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The Silent Sentry will now stand watch in Laurel Hill Cemetery
From today’s issue of the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Rescued ‘Silent Sentinel’ Civil War statue going to Laurel Hill Cemetery
EDWARD COLIMORE, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
POSTED: Thursday, May 23, 2013, 5:52 AM
For nearly a century, the Silent...Show More Summary
Is The History of Gettysburg More Than a Collection of Facts?
It’s been interesting following some of the early reactions to Allen Guelzo’s new book from within that small, but devoted community of Gettysburg buffs on various social media channels. I am not an expert on the battle. I’ve read a bit and only in the last year or so have I been able to find [...]
The Civil War’s Untold Story
It’s the name of a 5-part documentary that will air on PBS in February 2014. The preview looks pretty good, though it’s not clear to me exactly what is new or “untold”. The commentary by historians is certainly within the mainstream of current interpretation, but perhaps parts of it will be new to the general [...]
Sheldon Whitehouse Stands Up For History
Well, okay, so he schools Chuck Grassley on the meaning of “pack the court:” Go to the one minute mark. (Yes, I know it wasn’t FDR’s best moment, but I’m still using the category “FDR owns everyone” because, well, he does.)
Annals of Self-Aggrandizement, Part MCMIII
Lewis Lapham, of Lapham’s Quarterly, was kind enough to interview me about the Boxer Rebellion for his podcast: “Kill the Foreigners!” was the motto of China’s red-sashed Boxers, as they were dismissively known in the west. Members of...Show More Summary
Treaty of Paris Celebrates Its 250th Birthday in Boston
Today the Bostonian Society opens an exclusive new exhibition: “1763: A Revolutionary Peace.” This year marks the sestercentennial—that’s the 250th anniversary—of the end of the Seven Years’ (French & Indian) War.To observe the occasion,...Show More Summary
A Greek Philosopher Predicted It
On This Day in Ancient History - May 25: Eclipse © Clipart.com The Rogue Classicist says that it may have been on this day in 585 B.C. that Thales predicted a solar eclipse. Read Full Post A Greek Philosopher Predicted It originally appeared on About.com Ancient / Classical History on Saturday, May 25th, 2013 at 06:55:10. Permalink | Comment | Email this
Did Congress Have Power to Ban the Interstate Sale and Transportation of Slaves?
In an important new article, “To Regulate,” Not “To Prohibit”: Limiting the Commerce Power, Barry Friedman and Genvieve Lakier argue that the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution does not grant to Congress the power to prohibit interstate commerce. Show More Summary
A Nation Remembers in Song During the Centennial
This is a fabulous film from 1963 of the U.S. Army Band and Chorus commemorating the Civil War Centennial. The narrator makes it clear at the beginning that the “Union found itself split in two over the issue of states rights.” There is not one mention of slavery or black Union soldiers exactly one hundred [...]
American Civil War: Kirby Smith Surrenders
May 26, 1865 - Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith (right) surrenders the last major Confederate field army at Galveston, TX. An 1845 graduate of West Point, Smith saw extensive service during the Mexican-American War and served under both Maj....Show More Summary
First paper on Richard III dig full of info about grave, site
The University of Leicester archaeological team that found the skeletal remains of King Richard III has published its first peer-reviewed paper on the discovery in the journal Antiquity which has generously made the entire thing available in pdf form here. Co-authored by lead archaeologist Richard Buckley, Mathew Morris, osteoarchaeology expert Jo Appleby, geneticist Turi King, [...]
The Best WW2 Story You'll Hear All Year
When I first heard about the contents of Stephen Harding's new book 'The Last Battle' I could scarcely believe it: a largely forgotten episode late in World War 2 when US troops, French prisoners, Germans soldiers and local resistance teamed together to defend themselves and a medieval castle from the SS. Show More Summary
Fertilizers were probably used in Scandinavia in 3000 BCE
Experts working out of the University of Gothenburg have recently published work on a Stone Age settlement located near Falköping in Sweden. Studies have been done on diet, and on pieces of seed and grain which have survived. Stone Pages...Show More Summary
The German 'Wolf Children'
After a very high profile case of a publisher being fooled into releasing a fake biography of survival in World War Two that involved wolves, I've given a wide birth to anything connecting the war and wolves. I thus nearly missed this...Show More Summary
No fee for active-duty military at 2,000 museums this summer
Beginning on Monday, active-duty military men and women and their families may visit more than 2,000 museums nationwide for free under the Blue Star Museums’ program, a national initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts. The program ends on Labor Day. Read full article >>
New work celebrates the movement of pregnant women
Not so long ago in history a heavily pregnant woman was a rare sight,
as she was usually ordered into her "confinement" some weeks before the
bump became enormous. Now a new dance piece is aiming to
challenge conventional images of pregnancy by featuring two women
dancers as they near the final months...
Earl Hess Reviews My Crater Book
The academic journal reviews of Remembering the Battle of the Crater are just beginning to appear. Overall the reviews have been very positive. It’s encouraging to know that historians, who you respect, believe that the time it took to research and write was time well spent and that it constitutes a worthy addition to the [...]
Early Earth’s Stinky Perfume
You know how some people like to sniff babies, but sometimes they sniff them at just the wrong time and get a whiff of a recent… ahem… “deposit,” instead of that newborn scent? Well, early Earth had a newborn smell of its own… and it definitely wasn’t a sweet baby scent. Rather, advanced imagining techniques [...]
Day One at the Museum
So, today Bill Caraher and I began work on the PKAP portion of our season. We visited the Larnaka District Archaeological Museum and met with the staff, and picked up the keys for its satellite storage facility, Terra Ombra – … Continue reading ?
The 48th/150th: “One Long Happy Holiday:” Establishing Camp and Settling In At Lexington. . .
From April through September, 1863, while other men in blue fought and bled near Vicksburg, Mississippi, central Tennessee, and at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the soldiers of the 48 th were spared active campaigning and witnessed no major...Show More Summary
