Us Civil War

Too many smart and truth-seeking young people have a blind spot when it comes to the American Civil War. They will wax eloquently about the complexity and nuance of modern issues and not apply the same standard to the 19th century. …

Connor Williams a Yale professor gave a talk on the Naming Commission and afterward he took some questions. After about 20 minutes Rob Havers the museum president/CEO said, “we’ve obviously got a bit of a movement in here.” He was referring to the penetrating questions being asked. Williams was a…

I am not an historian, but I know when one is lying to me. I also know what attempted manipulation and obfuscation looks like. It was on full display in Connor Williams’ speech at the Civil War Museum in Richmond. I did not attend, but I saw the secret video! …

Kahn Academy has a 10 minute “Start of the Civil War” video that begins with a notion which ensures slavery be the reason for the American Civil War. “And the real basis of the Republican Party is an anti-slavery platform.” The word slavery appears in the 1860 Republican Party platform…

My son sent me a link to a Lex Fridman podcast this morning with the following short note. “I’m sure you’ll find much that is misguided here.” What an understatement! Lex is interviewing Jeremi Suri an historian at the University of Texas in Austin. He is part of the LBJ…

It is brilliantly written with passion and confidence. The writer was a credentialed historian at Vanderbilt and the University of Alabama. The essay published in 1930 earns him the label “notorious” today. What prompts someone to write such an essay? Is there not likely some truth in his warrant expressed…

I just had a back-and-forth Twitter exchange. The other side is knowledgeable and a skilled advocate for the Yankee interpretation of the Civil War and Reconstruction. At the end of our exchange, he used the term Southern “Degradation”. He was referring to part of the December 17, 1860 statement by…

The Naming Commission says that Moses Ezekiel’s monument represents the “Lost Cause, which romanticized the pre-Civil War South and denied the horrors of slavery…” They say it “offers a nostalgic, mythologized vision of the Confederacy, including highly sanitized depictions of slavery” so the monument should be destroyed. It is what…

With most things that take effort to master, there are levels of complexity, nuance, and beauty that are only revealed when you have progressed along the learning curve. Poker and golf are examples of this. Almost anyone can take part and even play with professionals, but the professionals have a…