“Necessary Trouble” by Drew Gilpin

I give a qualified and measured "Thumbs Up" to Necessary Trouble by Drew Gilpin Faust. It is in an unusual autobiography, focusing on her life from the age of seven to her graduation from Bryn Mawr College in 1968 at the age of 21. Basically, a partial memoir which frames the author’s youth - an intense time of intellectual, emotional and social development. A secondary purpose is to detail her home life, which effectively captures society in the American south in the 1950s and 1960s. This is the Jim Crow era - pre-civil rights legislation. Finally, she provides a broader cultural history of the United States with the radical and explosive changes of the 1960s. The civil rights movement, the anti-Vietnam war protests and the emerging demands for equal opportunity for women are at the heart of the authors formation, and inspired her life as a historian, educator and activist. The book is NOT about her life from 1968 to 2023 and the narrative of how she evolved into a renowned scholar and dynamic leader will undoubtedly be the subject of a future volume. This book is well written. The prose is clear, clean and descriptive. The author jumps off the page as a serious and ultra earnest young woman. Her maturity level at 21 is extraordinary and it is no surprise she has experienced great professional success and recognition since then.

Who is Drew Gilpin Faust? She is a distinguished historian and has authored six highly regarded books. Her academic focus is the antebellum south and the Civil War. She served as the 28th President of Harvard University from 2008 to 2018. She was the first woman to serve in that role, the first person from the south and the first to become Harvard President with no degrees from that institution. Her tenure at Harvard was high profile and often controversial. She was leading proponent of affirmative action and created a ground breaking financial grant program aimed at increasing middle class representation in the student body. She's been highly critical of School District efforts to ban Critical Race Theory in curricula and stated that "Harvard was directly complicit in America system of racial bondage." She is an unapologetic and unreformed liberal progressive in an era where such transparent leanings have fallen out of political favor. She has been described as "woke" by some of her conservative academic compatriots. She is no shrinking violet. Her views today are directly linked to her formative and educational experiences in the 50s and 60s, all detailed in Necessary Trouble.

Her pathway is unique and her blood lines are fascinating. She was a child of privilege. She was born and raised in the Shenandoah Valley Virginia. Her home region was the symbolic capital of the Old South. Her father was a Princeton graduate, a World War II officer and hero and a serious equestrian and horse breeder. Her paternal grandfather was a US Army General in World War 1, a friend of General Pershing and eventually a United States Senator from Virginia. Her paternal grandmother was a character from "Gone with the Wind" central casting. Beautiful, opinionated and a passionate advocate of the "Lost Cause" narrative of the south and the Civil War. Her father's family was genteel, civilized, polite, prominent and comfortable with a social structure based on white supremacy. They were safely ensconced at the top of that system. Her mother was from New England. She is stunning, an accomplished equestrian with no serious education or ambition. She never fell in love with the south, but adapted to its mores and never challenged the basic principles. Drew’s relationship with her mother was volatile and frustrating. Her mother did not encourage Drew’s love of learning and told her that a college education was a waste of time for a woman because it is a “man's world” and always will be. Her father was distant and frustrated by lack of financial success, particularly for a person of his social station and prominence. Drew had three brothers who are rarely mentioned in the book. Her mother died suddenly when Drew was 19 and the cause of death was never discussed within the family. Frankly, it doesn't appear to have been "Happy Days" type childhood, despite the outward appearance of normalcy and high social status. There are significant gaps in the family story.

She is vivid in her observations of the rigid social system in the south. Blacks were ever present, but lived in a separate universe from white citizens. Most black males served as farm laborers or drivers. Black females were domestics or cooks. It was an ironclad caste system, built on the principles of white supremacy and black compliance. Black children did not attend the same schools as white children. Blacks did not vote. White children regularly addressed black adults by their first name. Black women prepared the family meals but never ate it in the same room as the white family. Everyone was Christian, but whites and blacks attended segregated churches. White believed that a system which kept blacks separate and subordinate was consistent with the “natural order“ of things. Whites generally believed blacks were “good" with the system. Blacks were trained from birth not to make waves or to challenge the basic social structure. Everyone should remain in their assigned space with no social interactions between races. Sexual relationships between black man and white women were the cause of most lynchings in the south. The Prince Edward School District (authors home district) response to the Brown v Board of Education school desegregation decision was to close the public schools and establish private academies with public subsidies, a policy aimed at keeping black and white children separate. The system didn't sit well with the young Drew Gilpin. She asked the family black chauffeur why the blacks didn't fight back and actually wrote a letter to President Eisenhower telling him segregation was immoral and he had an obligation as President to eliminate this injustice.

