To Russia with Plutarch, or the Usefulness, Sometimes, of Going Closer In

Some sort of closeness, a link, seems required between a historian and her subject, but how much and what does the closeness provide? Is looking for closeness good historical practice? Willard Sunderland's essay engages these questions through the story of his retracing of John Quincy Adams's 1809 sea voyage to St. Petersburg as America's first ambassador to Russia. Drawing on records of the journey, Sunderland sailed after Adams in his own sailboat in 2023, following the same route and reading the same books along the way, including Plutarch's Lives . The result, Sunderland argues, was indeed a sense of unexpected historical connection that gave him a new and meaningful view of early US–Russian relations.