H. W. Brands is doing American history in 17 syllables and 140 characters

For historian H. W. Brands, there are many ways to write about history. When teaching his students at the University of Texas the different tried and true formats for a good paper, Brands, who is known for his books “Andrew Jackson” and “The Age of Gold” to name a few, likes to emphasize that any form is acceptable.

“If you wanted to, you could write history in Haiku,” Brands told chief arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown. “I’ve been saying this for some years when one semester, one bright student said, ‘Well, Professor Brands, have you ever written history in haiku.’”

This challenge happened to coincide with the advent of Twitter and thus, “History in Haiku,” a chronological telling of North America’s past, was born.

“I’ve observed that the forms available to writers have changed over time and I thought one of the most radical changes was Twitter, the idea that you would send this message in a 140 characters. It occurred to me that the 17 syllables in a haiku fit conveniently in 140 characters of twitter.”

The Treasury's vaults / Bleed their gold alarmingly / Bankruptcy threatens. (J. P. Morgan rescues the Treasury, 1895)

— H. W. Brands (@hwbrands) April 28, 2014