Coming to Terms with Simón Bolívar

March/April 2007 Historically Speaking 31 Davids as the men and women who rescued American beer from the Goliaths' clutches. They don't want to hear my alternative version of events, and sometimes attack me for presenting it. I've been called everything from a neoconservative to a paid mouthpiece for Anheuser-Busch to a "Feminazi." I don't quite see die connection between neoconservatism and this particular set of historical facts, but given historians' unwillingness to engage with the public, it's no surprise that some readers resist the intrusion of accurate history into their myths. After all, they've had few opportunities to talk to a working historian. But that's part of the peril—and pleasure—of writing popular history: I tamper with the public's cherished beliefs at my own risk. But in doing so, I engage my fellow citizens and, widi any luck, inspire (or provoke!) them to learn more about what history is and means. The monetary rewards are slim to none (my professor-husband—who loves academia— pays the mortgage and buys the food). But professionally and emotionally the payoff is enormous. If nothing else, I'm writing for an audience larger than six. The impact I have on one person here, another there, affects their lives and mine. I may not persuade other historians to join my cause. That's okay. But perhaps I've given some of you pause. Perhaps you understand now why I'm thrilled that the folks at Hustler chose my book for the magazine's club. If nothing else, it means my engagement with the public will continue—once, diat is, diat magazine's readers get past the pictures. In addition to Ambitious Brew, Maureen Ogle is the author of Key West: History of an Island of Dreams (University Press of Florida, 2003) andAu the Modern Conveniences: American Household Plumbing, 1840-1890 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996). Her currentproject is Carnivore Nation: The History of Meat in America (Harcourt ,forthcoming). Coming to Terms with Simón Bolívar John Lynch Leader of one of the first national liberation movements in the modern world, Simón Bolívar will always command attention. As the bicentenary of his achievements approaches , interest in him and his project can only increase. I recendy published a biography of Bolivar. And—let me tell you—he is a difficult subject. The personal events of his life were not always chronicled in any detail, either by himself or his friends, and early biographers felt free to fill in the gaps widi fables. In the absence of personal detail, die inner life of the liberator remains empty. Years ago when I first read Fernand Braudel, I noticed that he made great use of the question mark. Many of his most original ideas were expressed not as absolutes but in the form of questions . Resorting to hypothesis enables the historian to express himself without always observing the constraints of the archives. There are other tactics to retain the interest of the reader. I have tried to include all the good stories about Bolivar without compromising the demands of evidence by using qualifications such as "it is said," or "if contemporary gossip is to be believed," or "according to legend." One striking event in the itinerary of the liberator is the so-called delirio sobre el Chimbora^o, which is accepted by most Bolivarian historians as authentic. We are told that, in the footsteps of the German scientist Alexander von Humboldt, Bolivar climbed Mount Chimborazo and wrote an epic account of his experience. I have always had an instinctive doubt about this scene: I resolved Statue of Simón Bolívar, Caracas, Venezuela, 1913. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [reproduction number, LC-USZ62-54750]. die problem for myself, if not for my readers, by telling the story straight as though it were a real event, and dien reacting to it as an agnostic. Contradictions abound in die words and actions of Bolivar, not all them easily resolved. By any reckoning he was a child of die 18di century, addicted to reason, devoted to liberty and equality. Yet die audioritarian trend in his policies cannot be...