With the notable exception of art historians, few people would conflate art and history. They are two different disciplines that employ widely different materials and techniques. Defined generously, however, there may be a hint of art in history as I practice it, which is basically storytelling. I’ve been telling Milwaukee’s story for 50 years now, and I tell it for the same reasons that drive many artists to do their work: a blend of instinct and intention.
Our careers, if we’re lucky, choose us. They begin as sparks that we blow aflame, over the years, to provide us with warmth and sustenance. I began writing about Milwaukee in 1972 because I had to. Like many artists, I instinctively sought an underlying coherence in the seemingly random patterns of life, and I did so by trying to locate my own story in the context of the larger community’s narrative.
That’s still a primary motive, but over time I’ve developed a broader and more intentional understanding of history. I define it very simply as why things are the way they are. The present has only one place to come from, and that is the past; it is history that makes that connection visible.
Although it’s a solitary discipline in practice, history has a powerful communal dimension. Everyone alive on the planet today is sharing a single historical moment, one that places us between millions of moments that went before and millions more to come. That means we’re all in this together. We are the only link, the living bridge, between past and future, and what we do with, or to, our world, our society, and our city will shape the lives of generations to come.
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That sense of shared fate—and shared responsibility—is very much endangered in American society today. We are a fractious and fractured people who struggle to find even the most elemental common bonds. There are numerous ways to restore a healthier balance, and the one I’m pursuing is local history. I believe in the power of story to shape our understanding of who we are as individuals. I believe in the power of shared story to shape a sense of who we are as a community.
The communal story is what I tell—a modest endeavor, to be sure, but one I undertake in the service of something larger. My hope is that by helping people put their stories in the context of our story, I can help to close some of that troubling distance between the individual and the community. My ultimate goal is to encourage a sense of ownership and finally a sense of belonging for everyone who calls Milwaukee home. But it all starts with story.
by John Gurda
The Milwaukee County Historical Society presents, “City of Nations, An Evening with John Gurda, 6 p.m. Thursday, January 12.
Visit: John Gurda
Photo Credit: Erol Reyal
