy to Man, please visit my web site: www.jaynedalessandrocox.com

7 Questions with Matthew Christopher, Author and Preservationist

Matthew Christopher has had an interest in abandoned sites since he was a child, but started documenting them a decade ago while researching the decline of the state hospital system. His new book, "Abandoned America: The Age of Consequences" (JonGlez Publishing), is now available worldwide through major booksellers. His photography has been featured in numerous publications and broadcasts. He has lectured on the art of ruins, abandoned spaces, preservation, and mental health history for Preservation Austin, the Pennsylvania State Museum, Preservation Pennsylvania, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, and many others, and his work has been displayed in galleries across the US. His website has gained international attention and is considered one of the leading collections of images of abandoned spaces.


How and/or when did you get you hooked on history?
I've always had an interest in history, but it was the history of the asylums and mental health care that really spurred my interest in photography. I worked in an inpatient psychiatric facility and started reading about how care had evolved over the years; it's one of the more fascinating aspects of American culture. There was an abandoned asylum in Philadelphia, Philadelphia State Hospital, that kept coming up and I decided to go visit it. After that, I was hooked, and my interest in photography came about as part of my desire to share what makes these places so unique and special.

Masonic Temple, Cleveland

What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?
Obviously ruins are interesting on a superficial aesthetic level, but learning about how they fit into our culture and the lives of people who passed through them adds another layer of meaning and in my opinion makes them much more significant. I really enjoy learning about what makes each place interesting and finding the stories that make them come alive again.

Abandoned Asylum

 How is/How was history a part of your professional life/career?
My website, Abandoned America, has chronicled American ruins over the last ten years. My first book, "Abandoned America: The Age of Consequences" came out last year, and the follow up, "Abandoned America: Dismantling the Dream", will be released sometime this fall. Each book is not only a collection of photographs, but a journey through the histories of these sites and personal reflections on what they've become. 

Why is studying/knowing history important?
I suppose history is important for the same reason memory itself is: without it, you're sort of floating through the present without any context with which to interpret it. It also is the way we save those who came before us from passing into oblivion, much as we hope that those who come after us will remember us and that our lives will not be erased forever. History may not make us immortal, but it hopefully keeps us from being forgotten.

What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?
It shifts. For quite a while I was interested in the history of asylums and state hospitals. I still am, but the fun thing about what I do is that it allows me to explore many different facets of our past. I think if I had to concentrate in one area, the prison system might be what I'd look at next. I think the darker areas of our identity, and how we have chosen to deal with difficult social issues, reveal the most about who we really are.

What is Abandoned America?
Abandoned America is my collection of photographs from over 10 years of exploring abandoned spaces across the American countryside: factories, schools, hospitals, churches, prisons, asylums and institutions - any site I can find and gain access to, really. It's an effort to not only remember the histories of these sites, but to preserve something of this present moment as well, when we are losing so many significant parts of our past to redevelopment, blight, and neglect.

Abandoned Children's Development Center

 What do the sites you photograph have to tell us about American history?
The sites I've visited each represent unique aspects of our past. I've photographed what was once the largest mall in America, the boneyard where all military aircraft are retired, the hospital where tuberculosis was effectively cured, a derelict ocean liner that is larger than the Titanic, enormous steel foundries and auto manufacturing plants, the laboratories where cellular, satellite, and laser technologies were developed, brownfield and Superfund sites where companies have devastated the surrounding environment, and massive coal breakers. The collection includes what was at the time the most expensive public school in the US, palatial theaters which I doubt we will ever build anything comparable to again, and power plants whose turbine halls are so large they're mind-boggling. There's a bit of everything, really, and that is what makes it so fun and interesting to explore.

7 Questions with Annette Laing, Academic Historian

Annette Laing is an academic historian and former professor of early American history. She is   also the author of The Snipesville Chronicles, a series of MG/YA historical time-travel novels, and a presenter of what she calls Non-Boring History in schools, libraries, museums, teachers’ meetings, and other venues. Originally from Scotland and raised in England, Annette earned her PhD from the University of Caiifornia, Riverside. She is a published scholar, and was a tenured faculty member at Georgia Southern University before resigning in 2008.See her website http://annettelaing.com/

1. How and/or when did you get you hooked on history?
I don’t think there was a single moment when I became interested, but I do vividly remember two moments in particular, and both involve television. When I was 10, I watched the BBC’s Shoulder to Shoulder, a superb dramatization of the militant women’s suffrage movement in Edwardian Britain (also the subject of the recent movie Suffragette).  I was enchanted by the sight of very proper, posh women chucking rocks through shop windows, and agonized as they (or, at least, the actors who played them) suffered imprisonment and torture in pursuit of their civil rights. First chance I got, I cleared out our mobile library’s impressive collection of books on the subject. Two years later, I saw Roots, which ignited a lifelong fascination with American history, and African-American history especially. My magnificent secondary school history teachers in England, Alan Gardner and Colin Robson, sustained that interest for years, and also taught me how to teach.

