Enjoying the latest print issue of History Today. I appreciate both the content and the form. It resembles an old-fashioned newspaper with features and short human interest stories. I read those first, then the articles that look interesting.
This month includes an inside look at Thatcher’s speechwriters. Unlike most politicians she recognized her own limitations. After some failed speeches she hired a huge staff of writers. She knew what she wanted to say, and gave them hints and outlines, then negotiated to get the best result.
Creating and editing are NOT the same skill. We don’t learn this in school. We learn that great writers and great inventors worked alone with no help. Nonsense. Bach had a workshop. Most great painters had workshops. Edison had a workshop. Harold Ross of the New Yorker was a semiliterate farm boy who had an ear for what sophisticated NYC types would buy. Harley Earl of GM couldn’t draw, but had an eye for what would sell best.
In politics as in design, the final result matters far more than the initial creation. FDR’s writing was clumsy, but his speeches are memorable because of what he DID. He told us awkwardly what he would do, then he did it masterfully and perfectly. Ike was famously clumsy in speech, but he KEPT HIS PROMISE to pull out of Korea and avoid new wars. He warned us about the evil effects of federal grants and offshoring, and he was right.
Polistra's Mill 