Three years ago, Harvard Law School Professor Terry Fisher was growing more concerned about political divisions in the United States, but he was not entirely convinced that things were as bad as they appeared.
“I had a hypothesis, which was that the degree of polarization in the populace at large was exaggerated by the media, and that if you could just talk to people, the fundamental decency of most Americans would come through,” he says.
To find out, Fisher, a woodworker since childhood, spent the next year designing and building a custom camping trailer out of African mahogany and set out on a nearly two-month adventure crisscrossing the country with a trusty companion — his dog, Harry.
Fisher’s goal, he adds, was simple. “Most of the time, I was in red states, and one of the main functions of the trip was just to talk to people.”
Fisher first learned woodworking from his father, often practicing with his great-grandfather’s antique tools. But a lot of what he knows today comes from years of practice — and old-fashioned trial and error. “I read books and I make mistakes — and I learn from those mistakes,” he says.
While Fisher does not object to modern woodworking instruments — “I’ll use whatever is appropriate for the project,” he says — he still prefers the elegance of time-tested equipment like his great-grandfather’s.
“I have a bias toward old hand tools, such as hand saws, planes, and chisels,” he explains. “I prefer working with them because they’re more aesthetically pleasing and also quieter.”
That might come as a bit of a surprise to those who know Fisher as the faculty co-director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and an expert in intellectual property and technology law — subjects that are decidedly contemporary. But Fisher says he enjoys the challenges posed by the low-tech, ancient craft of woodworking.
“Paying attention is very important,” he says. “There’s relatively little rote work. Most of the time, you have to be thinking, because it can be hard to fix mistakes.”
Coincidentally, Fisher’s faculty assistant, Eve Radovsky, is also a celebrated woodworker, and her intricate pieces have been featured in Fine Woodworking magazine and at the Harvard Staff Art Show. Fisher praises her work, although his own aesthetic tends toward modernism — that is, geometric shapes and clean lines — with few non-functional embellishments.
“I try to create shapes that are both functional and pleasing,” he says.
Fisher particularly enjoys designing and building furniture — he made many of the pieces that grace his office at Harvard, and he created a center island cabinet for his home kitchen. He also constructs and repairs boats, including a 70-year-old yawl, on which he and his wife and dog can often be found sailing.
But Fisher’s magnum opus may be his trailer, dreamed up in 2022 and inspired by John Steinbeck’s classic travelogue “Travels with Charley,” in which the famous author and his canine companion set out on a road trip with a customized camper.
For his own travels across America, Fisher spent a year designing and building a tear drop-shaped, mahogany wood trailer, complete with marine hatches for windows and skylights. The camper, which contains a bed and a small kitchen, sits on a light aluminum frame and is fashioned to be aerodynamic. Fisher can even add a tent to extend the camper’s living space, which came in handy when he was joined by his wife and daughters at various points of the journey.
In the end, Fisher and his dog zigzagged around the country for six-and-a-half weeks, driving more than 10,000 miles, and stopping along the way to fish, hike, and chat with people in every part of the continental U.S.
“I was much relieved to find that my hypothesis proved true,” he says. “I had lots of honest but pleasant conversations with people of many political stripes that were respectful and productive.”
People were interested in his story and his hand-crafted trailer, Fisher says, but more than that, they were interested in dialogue.
“The kind of vitriol, sarcasm, and animosity that is highlighted in most of the recent depictions of the American population, I didn’t find.”
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