Listening Across Divides: Tony Horwitz Will Be Missed

We lost another great writer this week.   Yesterday we learned that Tony Horwitz died at the very young age of 60.

I am most fond of his book Confederates in the Attic, but I've always been impressed with his ability to immerse himself in whatever story he's telling.  It's a technique that allows him to dive deep and avoid the errors of shallow thinking.  He's followed many a trail, literal trails, like in his latest book Spying on the South, where he took the same trip as Frederick Law Olmsted, a nineteenth century architect and designer of Central Park.  He went from New York City to Mexico, trying to duplicate the pre-Civil War journey of Olmsted, while reading Olmsted's account.  What a fascinating approach!

Until reading some of the remembrances of his work, I hadn't realized how many of his books have found their way into college History classes.  He gives an essential piece of insight for History students:  "'I think part of what I wanted to do is restore a little bit of the unpredictability to history.  . . . It didn't have to unfold this way, it could well have gone very differently'" (in this NPR piece).

As I've spent some time reading about him this morning, I feel the sorrow that comes when we've lost a rare voice that seems essential for our time.  Instead of resting in stereotypes, Horwitz went out to meet people and record their stories.  He shows us where we might have common ground.  Very few people are interested in doing that these days.

In a recent op-ed, Horwitz says, "Our current national fracture isn’t over slavery and freedom, or so clearly defined by region. But I came away from my travels feeling that there’s still great value in seeking, as Olmsted did, to cross geographic and ideological divides and engage with fellow Americans as individuals rather than as stereotypes."

He goes on to say that he had the occasional insult but far more common was the genuine curiousity:  "In almost every other instance, I’ve been met affably, by drinkers open about their views and curious to know mine, as a visiting writer from “Taxachusetts.” Often I hear opinions I don’t expect, like self-described right-wingers dissenting from Trumpian orthodoxy on health care or a border wall. More often, we disagree across the board, vigorously. In two years of travel on Olmsted’s trail, I doubt I changed anyone’s mind, nor did they sway me from my political stance."

But changing minds doesn't need to be the point.  If we could just listen to each other, for a change, that might be enough.

Tony Horwitz was one of those writers who knew how to listen and how to tell the stories that people gave him in a way that showed respect and love.  We have so few people who know how to do that.  What a shame to lose one of them.