Autobiography: A Scholar's Life by T. R. S. Broughton (1900–1993) = American Journal of Ancient History (review)

I have long urged colleagues to compose tell-all autobiographies. Along with letters, they are the best sources we have for the modern history of classical studies. I have already begun mine. We have here the welcome autobiography of T. Robert S. Broughton. A Canadian, he took his BA and MA at Toronto and his doctorate at Hopkins. He taught at Amherst College, Bryn Mawr, and as Paddison Professor at the University of North Carolina. He was president of the APA and visiting professor at the American Academy at Rome. He was crucial in establishing L'Annee Philologique at UNC. In short, there were many opportunities for insider knowledge, something more truthful than the official version. Former students report that his lectures were filled with amusing anecdotes of other scholars. We find none here. He wrote the book in his late eighties at his family's urging, largely to preserve information that would not survive his death. Some twenty-five Broughtons are discussed. His prose is lucid; his style candid. The book is chronologically arranged. Unfortunately, chapters lack informative titles. He was a solid scholar. What he wrote, not least his Magistrates of the Roman Republic, lasts. I eagerly began the book, convinced that I would learn much. An affectionate introduction by his son introduces the narrative.

Unexpectedly, I was disappointed. An autobiography (or memoir) is not a biography. A good biography must be objective, not distorted by the author's politics, gender, racism, or homophobia. An autobiography contrarily must mirror its author whether a communist, fascist, homosexual, or atheist. It should explain what seems like irrational behavior. The real man must not be hidden. I think the problem here is the readership for which Broughton composed. This is a book for grandchildren and not for colleagues. Once one understands that, the book is a delight to read. It is the tale of a dream come true. A poor farm boy, the first in his family, goes to school and college and then a PhD at Johns Hopkins in something called Classics! Part-time jobs and fellowships allow him to travel throughout the former Roman Empire. He repeatedly visits Classical sites. Here is the disappointment in his narrative. The book is largely a series of travel reports with strict attention to archaeological remains, not fellow travelers: a Guide Bleu or a Baedeker. We are told of the author's miraculous memory, but I assume he used some travel notes in reconstructing details. Perhaps some ruins that he described ninety years ago have been damaged. Thus his report will inform a modern expert. But if read as a document of virtue (intelligence, hard work, loyalty, and honesty) rewarded, his narrative is an inspiring vision of a lost and better world. Familiar figures, often friends and former teachers, cross the stage. We are given the names and little more of men like Togo Salmon and Sir Ronald Syme. What really caused Broughton to leave Bryn Mawr for Chapel Hill? He is a nice fellow who likes everybody and is reluctant to utter a word of criticism. Occasionally disapproval is implied by omission. His chairman, George Kennedy, rates only a fifteen word subordinate clause (196). A "very formal elderly Latin teacher" (139) at Exeter, who drove his son from Latin goes unnamed. There is one exception. We are told much of Lily Ross Taylor (passim esp. 231–235), whom Broughton much admired. They were good friends and learned from one another. An informative unpublished essay of 1970 on "Roman studies in the twentieth century" concludes the volume. The errors I found are largely minor ones in the capacious sixty-three page index, which identifies persons mentioned with dates and positions held. Unexpected was Adolph for Adolf Hitler (274...