Reading for Understanding Our Past

By Russ Laher

June 29, 2003

On our connection to the past, I am compelled to pen a few words on the expanse of vocabulary prerequisite to bridging an understanding of the rich literary works that elucidate it. I have just read a most charming volume by Maria Edgeworth called Castle Rackrent. It was written in the year 1800 and describes the harsh, by present day standards, land-owner relations with its tenants on a large estate in Ireland, a situation ripe for social and economic revolution. How I came upon this little-known work is convoluted: my study of economics through a class I took at Pepperdine University from the wonderful Professor Gertmenian led me to read a very interesting history of economics called the Worldly Philosophers by Robert Heilbroner, in which it was mentioned, almost in passing, that Maria Edgeworth, whose nephew was Francis Ysidro Edgeworth, who would go on to become one of the great economists of the Marginalists school, was the first woman to express serious opinions on economics in her writings. She also was known to have played charades on many occasions with David Ricardo, another great economist from the Classical school. It is of incalculable worth that Miss Edgeworth took the trouble to include a companion Glossary of Irish idioms for the ignorant English, as she put it, as a handy reference for the unfamiliar terms used in Irish vernacular by various characters in her story. Without this aide, uncovering their meanings would be a daunting, if not fruitless, task of search and discovery in reference books. And so goes it with the mindless television watching of the masses, pickling their brains with jazzy images repeated frequently and often (Kurt Vonnegut wrote something to this effect), rendering them ill-equipped for reading the great store of fiction and nonfiction alike of the giants of ages past. It is a complex world in which we live today, it goes without saying, and scarcely a thing or idea exists that doesn’t have a genesis in our near or distant past. Understanding that connection to our past can help us make more sense of our present-day world. The written archive of world knowledge is immense and our educational system gives us only a small sample of it. Many years, if not a lifetime, must be devoted to its study in order to begin to penetrate the haze of ignorance resting before us. Diligence and relentless pursuit, in other words, hard work, is really the only answer. There are so many books to be read that one really has no time to stop and take any notes of great detail, but rather to commit the material to memory to the best of one’s ability, while blazing through chapter after chapter. This cannot be done by speed reading, though, but instead must be measured at a slow enough pace to allow the reader to ponder and appreciate the art form of the writing and relish the well-turned phrase or kernel of wisdom, which are as abundant and tasty as California fruit on the vine. A healthy vocabulary acquired through prodigious reading makes further reading more efficient, as less time is spent looking up words in the dictionary. The only way to travel this journey is to begin reading at an early age, read well-chosen titles on variegated topics, continue reading all your life, and keep a big thick dictionary at your elbow. I am now almost 42 years old, have had the great fortune to have read a great number of books on a wide variety of subjects, and now my list of books I’m planning to read is longer than ever, perhaps long enough to keep me busy for another 42 years, if I live that long.