Historians Love to Think of Themselves as Detectives. I Think I Know Why.

Peter Bergen: Historians love to tout an association with detectives and mysteries.

He says popular history textbooks and classes use the association as a selling point.

Like detectives, historians need to ask good questions, seek help, solve problems creatively, and search out unexpected resources, he says.

The Strange Genius of Mr. O: The World of the United States’ First Forgotten Celebrity. James Ogilvie had a long, successful career in Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia. He abandoned that job in 1808 in favor of jumping on his horse and traveling from town to town giving public talks. He later confessed that he saw “in their faces a suspicion, that his mind was deranged.” But at the very end of my research, I found a letter that made me realize I should have asked more questions.

If Ogilvie had lived in the 21st century, he likely never would have publicized his struggles so openly due to the stigma experienced by many people on the bipolar spectrum.

Doctors advised patients suffering from melancholy that two solutions to their troubles were to travel and to engage in public speaking.

Doctors believed these activities allowed sufferers to feel that they could take charge of their own health.