By Eugene Pletneck
ANAPOLIS, MA—After scouring the lost pages of my favorite magazine, the renowned History Magazine, I found that the unbelievable 1849 November edition is as current as ever! However, I am afraid to say, I cannot believe some of the glaring omissions!
This one had some fantastic articles on recent history that perhaps no one ever knew about. It had feature articles on Martin Van Buren and John Tyler written with such detail you felt that you knew them! It had a good one on the Irish Potato Famine which was just starting to make history. It had a good one on the Revolutionary War, with historians arguing over perspective and the role and influence of George Washington. There was a good one on the War of 1812. Oh, I could go on like this for so long!
It reminded me too much of the History Magazines from today. Because it’s so funny how the Revolutionary War still makes current news in History. It seems the times haven’t changed! And it’s funny how we write about the War of 1812…and we thought that stuff was old news!
No, I tell ya, my collector’s edition 1849 History Magazine is as true as it ever was. The only thing is, I can’t believe it didn’t mention the Gold Rush! I mean, looking back, that seems to be such a big event in history! I really feel like we lose perspective. Sometimes in history, we miss the forest for the trees, but that is an inevitable and quite sad part. But, really, they could republish this one today, and no one would no that it was out of date! That’s the great thing about history… always current, even when it’s a million years old!
