Club plumbs the drama and details of the past
When Robert Groeling strides up to the lectern, you are
immediately transported back to the bloody fields of Gettysburg or
into the private parlor of Abraham Lincoln. He looks the part of a
Civil War soldier
– salt-and-pepper moustache and an accompanying patch of beard
below his lip. His blue Union shirt and gray Confederate trousers
are a tactile connection to the book he holds in his hands.
Groeling, a 23-year veteran high-school history teacher at
Seaside High School, makes a journey once a month to the Barnes
&
amp; Noble bookstore in Gilroy to lead a cadre of history buffs
through a series of featured history books. Groeling has been
leading a history workshop for about a year
– ever since he attended a history club meeting at another
Barnes
&
amp; Noble and stopped off at the Gilroy store to complain about
not having a local club.
”
They told me, ‘Well, why don’t you lead it,
”
he said.
”
So here I am.
”
Club plumbs the drama and details of the past
When Robert Groeling strides up to the lectern, you are immediately transported back to the bloody fields of Gettysburg or into the private parlor of Abraham Lincoln. He looks the part of a Civil War soldier – salt-and-pepper moustache and an accompanying patch of beard below his lip. His blue Union shirt and gray Confederate trousers are a tactile connection to the book he holds in his hands.
Groeling, a 23-year veteran high-school history teacher at Seaside High School, makes a journey once a month to the Barnes & Noble bookstore in Gilroy to lead a cadre of history buffs through a series of featured history books. Groeling has been leading a history workshop for about a year – ever since he attended a history club meeting at another Barnes & Noble and stopped off at the Gilroy store to complain about not having a local club.
“They told me, ‘Well, why don’t you lead it,” he said. “So here I am.”
This past Sunday, about a dozen members of the Barnes & Noble History Club met to talk about “American Brutus” by Michael Kauffman, a history of John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Lincoln. During January, February and March, the theme is the American Civil War – readers began with “Brutus” and are now reading “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.”
Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, “Rivals” covers Lincoln’s leadership style and understanding of human behavior and motivation to advance his political goals. Goodwin studies the relationships Lincoln had with three men – William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase and Edward Bates – he selected for his cabinet, all of whom were opponents for the Republican nomination in 1860. Yet instead of carrying on the political struggle after the election (note to modern presidents), he brought three powerful adversaries into his cabinet.
Next month the club will take on Stephen W. Sears’ popular history of the most infamous battle of the Civil War, in “Gettysburg.”
But it was last Sunday’s 2 p.m. session on “Brutus” that highlighted Groeling’s conversational style of delivering a history lesson. He takes queues from the gathered readers, often going off on delightful tangents. Did you know that Tad Lincoln, the president’s son, was also at a theater on the fateful night? Not Ford’s, rather The National Theater watching a production of the same “Aladdin” of which Disney films made an animated version.
Mary Surratt was hung as a coconspirator to the assassination, but did you know she was also the first woman executed by the U.S. government?
How about the fact that the sergeant who shot Booth in the Virginia barn, Boston Corbett, often talked to God and was so fearful that he would succumb to the allure of prostitutes that he, well, neutered himself.
This is the richness of the characters Groeling brings to readers. He himself is a descendant of a Civil War soldier who died while serving under Gen. Joseph Hooker – himself a character who was known for keeping a lively headquarters, and that the word “hooker” is popularly attributed to him.
“The family lore has him being marched to death under Sherman, but he actually died of dysentery under Hooker,” Groeling said.
Much to the consternation of Groeling’s wife, the history teacher is also an avid Civil War buff who has belonged to the National Civil War Association and is trained in both artillery and infantry of the era.
“We once vacationed at Civil War sites and went to the scenes of 12 battles in 12 days,” he said. “My wife didn’t appreciate it too much.”
For more information on the History Club, contact the Barnes & Noble store at 408-846-5777.
