US History
dirt track date -- Saturday, June 26, 2004 -- 04:48:25 PMFrom Jamestown on...the place to discuss US history.
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I'm a fan of focus, I guess.
I admire it too.
The story I always liked about Garfield was that he could write with both hands simultaneously, and would take notes in Greek with one hand and Latin with the other during dull meetings.
I always heard that story about Branwell Bronte. I wonder if it was true of either of them.
I wish I'd seen this for the Fourth of July, but better late than never. Isaac Asimov speech on the importance of the lyrics to the National Anthem. I've always loved the last verse.
To give a sense of my geekitude, I shall reveal that I noted the March, 1991 date at the article's end and thought "No, that can't be right." I knew that the speech was one of the last public speaking events in his lengthy career, but by March 1991 he was almost entirely bedridden, with few good days.
So off I go to I, Asimov, the best of his biographies, and page back to his wife Janet's epilogue.
It must have been published later, but given his fondness for the Rensselaerville Institute, I felt obligated to correct it.
This is a very strange way to get in touch with your roots:
Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr Kin Re-Enact Famous Duel
The bitter grudge between their ancestors has long faded, but on Sunday descendants of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr marked their paces with pistols in hand. Antonio Burr, a descendant of Burr's cousin, arrived by rowboat in period costume and fired a replica of the .54-caliber pistol that mortally wounded Hamilton 200 years ago in the July 11, 1804 duel.Douglas Hamilton, a fifth-great-grandson of Hamilton, feigned the historic hip wound, dropping to one knee and then falling to the ground in a sitting position.
The event was the families' first meeting in two centuries.
"It wasn't something on my top 100 list, but it was nice to meet Antonio Burr," Douglas Hamilton said afterward. "He seems to be a very nice man, though I'm not sure I'm going to be on his Christmas card list."
You'd think at least they'd come out against the whole $10 bill thing!
Cal, I'm with you on the ten dollar bill. Those fuckers! How dare them even think of removing Hamilton for Reagan! Hamilton and Franklin are the two coolest Founding Fathers on the bills.
Burr's descendent fires the fateful shot, again:
For some reason, I never connected that the fatal date was my mother's birthday. What an idea for a bicentennial.
And I still think they missed a great opportunity to agitate for Hamilton's $10 bill placement.
Pincher posted a review of Wills' Jefferson bio, and mentioned this:
I've read about this before, and it is a very interesting thing to chew on. It's easy to think that Jefferson was more popular than Adams, but in fact, Jefferson won because of the south's slavery population giving their states more weight.
Cal, as a hater of all things Jefferson, you'd love the book. Wills shows how Jefferson, in almost all political matters during his two administrations, sought to preserve slavery.
His book is not so much a biography of Jefferson, however, as a look at how Jefferson's administrations consciously furthered and deepened the south's political power. Timothy Pickering, who served as secretary of war in George Washington's administration (when Jefferson was secretary of state) and was secretary of state in Adams' administration (when Jefferson was vice president), is the Virginian's foil -- a man who would lose politically in his time, but whose general arguments eventually won out.
Well, I don't hate all things Jefferson. A sentence or two in the DoI doesn't arouse my ire.
The book definitely looks interesting, and I'm adding it to my list.
I've got a question for the history buffs here. I don't know a lot about the WWI/post war era, but I'm currently readingThe Great Influenza, and the author (John M. Barry) makes an interesting proposition -- that influenza was a major factor in Hitler's rise to power.
He bases this on the fact that Wilson came down with influenza during the third wave of the pandemic, while he was in Paris for the peace talks. Before Wilson got sick, he was adamant about not yielding to France's demands and standing on his principles, even threatening to leave the conference and return to the US. After he got sick, he caved on all of Clemenceau's demands. The situation this created for Germany, including economic hardship, nationalistic reaction and political chaos fostered Hitler's success.
Does this fit with other historians views?
If Wilson had left and gone home, how would things have turned out differently?
As I recall, Wilson wanted the League more than anything else and was willing to compromise on all other points to ensure the League's creation.
Then, of course, the Senate refused to ratify the treaty anyway.
The influenza connection sounds like someone who has a "butterfly effect" view of history.