Here is the message from Gen. Eisenhower that was distributed immediately prior to the attack: Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon a great crusade, toward which we have striven these … [Read more...]
Renaming the Tea Party
I am not going to take any time writing about why I don't agree with the politics of the so-called "tea party." There's plenty of that here. I'd like to instead give some context about the silliness of their name, and what we should rename … [Read more...]
8-10pm tonight on History Channel: The People Speak
If you get The History Channel, catch the premier of The People Speak. Well-known actors play real-life folks who made history - based on Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States." Very good so far. … [Read more...]
Happy Bunker Hill Day!
Tomorrow (or today by the time many of you read this) is a key day in our republic's early history. On June 17, 1775, the colonists proved they were willing to stand up to the Redcoats, though the British achieved a rather Pyrrhic … [Read more...]
Early History Monday: Blind Spot: Presidents 1-10
One of the great blind spots in America's self-conceived history is the Articles of Confederation. You know, that disastrous first attempt at a regime that allowed Rhode Island to single-handedly veto a tax on commerce? Congress … [Read more...]
A Mayoral Directive and Boston City Council Order for routine transmittal of city public documents.
History is what you think of when you think of the city of Boston. Yet the history of city hall departments needs to be made more accessible to those of us with strong interests in municipal governmental history. Routinely public access is … [Read more...]
Cheap omniscence
Good gravy. It's been Robert Kagan on the radio all day. I traced back from Robert Siegel's breathless interview with him on ATC this afternoon to actually read Kagan's column on Georgia. Does Robert Siegel really find this … [Read more...]
History is being made
I've been chuckling at CNN for the past two days. They've replaced the stock market banner at the bottom of the screen with the headlines "history being made" because Obama is the Democrat candidate for president. Correct me if … [Read more...]
letter to my superdelegates
AN OPEN LETTER TO MY SUPERDELEGATES On this sunny morning just before spring on Cape Cod I am writing to you to ask you to consider my thoughts when you decide who to support in August in Denver. It has been nearly my entire life, since the … [Read more...]
A Fun History Pop Quiz!
The following passage comes from a recent work of history - and it quotes another historian.Ambition that ground its heel into every obstacle, restlessness that often defied common sense; selfishness that ate like a cancer into his … [Read more...]