Telling Stories: A Meditation on Love, Loss, History and Who We Are

In April 2010, in the course of a single week, my 18-year-old daughter Frances suffered a series of strokes and died. This lecture gives voice to love and loss. Frances’s death also has pushed me to consider the work of the historian, to a deeper understanding of the losses suffered by the subjects of my current research—20th-century American families whose children died or were grievously injured from flammable fabrics—and to reflect on how heartbreaking losses are revealed or concealed in that most public expression of our professional identities, our c.v.s. “Telling Stories” weaves these four strands into a narrative; a meditation on love, loss, history and who we are.