Sheldon Spear authors book: '1938: American Historical Panorama'
Jul. 17—WILKES-BARRE — Now retired, Sheldon Spear said he taught history at the college level for more than 35 years.
You might say he knows the topic extremely well.
Spear, 85 of Shavertown, has written a book on a topic he has always found to be fascinating — the book title is "1938: American Historical Panorama."
Spear said he has been in the habit of writing since the early 1970s when he completed his history Ph.D. dissertation at NYU — it was more than 500 pages long.
"In the early 1980s, I wrote my first book, an autobiography called 'Growing Up Shy in Brooklyn,'" Spear said. "I could not get it published, but I enjoyed the process and was hooked."
From there, Spear said he launched into Wyoming Valley history with four books, followed by a biography of Daniel J. Flood (2009) and in 2015, "Pennsylvania Histories: Two Hundred Years of Personalities and Events, 1750-1950."
"By that time I had authored five books and was eager to do a sixth," Spear said. "My decision was to undertake something dealing with American national history, which I had not done before. I also would follow the example of historians whose attention focused on short, or relatively short, time periods."
Spear said he chose the year 1938, a time of general peace — with the exception of major wars in Spain and China — and a year characterized by innovation and/or chaos.
Spear provided a synopsis of the book, which he said can be purchased in Barnes and Noble stores or online, or at Amazon.com, and it is available in eBook and print formats at Archway Publishing. The book can also be ordered through the Archway Publishing Book Department by calling 844-669-3957.
"Autumn of 1938 brought one of the worst hurricanes to ravage American soil since the beginning of European colonization," Spear says in the book's synopsis. "The storm of Sept. 21 killed approximately 680 people, and that was more than the Chicago Fire of 1871 and the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake combined. Eastern Long Island and most of New England were devastated. The storm's destructiveness perhaps can best be grasped by its felling of 275,000,000 trees."
That's just one sampling from the book. Here's another:
"Although the world was still generally at peace in 1938, prospects of the U. S. being drawn into a future general conflict were increasing. Germany seemed to be pushing Europe into another world war, and its espionage agents were already active here.
"Almost as ominous was Japan's aggression against China, some of which touched Americans. For example, in December 1937 Japanese aircraft sank the U. S. Navy gunboat Panay. It had been cruising the Yangtze River in case it was needed to safeguard American lives during the assault on Nanking. Later, in the summer of 1938, while flying over Chinese soil an American civilian plane suffered a similar fate.
"Meanwhile, across the world in Spain, as many as 2,800 volunteers from the U. S. eventually joined the conflict against General Franco's rebels who were heavily supported by Germany and Italy. Nearly 800 Americans died in the Spanish Civil War."
"Members of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion and their compatriots fighting in Spain were heroes to some, but radical Reds to others in their homeland."
Spear also writes about the "little if any discord," however, about the heroic qualities of pioneer aviators.
"Charles A. Lindbergh had lone led the field due to his 1927 solo transatlantic flight. But by the late thirties his status had declined because of his obvious admiration for Hitler's Germany.
"Howard Hughes, a one-time and future movie producer, had broken several speed records over U. S. territory. In 1938, with a small crew and an ultra-modern plane he himself had partly designed, Hughes became the nation's new top aviator by breaking the record for circumnavigating the globe."
Spear also writes that 1938 also saw the advent of the superhero. He cites two young men from Cleveland — writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster — who sold Superman to a comic book company. He said Superman became popular immediately and, in time, gave rise to a Superman comic strip, a radio show, a movie serial, and several TV shows and feature films.
"This superhero also inspired the emergence of others, such as Batman, Captain Marvel, and Wonder Woman," Spear writes. "Unfortunately for Jerry and Joe, corporate interests kept them from making the huge profits they thought they deserved for their creative efforts."
Spear's book also notes that Franklin D. Roosevelt was a bit of a superhero himself — certainly among the most popular of presidents.
"Yet the miseries associated with the Great Depression, before and during 1938, stimulated the growth of radical groups of both the left and the right," Spear writes. "Membership in the Communist Party rose from 7,000 in 1930 to 75,000 in 1938. Massive unemployment certainly aided recruitment, but so did the party's embrace of idealistic causes. That strategy drew many intellectuals and young people, including at least half the Americans fighting fascism in Spain."
About the author
A native of Brooklyn, New York, Sheldon Spear earned a BA in political science from Brooklyn College, an MA in history from Syracuse University, and a PhD in history from New York University.
He has written numerous guest columns, lectured frequently to community gatherings, and entertained listeners on local radio.
Spear's awards include the New York Regents College Scholarship and National Endowment for the Humanities grants on Russian Literature and Society (at the University of Illinois) and on New World Slavery (at Johns Hopkins University).
New Yorkers by birth, Sheldon and his wife Marsha have resided in Northeastern Pennsylvania for the last 55 years. They are the parents of Jennifer, Geoffrey and Eric and the grandparents of Erin, Paige, Zoe, Cora, Miriam and Ruth.
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Reach Bill O'Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.
