Recently in History Category

A Memory Keeper of New Orleans

Much respect to the biographer of John Kennedy Toole for his marathon, week-long, one-man digitizing effort in Tulane's Special Collections. I have had similar (but not as lengthy) sessions of photographing court files, newspaper articles, city directories, and microfilm for later reading and research.

"I spent five full days at the archive, from opening to closing, hunched over a table with my camera, capturing every page of the twenty-six boxes of the collection. At the end of the week, I had not read a single word from the archive. I flew home exhausted and sore. But I had gained something invaluable--a digitized version of the Toole Papers. And that became the backbone to Butterfly in the Typewriter."

The Bible and the American Founders, by Daniel Dreisbach

Prof. Dreisbach's 2017 talk on the influence of the Bible on government in America's founding era bolsters the case for Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters's push to include the Bible in public education. American history can't be comprehended apart from the Bible.

"How did the Bible inform the founders' political and legal pursuits? I want to get a little bit more specific here. As I've already said, the founders held diverse views, including diverse theological views. Some doubted Christianity's transcendent claims. Some doubted the Bible's divine origins. But I'm going to suggest to you that many in this generation looked to the Scriptures for insights into things like human nature, civic virtue, social order, political authority, and other concepts essential to the establishment of a political society. Perhaps more important, there was broad agreement that the Bible was essential for nurturing the kind of civic virtues that give citizens the capacity for self-government. In various conventions and representative assemblies of the age as well as in pamphlets, political sermons, and private papers, founding figures appealed to the Bible for principles, precedents, models, normative standards, and cultural motifs, to define their community and to order their great political experiments. The Bible, some thought, offered guidance on how to select righteous leaders. They thought the Bible offered guidance on the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, including the right to resist a tyrannical government....

"I don't think you can understand the most basic, fundamental features of the American constitutional design -- and by that I have in mind things like limited government, separation of powers, checks and balances, federalism, rule of law, due process of law and representative government -- without understanding this biblical anthropology, this idea that man is a fallen creature, and where power is given, that power must be checked."

Full article: Thomas Denton's Perambulation: Two Counties, Three Kingdoms, and Four Nations History?

"Thomas Denton's Perambulation of Cumberland, with additions on Westmorland, the Isle of Man, and Ireland, contains a wealth of evidence as to how a Cumbrian, English, and British subject integrated these elements [of county, national, and international identity] in this period. In addition to showing the assimilation of subjects within and across these boundaries, it equally reveals their differentiation and exclusion."

The Idyllic Culture Columbus Ended

"Even if we take the leftists accusations seriously, they are senseless. Did the Spanish practice slavery? Yes: so did the natives. Did the Spanish murder their enemies? Yes: and many of the natives killed their own people as well. Did the Spanish raid and conquer? The natives did little else.

"Thus the question becomes whether one group did anything more praiseworthy than the other. And of course one did: one ended most of the other's barbarity. And one expanded the bounds of human civilization forever.

"Columbus had little to do with the former, but everything to do with the latter: it was his vision and his personal courage that ended the Middle Ages and created the modern world. Any 'indigenous people' who enjoys human rights, modern medicine, a regular food supply and indoor plumbing should thank him daily."

The Transatlantic Tracks of Columbus by Keith A. Pickering

Using a model of magnetic variation circa 1500, based on dating and magnetic alignment of lake sediments, hearthstones, and lava flows, combined with an analysis of Columbus's inter-island track, Pickering has concluded that Plana Cays is where Christopher Columbus first made landfall in the New World. Pickering confirmed the model by applying it to Columbus's first return voyage and second voyage, where endpoints are known.

Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Map, 1858: David Rumsey collection

Before Dorchester, Roxbury, and West Roxbury were annexed by Boston and Suffolk County, making Brookline an exclave of the county.

Transcript: Lessons from the 1968 Democratic Convention: Under the Shadow of Protests - Retro Report

Sen. Fred Harris (D-Oklahoma) remembers the conflict between old-guard Rust Belt and Yellow Dog Democrats and the New Left in the Vietnam War Era:

"I came out of that convention terribly depressed about the failure to adopt an anti-war plank, about what had happened in the streets. And I was very bothered by the fact that the Democrat Party was undemocratic. People felt the anti-war movement represented the majority of Democrats in the country, but that was not reflected in the selection of the delegates to that convention. They were establishment people, a big part of whom, what we now call 'super delegates.'"

Harris, as DNC chairman, reformed the nominating process, but it led to George McGovern and the biggest loss in the party's history in 1972:

"I was elected the Chair of the Party in 1969. I appointed a reform commission to be sure that there'd be democracy in the selection of delegates. The main thing we wanted was that they'd be elected, but then in 1984, another commission decided to go back to some super delegates."

Except for Jimmy Carter's surprise "win" in the 1976 Iowa caucuses (he finished second to Uncommitted), the Democrats under Harris's reform kept losing with northern progressives. The introduction of super-delegates in 1984 helped more conventional left-of-center politicians (Mondale, Dukakis) to the nomination, but they still got beaten badly. The Democratic Leadership Council pushed for a regional Southern primary (Super Tuesday, starting in 1988) to give a boost to more moderate Democrats to counterbalance the momentum of candidates backed by left-leaning Iowa activists and New Hampshire voters. That paid off with Bill Clinton's surprise 1992 victory.

U.S. Congressional District Shapefiles

Shapefiles of historical congressional district boundaries for the 1st through the 114th Congresses (1789-2015)

Spalding's Official Foot Ball Guide | HathiTrust Digital Library

A guide to football as played by colleges, with rules, records from the previous seasons, team photos, commentary, and a schedule for the new season. All-American players were mainly from the Ivy League, but Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Notre Dame, and Holy Cross were also represented. Scoring consisted of 6 points for a touchdown followed by a place kick or drop kick through the goal posts, 5 points if the kick failed, 4 points for a drop kick from the field, 2 points to the other team for a "safety touchdown." Must move five yards in three downs or lose possession, and "the quarter-back, if he run with the ball, must cross the line of scrimmage at least five yards out from the point where the ball was put in play." Because this new rule lines were marked every five yards along the length of the 330' x 160' field out from the center, creating a gridiron pattern. St. John's College finished 5-4 for the season, thanks to not playing against bigger teams, mostly. They were slaughtered by Virginia 48-0, but they beat Gallaudet 22-0 in the final game of the season.

A problem of human nature. - Claremont Review of Books

Leonard Sax writes:

"Rahav Gabay and her colleagues at Tel Aviv University have identified a personality trait they call 'interpersonal victimhood.' Gabay finds that you need not have suffered any trauma yourself to manifest interpersonal victimhood. You identify with the trauma of others and claim it as your own, thereby acquiring all the moral credit ordinarily ascribed to victims. One key component of interpersonal victimhood, according to Gabay, is moral elitism, the belief that you yourself are virtuous, especially compared to those you disagree with or dislike. Gabay and colleagues find that moral elitism is highly correlated with a lack of empathy, 'the sense of entitlement to behave aggressively and selfishly.' Moral elitism enables individuals 'to feel morally superior even though they exhibit aggression.'..."

"In 1934, Adolf Hitler was popular on the campuses of Germany's top universities. Leading intellectuals such as Martin Heidegger were members of the Nazi Party. German history, from 1932 to 1937, can teach us some lessons of tremendous importance if we are prepared to learn them. But the lesson to learn is not I am such a good person, so much better than those evil Nazis. The lesson should be: Moral elitism feels good, but it is a temptation that I must resist. I must recognize and acknowledge my opponent's humanity."