She also saw that white women were suffocated, confined to traditional roles. Working women were rare; the idea of a female entrepreneur was beyond amusing – considered absurd. Women leaders or public role models were absent. The Shenandoah Valley of the authors youth was a beautiful place in many ways, but the strict racial and gender expectations and classifications clearly made a huge impact on Drew Gilpin.

How does a young woman raised in this rigid environment graduate with a High Honors degree from Bryn Mawr College in 1968? The book traces that journey. The author is transparent in discussing her intense personal drive and ambition. She committed at a very young age to chart her own course – social standards be damned! She is not shy about highlighting her intellectual fire power and academic success. From grammar school forward, she was a "top of the class "student. She was a voracious reader. She read the entire Nancy Drew series (amazing how many female leaders started off with Nancy Drew), the Diary of Anne Frank and to Kill a Mockingbird . There were female role models, maybe not in her neighborhood, but in literature. Women of intelligence and drive who lit the path for Miss Gilpin.

Her great leap forward was based on her educational choices. For high school, she left her home in Virginia and attended a prestigious all girls girl boarding school in Connecticut, Concord Academy. Here, the administration was female and the teachers were women who had graduated from college with Honors. Tremendous opportunities were available for women - leadership roles in class and in the social realm on campus. She embraced the opportunity whole heartedly and lived the school mantra "Use your Talents to Make a Better World". She attended a speech by Martin Luther King at Groton which inspired her commitment to a civil rights revolution in the United States. She traveled abroad, attending summer enrichment program in Eastern Europe. She met students there prepared to challenge Communist party orthodoxy. She also refused to stay on the sidelines as a mere observer. At the age of 16, she went to Birmingham to support the civil rights moment. She returned to Selma a year later. Truly incredible! She then became an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War, concluding it was unwise and immoral. She marched in Boston, Philadelphia and Washington. At the same time, she kept her nose to the academic grind and graduated at the top of her Concord class. She then matriculated to Bryn Mawr and climbed to the top of the academic totem pole there. Ultimately, she earned Masters and PhD degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. She was a reader and the doer. The baby boomer generation produce many sparkling individuals, but Drew Gilpin is certainly an extraordinary representation of her generation. Kudos to her!

I admit to some discomfort with elements of the book, both in substance and tone. She is very hard on her mother and her father essentially disappears from the story when she enters Concord at the age of 13. Perhaps, some unfair treatment here. Her parents allowed her to make the break, leave Virginia and attend Concord. She mentions her mother visiting the campus and cross examining the faculty on their qualifications. Her mother also vetted the background of all the students who attended the international summer trip to Eastern Europe. The group included several black students and her mother signed the consent. I also suspect her father funded all these adventures. Perhaps, her parents were more complex and nuanced than their portrayal in the book. Perhaps, they deserve a thank you from the author. She created her own path, but they certainly didn't stand in the way, presumably understanding their daughter was pursuing a life that rejected many of their own principles. The absence of warmth in the book’s treatment of the family makes me uncomfortable. Perhaps I am overly sentimental.

The other dissonant note is simple. I wish I liked Drew Gilpin more after reading her story. She is extremely impressive, intelligent, earnest and without fear. She pursues justice and is an advocate for engaged citizenship. However, she's not much FUN and tales of humor, silliness, youthful indiscretions or craziness are noticeably absent from the text. Seriously I am not sure I would have hung with her –probably have been content with admiring her from afar. Basically, she is a bit sanctimonious and not very kind to those who cannot keep up with her brains wise or did not immediately recognize the wisdom of her social views and policy positions. These are probably just speculative quibbles from a more light hearted soul. I can sense she would be a load at Board or Faculty meetings.

Finally I look forward to the inevitable Volumes two and three of her autobiography. Specifically, her life from 1968 to 2023. Has she mellowed? Does she have regrets? Has she changed her mind on any of the major issues? Did her relationship with her family improve? Did she enjoy being a wife and mother? How did she handle the backlash to the civil rights and anti war movements? How about the Reagan Revolution? What about Obama and God forbid - what about Trump? As she concluded her story in 1968 the correct path for the future was very clear to her. She was optimistic and confident about the country. I look forward to the rest of the story and her analysis on whether we have met our potential as a society.