This piece was originally published in Contingent Magazine. You can read the entire article here.
“Excuse me,” a visitor asked as they tapped my shoulder. I was leading a tour group for the National Parks of Boston. We were standing inside Faneuil Hall and just about to hit the Freedom Trail. Faneuil Hall was the social, political, and commercial heart of colonial Boston. It also was an arena for action and resistance before, during, and after the American Revolution.
The visitor inquired, “Is this one of those woke tours?”
I paused. I thought he was joking at first but he waited for a response. “What do you mean?” I replied.
He asked if the tour was “political.” I told him that our tour was about the American Revolution in Boston, so yes. He said “okay,” but looked unsatisfied.
The question caught me off guard and I chewed on it for days afterward. The visitor seemed to think I possessed some sort of ulterior motive, that I was here to advocate a political position through the medium of historical storytelling.
It made me wonder: when is history advocacy and when is it not? The answer is complicated…
The Sketch Book of Nick DeLuca 
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