Put the Story in History

Stop the Insanity
Put the ‘Story’ in History

Quick.  Pop quiz.

But read carefully.  There’s a catch.

Question: Which best describes the Battle of Antietam?

A) Near Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17, 1862, the Army of Northern Virginia engaged the Army of the Potomac, resulting in 22,727 casualties.

B) Beginning in a cornfield at dawn, Union troops ferociously fought back a rare Confederate attack on northern territory—on what would become the single bloodiest day in American history and a turning point in the Civil War.

Well?

Remember, I didn’t ask which was the right answer.  Both of them are factually true.

I asked which was the better answer.  The more vivid answer.  The more interesting one.

That’s the question I wish more teachers, administrators, and especially textbook writers would ask when it comes to educating our kids.

I don’t know what your history and civics classes were like growing up, but I sure remember mine.

Not what I learned.  But how they were taught.

It wasn’t pretty.

It was all dry, dusty facts.  Dates.  Names.  Numbers.  Memorize this, memorize that.  Rinse, repeat.

Retaining any of it was impossible.

Hard enough just staying awake.

Our approach to education, I’m happy to say, has come a long way since then.  But not far enough.  We can do a lot better.

We have to.

Luckily, I’ve found a technique that really works.

It’s true I mostly write fiction.  (Lots of it.)  But I author some nonfiction books as well.

Whenever I do, I take the exact same approach as my novels.

I want them to hook readers from the first sentence.

I want them to be full of fascinating characters.

I want them to be suspenseful, stirring, surprising.

I want them to tell great stories.

There’s an idea out there that only certain kinds of books should be fun to read.  Thrillers, romance, fantasy, sure.  But a history book?  A biography?  A textbook?  To be “good,” getting through it has to feel like root canal.

I think that’s nonsense.

The best works of nonfiction don’t just spew lists of dull facts and random dates.  Like the best novels, they weave them into unforgettable human stories.  Stories that rouse our emotions.  That give us context.  Nuance.  That help us understand.

Great stories are the way to get someone to really learn something—and remember what they learned long after.

It’s what I’ve tried to do in every nonfiction book I’ve ever written, whether it was a biography of Tiger Woods, an exposé of the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein, or an account of the assassination of King Tut.

In the case of Walk in My Combat Boots, Walk the Blue Line and E.R. Nurses, I went even further.  I let real people tell their own real stories.

I was blown away.

In American Heroes, a new group of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, who have all served overseas and won some of this country’s highest military honors, recount their harrowing real-life experiences.

American Heroes

Their own words are more powerful than anything I could have written—and make clear the true meaning of sacrifice and heroism.

This isn’t a plug for my latest book.

It’s a plea to educators everywhere.

Don’t make our kids memorize useless facts they’ll never remember.

Harness the power of storytelling to teach them and inspire them.

It works.  I’ve seen it.  Again and again.

And I can prove it.  Right now.

Think back to that pop quiz about the Battle of Antietam.

You probably can’t remember the name of the town where it happened, or the date, or the exact number of casualties.

But the image of those brave young men fighting in a cornfield at dawn, defending their ideals… and the staggering, historic loss of life in a single day that forever changed the fate of America…

I bet that’ll stay with you for a while.

—James Patterson

For more of my “Stop the Insanity” essays, please visit my Substack.