What's Elizabeth Reading? ...John J. O'Hagan

Let me be clear about something: No one at my work asked me to review books. I do it because I love to read and any excuse to spend time reading while at work is a good one. My only criteria for which books I read is it must have a local author.

That said, I wasn't super excited about reading John O'Hagan's When the Basques Ruled California. It's a history book, and as much as I have always wanted to enjoy history, I have never really been able to get into it. I wanted teachers to share stories, but they always shared events connected with names, places, and dates. I wanted to learn about past cultures, but they always shared technological advances and cultural shifts. I wanted the details, they gave the big picture.

But O'Hagan gave me what I always wanted from a history book. I got to learn about the woman who stormed out of mass because she was the object lesson of the day, and really her husband had cheated on her and none of it was her fault. I got to learn about the Franciscan priest who just wanted to be transferred away from the frontier but dutifully followed orders anyway. I got to read about the native who killed his wife so he could have relations with another woman without getting in trouble for adultery. I even read about that man's judicial proceedings, but not in so much depth as to be boring.

I actually wondered whether O'Hagan was being ethical; was he making personalities up? Was he taking artistic license to fill in the blanks? When I asked him about it during our interview for the paper, he told me he was able to go into that much detail because the Spanish and Basques of the time were obsessed with record keeping. He had all the info and wasn't making anything up.

The other reason for all the detail, though, is O'Hagan thinks history is about people, not events, dates, or places. Basically, he is the teacher I wish I had had. The book was easy to understand, interesting to read (especially if you already cared about the topic), and detailed enough to help you form a full picture of what was going on - both the big picture and the small one.

You can read my Idaho Press-Tribune review here. I came at it from an angle of describing the process that goes into writing and publishing a history book, just for interest's sake. For those curious about that process, or the publishing process in general, I recommend giving it a read.