Saturday, July 4. 2015
A remarkable fellow.
A wonderful book, The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan, has done a lot to rebalance the early history of America. It is rarely recalled that the Pilgrims were headed to the New Amsterdam area - already a busy and growing Dutch settlement - but got stuck in Plymouth due to weather climate change and made the best of it.
Gettysburg and Pickett's charge.
A bad bad war, crazy. I mostly blame Lincoln but, in general, the northern Republicans. Any union ought to be voluntary. Slavery? That was going away anyway in the Western world. Today, we would say "negotiate." Result? 600,000 Americans dead, and a federal government with more power than it was ever intended to possess.
Tragic, all around. Liberia was a good solution and a good recompense, but I am glad for most of the African-American influence in American culture. Better off here than slaves of Moslems in Africa, but better if none of it ever happened.
Friday, June 26. 2015
An 1866 lithograph by Robert Dudley shows the HMS Agamemnon, one of the first ships to attempt to lay a transatlantic telegraph cable, dwarfed by the SS Great Eastern, the ship that eventually accomplished the task, and the first one large enough to carry the entire cable length by itself.
The story here: A Wire Across the Ocean - The first telegraph cable to span the Atlantic revolutionized communication, but it also transformed business, politics, and even language.
Monday, June 15. 2015
The Great Charter, a revolutionary blow against the dominion of government. Magna Carta and the Law that Governs Government
Sunday, June 14. 2015
I feel sad to be reaching the end of this book, packed as it is with the history and culture of the rowdy Jacobean England which was the context for what is considered the finest work ever written in English. My ditto on that.
The translating committee members needed to know Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Their instructions from King James were to produce a book majestic and poetic in tone but simple enough for an illiterate plowman to comprehend. James' goal was to have one bible for one people, and he even included Separatists on the committees. (The two Bibles in English at the time were neither majestic nor poetic. Those Separatists who became the American Pilgrims used the Geneva Bible which was a dry tome.) The King James has a few notorious mistranslations (eg camel and needle), but that's niggling.
God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible (2005) by Adam Nicolson
Thursday, June 11. 2015
Cooking With Glass. One more wonderful American story. What a country of tinkerers we are.
Wednesday, June 10. 2015
Based on a request in the comments from my Cinque Terre post, I thought I'd put something together on Lake Trasimeno.
My visit to the lake was very short, but deliberate. I had a full day of history in Rome at the Forum, Colosseum, Circus Maximus, and Catacombs. My family is not fond of 'history' or 'battle' vacations, so I decided the best way to handle this was to pack it into the drive from Florence to Rome. On that drive, we first stopped at Siena, and spent several hours walking the beautiful streets of this city. Siena was too short, and worthy of a separate post altogether. But for me, the visit meant we were only an hour from Lake Trasimeno, which was 15 minutes out of our way on the final ride to Rome.
As a result, it was easy convincing everyone that dad could have one more slice of history pie.
Along the way, I told the story of Hannibal and the battle, and why it was so significant. First, it was the largest ambush in history, and remains so. Second, it was one of the first examples of a military turning movement. Finally, it was a decisive victory for the Carthaginians, wiping out two entire Roman legions by a factor of at least six Romans to one Carthaginian. However, some estimates put this ratio at 11 to 1.
Continue reading "Lake Trasimeno"
Sunday, May 24. 2015
Not Yours To Give - Davy Crockett on The Role Of Government (from: The Life of Colonel David Crockett, compiled by: Edward S. Elis, 1884)
A good story.
Thursday, May 14. 2015
Jack Barsky held a job at some of the top corporations in the U.S. and
lived a seemingly normal life -- all while spying for the Soviet Union
Tuesday, May 12. 2015
We recently linked Surber on Col. John Gunby. A history buff pal emailed this comment:
Saw your post about the colonel. Cowpens indeed was an interesting battle and a first class case study in the power of effective leadership and using an opponent's aggressive tendencies against him (mental jiu jitsu). The real hero there was Brigadier General Dan Morgan. He was a veteran of French and Indian War (shot through the neck, the bullet knocking out two teeth and exiting through his cheek), present at the disastrous siege of Quebec (where he served with honor and took the responsibility of surrendering when his commander was killed). He led a corps of riflemen at Saratoga (as a colonel) and then, sick and not promoted by Congress, went home to Winchester, Virginia, where his home, named Saratoga, still stands. He came out of retirement to defend the rebellion again during the calamitous situation in the South in 1780 and came up with the strategy that won at Cowpens. Among the British regiments that surrendered there was Fraser's Highlanders, the 1st battalion of the 71st regiment of foot. I own one of the 200+ Second Model Brown Bess muskets issued to that battalion, used as a foraging gun after the war.
Last week, B. and I walked the Cowpens battlefield alone with the chief park ranger on a beautiful sunny day (very unlike the January day the battle actually occurred). It was very evocative, as was the reality that practically no one visits the site anymore (history, what is history?).
The best book on the battle from a detailed perspective is A Devil of a Whipping: The Battle of Cowpens. If you would like to read it I will deliver it to your door.
Ninety Six, North Carolina, where Morgan later conducted a siege that failed through a lack of supplies, also is quite interesting. His engineer for that siege that that bridge guy: Thadeusz Kosciuszko (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadeusz_Ko%C5%9Bciuszko).
Morgan's superior at Quebec, Benedict Arnold, was wounded not killed.
