History and 'staches

One of the most difficult things for me in college was a task that, on paper, looked rather innocuous. It would say something along the lines of "Write a #-page paper on a topic related to Xth-century history." A whole century to choose whatever topic I liked! And then came the avalanche of options. Do I write about a person? An event? A battle? A war? An election? A crisis? Do I try to find a topic that is not commonly written about in Xth-century history?

One of the most popular history courses in college was one I honestly feared to take - History of the Holocaust. I feared it because it is a hard subject to read about, not be biased toward. And, I wondered, if after a whole semester of reading about the horror and atrocity, would I be a little more immune from it? It was not something I wanted to be immune to. I did not want to think of it in so-called academic perspective, rolling off the statistics and quotas and percentages. So, I did not take that class. Or any class related to World War 2.

However, if I had been in a World War 2 class and been asked to write an essay, and I had as much time and creativity I could muster, this would be the essay I would want to have written. There are a few things that come up quickly that would not have worked for my situation. I am not Jewish and I am not a man. But to study the history of the toothbrush "Adolf" mustache, see where it began and how it changed the world, that would have been an excellent paper.

Rich Cohen, the author of the article, alludes to something, but does not say it outright. He writes about some of the US presidents and their facial hair of choice. After World War 2, no president has sported facial hair of any kind. It is like to have facial hair at all risks reminding people of that last famous political facial adornment. And, as Cohen mentions, the so-called "evil" political leaders after the war to today are the ones with facial hair. Castro, Guevara, Pinochet, Abdullah, Hussein.

This is not to say all people with facial hair are evil. I know men sporting the face hair and they are wonderful, kind people. But it is an interesting facet of history to look at.