2. What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?
It’s all-consuming, honestly, because the discipline affects how I think about everything. I can’t even drive on the freeway or visit the supermarket without contemplating the historical landscape, and how radically life has changed in the postwar period. I became an inveterate museumgoer very early in life, and have passed on that habit to my teenage son.  I particularly favor the small, specialized museums that all too often are overlooked. In Georgia, Chief Vann’s House in Chatsworth is one such: I have visited several times, and even brought a group of German high schoolers to tour it. . It should qualify as a World Heritage Site, and yet it’s only open a few days a week, which is disgraceful. Chief Vann’s House sums up the enormous and fascinating complexity of American history: It was the home of a half-Scottish Cherokee who lived in a real-life Tara, operating a chain of taverns (19^th century motels), and depending on the forced labor of dozens of enslaved African-Americans on his land, while his tenants, German Moravian missionaries, observed everything. You can’t make this stuff up

3. How is/How was history a part of your professional life/career?
I am a professional historian, an academic with a PhD in early American and British history. My scholarly work is concerned with transatlantic cultural connections in the 18^th century, and especially religion. As a historian, I am best known for "Heathens and Infidels"? African Christianization and Anglicanism in the South Carolina Low Country, 1700-1750 (2002), which challenged historians’ longstanding assumptions about the relationship between Africans and Christianity in the 18^th century. I was a history professor at Georgia Southern University for many years, but was never really satisfied with life in the academy, which is why I resigned in 2008. I had always wanted to engage with the public, and I created my first program for children at Georgia Southern in 2003. TimeShop took kids on a daylong time-travel adventure to a small town in England in 1940, where they and my students who led them (many of them in costume) enjoyed several half-hour experiences that ranged from living in a wartime home, to going to school, shopping, attending a movie matinee, and even a wedding reception. Basically, it was interactive theatre. It was the subject of an Associated Press feature, and it gave me the idea for the first of my novels. Now, I am an independent historian whose work takes me into regular contact with the public, and especially kids and teens. I can most typically be found in costume (always as an ordinary person of the past), wielding assorted props, and  entertaining audiences with disguised college lectures that make them laugh, sometimes cry, and (always) think. I am thrilled to have so many and varied opportunities to deepen people’s love and understanding of history, and, in my more insane moments, consider myself a sort of Johnny Appleseed of historical thinking.

4. Why is studying/knowing history important?
I never cease to be amazed and appalled by how little we understand and value history in America. Too many people think it’s a bunch of facts that kids should know (never mind that most adults are themselves vague about said facts), or that it’s about being interested in the quaint bygone days of yesteryear. Academic history is neither of these things: It’s a discipline, a way of thinking, that seeks to understand the past, and through it, the world we inhabit now.

I am writing hours after learning of the tragic loss of Cliff Kuhn, an eminent historian who just happened to teach at Georgia State University. Every Sunday, for years, he led a free historical walking tour of the events of the Atlanta Race Riot of 1906 for anyone who cared to turn up, and many did. Nobody who took that tour could ever look at modern Atlanta, Georgia, or race relations in the same way again. That’s the power of history. It makes us think more deeply and more creatively. I cannot imagine a better training for a career, or –more importantly-for life.

5. What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why? 
I have to say colonial America, of course, even though I am also very keen on Victorian Britain and 20^th century history in both countries. It pained me recently to hear a 20^th century historian dismiss colonial America as “irrelevant”, because it’s anything but. So many of the issues that continue to vex us originated in that period: race relations, conceptions of property rights, gun rights, consumerism, religion . . .  All these issues and more are rooted in early America, as is (sometimes) the way we think about them.

6. What are The Snipesville Chronicles and how did they come about?
I have great fun writing this series of novels about three ordinary kids from a very boring small town in Georgia who become unwilling time travelers. Fellow historians pointed out to me that the books not only entertain, but also model how we think, which was a pleasant surprise to me! The adventures of obnoxious Hannah, dorky Brandon, and spacy Alex take them repeatedly through time to a small town in England, and also to the site of the Georgia town in which they live in the 21^st century. The first book, Don’t Know Where, Don’t Know When (Snipesville Chronicles, Book 1) clearly originated in my TimeShop program: Hannah, Alex, and Brandon suddenly leave modern-day Snipesville, Georgia, and find themselves living as English kids in Balesworth, an ordinary town in the south of England, where they are drawn into the lives and secrets of the local people, in both World Wars. In A Different Day, A Different Destiny (Book 2), the three are working for a living in early industrial Britain and the slave South, and in Look Ahead, Look Back (Book 3) they come face to face with the hard realities of the 18^th century on both sides of the Atlantic.

Throughout the series, the kids are drawn into the lives of people who, despite sharing a common language, think very differently than they do. Sometimes, what happens to them is extremely funny, sometimes rather sad, but always, it’s thought-provoking. What has their experience to do with them, and with Snipesville? Those two questions hang over the entire series. One Way Or Another (due out in January and set mainly in 1905-6) is the last book in the series, I am sad to say. I thought I was writing for kids and young teens, and they certainly are my most ardent fans, but I have been rather tickled to have an adult following, too.  I am excited about various forthcoming projects in historical/time-travel fiction. I have considered writing non-fiction for younger readers, but fiction allows me to get at larger truths in a way that non-fiction (I refuse to write the ghastly “informational text”) does not.

7. What, in your opinion, should be done to improve the teaching of history in today’s schools and universities?
Really, I think the better question is not what should be done, but what should not be done. Teachers and, increasingly, professors are overburdened with bureaucracy and micromanaged to distraction. Teachers in particular have less and less control of what and how they should teach, on the assumption that their contribution is less important than prescribed curriculum and technique. Trying to standardize education is mad, of course. When formal education is successful, it is because teachers are free to teach in many different ways, and what matters is that the methods each of them uses are effective for them in reaching their students, and inculcating a passion for the study of the past. We need to support, encourage, and (most of all) respect teachers, and give them as much freedom as possible to teach what and how they like, while offering them rigorous professional development in content. Right now, our quixotic pursuit of standardized teaching perfection is leading to absolute disaster as teachers vote with their feet, and we are witnessing the bad in education driving out the good.

I would also like to see us get away from the tyranny of the survey course: The very idea that an inch-deep, mile-wide curriculum of famous names and dates somehow benefits anyone has done more damage to the reputation of history as a subject in America than anything else. What we need is to engage the subject deeply, to inspire students to read and enjoy and think about the past.