Wednesday, April 15. 2015
I’m not going to paint this post with pictures or videos, but just let the words stand on their own. Today is Yom Hashoah, the day of remembrance of the millions of Jews singled out for slaughter in World War II and the heroes who fought back. Everyone says “never again”, but we all know that is a hollow pretense for almost all who say it. We have watched mass slaughters, including some specifically targeted against discrete ethnic or religious groups, and done little or nothing. As always, almost all say it’s not their business or they don’t want to get involved or similar. So, where does that really leave the Jews of Israel who are daily, openly threatened with extinction by MidEast fanatics who are gathering the means to do so, and getting closer? It leaves the Jews of Israel to do everything possible within its limited persuasion and power to protect itself. That’s the simple truth of the matter. And, the other simple truth of the matter is that the enemies of Israel have so infected this administration in Washington that it is speeding and easing the day of confrontation, in effect and in direct consequences of Washington’s weakness.
It is not surprising that some Jews in the US go along, either out of comforts or lack of ever actually feeling the wolf’s breath. There have always been such. And, although fate has not been kind to them in the past, they are an infection that is not due any excuses for their perfidy. These are simple truths. We will all face the violent outcome and consequences -- regardless of religion or national background -- either by fallout or the burning of our souls in the hell deserved for cowards. Or, we can be more forthright and outspoken and involved in doing all we can, really, to turn this administration away from utter capitulation and the prospective presidential candidates from any shadow of such policies.
Sunday, March 29. 2015
The genius of Anglo-American law and its relationship to individual freedom, property rights, capitalism, contracts, and equality under the law.
The above is a section from Alan Macfarlane's excellent, or should I say "magisterial" book, The Invention of the Modern World.
A quote from the section:
In relation to the economy, for example, Adam Smith placed ‘a due administration of justice’, alongside peace and easy taxes, as one of the three requisites for wealth. The other half of The Wealth of Nations are his recently discovered Lectures on Jurisprudence, first published in 1978. Smith wrote about how English law seemed in its certainty, its complexity and its concern with property to be ideally suited to be a foundation for commercial capitalism. He noted for that ‘there is no country in Europe, Holland itself non-excepted, of which the law is, upon the whole more favourable in this sort of industry.’1 He also writes of ‘that equal and impartial administration of justice which renders the rights of the meanest British subject respectable to the greatest, and which, by securing to every man the fruits of his own industry, gives the greatest and most effectual encouragement to ever sort of industry…
Wednesday, March 18. 2015
 A famous Cape-Codder, Lorenzo Dow Baker (scroll down a little for the story):
As the 8th & youngest child of a fisherman and his wife, Lorenzo grew up on a homestead on Bound Brook Island on the bay side of northern Wellfleet. When he was 6, his mother died and his dad married a widow with several children of her own. Needless to say, his was not an easy life. He was apprenticed to a fishing captain at age 10, became a cook on a fishing schooner at age 15 and was considered an outstanding fisherman at the age of 18. By age 20, he was captain of a fishing schooner and eventually owned his own fishing schooner, "Vineyard". He married his childhood sweetheart, Martha, when he was 21 and she was 17. They had 4 children, Lorenzo Jr., Joshua, Martha and Reuben. He was a devout Methodist and a devoted husband and family man. For nine years, he made his living as a sea captain and fisherman...
Read the rest of the story.
Friday, March 13. 2015
Driscoll.
I read that Fussell book. All of his war books, in fact. Besides war, his main focus was literary criticism but he did write Class: A Guide Through the American Status System
Wednesday, February 25. 2015
Annie Hall was on the other night. As a young teen, and to some degree even today, I remain a devoted Woody Allen fan. His personal issues, which are many, aside, he made some great films. I had forgotten this exchange, as the Alvy seeks to convince Annie to return to New York from Los Angeles:
Alvy: So what - you-you're not gonna come back to New York?
Annie: What's so great about New York? I mean, it's a dying city. You read Death in Venice.
Alvy: Hey, you didn't read Death in Venice till I bought it for ya.
Annie: That's right, that's right. You only gave me books with the word 'death' in the titles.
Alvy: That's right, 'cause it's an important issue.
Annie: Alvy, you're incapable of enjoying life, you know that? I mean you're like New York City. You're just this person. You're like this island unto yourself.
Alvy: I can't enjoy anything unless everybody is. If one guy is starving someplace, that puts a crimp in my evening.
Continue reading "New York is a Dying City"
Sunday, February 22. 2015
 J Christian Adams:
When President Obama cited the Crusades as an example of Christian bad behavior toward Islam, he wasn’t speaking with historical accuracy. But you’d never know that if you only know the conventional wisdom about the Crusades.
Instead of condemning ISIS barbarism as barbarism directed at Christians, Obama has sought to divorce the barbarism from theology. There are many reason for this, reasons covered by many others here at PJ Media and elsewhere. Among them is the fact that Obama and his movement see the world through such thick secular lenses that they are incapable of understanding the vast majority of the world (and the United States) that still sees the world through theological lenses.
Obama and his followers are a radical secular minority attempting to manage a theological world...
Saturday, February 14. 2015
From Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650-1750:
When Judith Somerby married Tristram Coffin in March of 1653, she was a widow with three children: Sarah, who was eight, Elizabeth, who was six, and Daniel, almost three. (Another son had died in infancy.) In the next sixteen years Judith gave birth to ten Coffin children, all of whom, remarkably, survived infancy. There is an almost saucy irony in the family name, as though some wind of Yankee humor had swept Puritan Newbury. Death seldom visited the Coffins.
By the time Judith's last baby was born in March 1669 she already had six grandchildren. From 1667 until her death in 1705 - twenty-eight years - at least one grandchild was born each year. In the most prolific period from 1686 to 1696, thirty eight infants were born, almost four a year. Judith's gravestone should probably be taken literally when its says she lived to see 177 descendants...
Thursday, February 12. 2015
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