Article by Jon Savelle
The Issaquah Press
www.issaquahpress.com
Wednesday, September 12, 2005
Page B6
If you could magically step back in time and accompany great individuals or witness historic events, which ones would you choose? And what could you learn from them?
Issaquah writer Michael Class, a former dot-com executive, wondered the same thing. But unlike the rest of us, he decided to provide some answers - by working with his son, Anthony, to write and publish “Anthony and the Magic Picture Frame,” a book of history that also offers what Class considers to be the salient moral lessons of history.
In the book, a young boy (Anthony) enters a magic picture frame and finds himself witness to history in the making: the moon landings, the inventions of Thomas Edison, Lindbergh’s flight across the Atlantic, the D-Day landing at Normandy Beach, the development of the polio vaccine.
In each chapter, the narrative is written as if it were Anthony’s own account, while quotes from historic figures are woven in. Class does this with an engaging writing style and a feel for his intended readers, primarily students in grades 6 through 12.
Accompanying the text is a striking series of historic photographs that have been digitally manipulated to include Anthony. The idea is to illustrate how the magic picture frame has transported Anthony through time and space.
Class and his son put four years of effort into the images, first by Class learning digital photography and Adobe Photoshop image-processing software, then by shooting pictures of Anthony to mesh with the originals.
The results are startling, to say the least. There’s Anthony with astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the moon; Anthony with Italian immigrants traveling steerage to America in 1915; Anthony with Lindbergh in his Spirit of St. Louis airplane; Anthony in Edison’s workshop; Anthony as batboy to the New York Yankees in 1927.
A huge effort was made to reproduce the lighting and costumes in the historical images, and Anthony worked hard to achieve the right mood. Everything was done against a blue backdrop in the family garage, so all Anthony had to work with was his imagination and a little stage direction from his dad.
In one image, Anthony is with a U.S. soldier, who liberates a French family during World War II.
“I had to look at the picture, see who was next to me, behind me, in front of me - and make it look like I was handing the candy bar to the little girl,” Anthony said.
Once Class had the image he wanted, adding it to the original photograph took some computer sleight of hand. The lighting could be done in the studio, he said, but “The shadows I had to paint in, pixel by pixel.”
Besides Anthony’s narrative and his presence in historic, often iconic photographs, Class’s book has another feature that is sure to please some readers and grate on others. And that is the moral lesson Class applies to each chapter.
Expressed in Anthony’s words, each is based on religious faith, on a belief in good and evil, on leadership by example, and on American patriotism.
Class’s homilies are understated. But they do reflect his moral convictions. Even his footnotes bear the stamp of his opinion.
At the end of a section on the Holocaust, Anthony observes: “In my time, evil is the cause of a new World War. And once again, it’s a war in which some people fight, some people surrender and some people sit by and do nothing - praying that evil visits others, but not them. History repeats, I guess.”
A footnote to this statement adds, “Anthony is referring to the War on Terrorism in his own time. The war was named for the tactic most often used by the enemy - ‘terrorism,’ or violence against innocent civilians - but it is really a war of ideologies, that is, beliefs. The War on Terrorism pits the forces of freedom and democracy against the forces of tyranny….”
This language echoes the rhetoric of the Bush administration, and is thus subject to debate. It is not the assessment of professional historians working with the benefit of years of research and analysis.
But that is intentional too. Class doesn’t expect everyone to accept his view; he only wants to stimulate discussion.
Teachers might ask whether students agree with Anthony, and why they agree or not.
Class released his book September 11, 2005, coinciding with the four-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. The timing was deliberate because September 11 is one of the events that got him thinking about the meaning of history and how it is taught.
Since the book’s release, Class has sent dozens of copies to school districts, libraries, newspapers, television shows and other outlets, hoping for broader exposure and perhaps some orders. But so far, only home-school parents have bought the book in significant numbers.
“Word-of-mouth got out in the home-school market,” Class said. “They are attracted most definitely by the moral aspects of it.”
To help students, and particularly teachers, make use of the book, Class included exhaustive footnotes plus lists of references and other sources to use for further study. Among them are books, movies, recorded music and historic sites to visit.
On Anthony’s suggestion, each is accompanied by a checkbox, to be filled in when the student has seen, read, heard or visited that entry. There is even a final exam on Class’s Web site, www.magicpictureframe.com.
The book can be purchased through the Web site, at some bookstores, from amazon.com, and by calling (800) 247-6553 toll-free. The price is $35.
