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Volume, Confusion, and Rage: On Commuting
Knocker-up in action Commuting has been part of the human experience since the Industrial Revolution. Ever since the workplace and the home got firmly disentangled, people have been waking up and resignedly making their way to their place of employment. Show More Summary
The Boston Massacre and the Rising Generation
Last Saturday’s reenactment of the Boston Massacre drew scores of volunteers from at least as far north as New Hampshire and at least as far south as Virginia and Kentucky. Their dedication was awe-inspiring, as always.I was especially impressed by some of the younger participants: the drummer for His Majesty’s 29th Regiment of Foot. Show More Summary
Ouch
“Gross lack of intellectual standards” could be the name of my next band: Senator Sessions’s staff on the Budget Committee has contacted both me and my editor objecting to the item in the most strenuous terms. I have further explored the matter at length and determined that, in my haste, I treated Senator Sessions’s claims far too generously. Show More Summary
But Did He Ride Them Down To The Ground?
Breitbart has the scoop: Journalists on the campaign trail saw [President Lyndon] Johnson drunkenly board a plane armed with nuclear weapons and then accidentally drop them on the United States. Luckily, by the grace of God, they did not go off. The day is not lost as long as there’s a Dr. Strangelove reference possible. (h/t @davidfolkenflik)
The Revolution Will Be Televised
Last week I noted Melvin Bernstein’s esay on the change of government in Worcester on 6 Sept 1774. For folks interested in hearing more, check out the video of this TEDxEureka talk by Ray Raphael titled “Revolution: A Success Story.” Ray taught high school before becoming a full-time historian and author, so he’s a very engaging speaker. Show More Summary
Radio Boston 1775
Yesterday I went into WBUR, Boston’s top-ranked public radio station, to share my impressions of the preview of Assassin’s Creed III, a videogame being released at the end of October. Here’s a link to the radio segment, and here’s the preview video from UbiSoft that we refer to. Show More Summary
Caught on Camera
Today I’m in Deerfield, delivering a paper about the British soldiers caught up in the Boston Massacre. That’s part of the Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife’s conference on “The Irish in Boston.” If that news makes you unaccountably...Show More Summary
Lectures Online and On the Calendar
A friendly ranger from the National Park Service recorded my March talk on “Washington’s Artillery: Remaking the Regiment Between Bunker Hill and Dorchester Heights” and produced this video on YouTube. It’s about 53 minutes long from introduction to end. Show More Summary
What do you mean, “next”? More on the GOP and the UC.
Sara Robinson asks of Rick Santorum’s false claims about the UC and US history, “Did Rick Santorum just declare the next right-wing crusade?” The thing to remember is this: Even though right-wing narratives are often factually wrong, they are absolutely never content-free. Stories like this are always about something. And the weirder and more factually [...]
Whatever else is in Rick Santorum, the truth about California universities isn’t.
Rick Santorum: I was just reading something last night from the state of California. And that the California universities – I think it’s seven or eight of the California system of universities don’t even teach an American history course. It’s not even available to be taught. Just to tell you how bad it’s gotten in [...]
No Sex Please, We’re British Teachers In Arizona
State Bill 1467: IF A PERSON WHO PROVIDES CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION IN A PUBLIC SCHOOL ENGAGES IN SPEECH OR CONDUCT THAT WOULD VIOLATE THE STANDARDS ADOPTED BY THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION CONCERNING OBSCENITY, INDECENCY AND PROFANITY IF THAT SPEECH OR CONDUCT WERE BROADCAST ON TELEVISION OR RADIO: 1. FOR THE FIRST OCCURRENCE, THE SCHOOL SHALL SUSPEND [...]
FDR’s worst decision.
Franklin Roosevelt’s worst decision was Executive Order 9066, “Authorizing the Secretary of War to Prescribe Military Areas”, which is to say, interning Americans of Japanese descent. The decision for internment had nothing to do with intelligence (particularly, as often alleged, from MAGIC cables) and everything to do with the conviction that “a Jap is a [...]
John Tyler, Spanning the Republic
Dude! John Tyler, the 10th President of the United States, may not have been a particularly remembered executive (except perhaps as the trailing end of “Tippacanoe and Tyler Too“), but he, his children, and grandchildren quite nearly cover the span of the American nation. Tyler himself was born in March, 1790, just over a year [...]
In still another country.
If you don’t hear the key phrase here in John Cleese’s French accent, you’re dead inside. The bill also would criminalize ‘outrageous minimization’ of the Armenian genocide. Garton Ash, presumably wearing his poker face, points out only that “minimization” will be hard to figure, leaving out “outrageous” altogether.
In another country.
the government ratified measures that will bar anti-evolution groups from teaching creationism in science classes Don’t get excited, fellow Americans – in the UK. A country where a physicist, Brian Cox, can have a prime time television special featuring major stars. A country with crap reality tv, tabloid press, and science. Behold.
Government Finance of Health Care, 18th-Century Style
Today Boston 1775 welcomes Dr. Sam Forman as a guest blogger. He is the author of the new book Dr. Joseph Warren: The Boston Tea Party, Bunker Hill, and the Birth of American Liberty. This is only the third full biography of Warren, a central figure in the beginning of the Revolutionary War, and the first in decades. Show More Summary
Finishing. And starting, too.
Over the past month, I’ve been finishing — as in, putting the final, no really, the final! — touches on my book. It’s been a huge pain because of the narrative structure I’ve adopted this go round. Lots of flashbacks means lots of moving parts. Change one thing, you have to change many things. Very [...]
The Greatest General in American History, Part II
Part I here. Now, onto more specific evaluations. (Deep breath) I’m going to eliminate Washington. He is the greatest American statesman, for what he did as a general and leader in the Revolution and what he did as a Founding Father and first President. As to being the greatest general, he made a number of [...]
It’s like saying “President Barry Obama.”
Dear White House: if you want to be compared to TR, you should know your TR. And for starters, TR didn’t like being called “Teddy.” Live from Osawatomie High School in Osawatomie, Kansas President Obama gives remarks on the Economy in the same town President Teddy Roosevelt visited just over one hundred years ago.
Brian Pohanka’s last interview
On this Thanksgiving Day, when we all have to much to be thankful for, I want to share this, Brian Pohanka’s final interview, wherein he talks about the importance of battlefield preservation. It is haunting and bittersweet to see his...Show More Summary
- Civil War
- Abraham Lincoln
- Gettysburg National Military Park
- Grand Army of the Republic
- Stonewall Jackson
- Robert E. Lee
- Ulysses S. Grant
- Battle of Bull Run
- Antietam National Battlefield
- Virginia Historical Society
- Jefferson Davis
- Brooks Simpson
- Medal of Honor
- President Obama
- World War II
- Secretary of State
- Emancipation Proclamation
- Newt Gingrich
- National Historic Site
- Carolina
