The opening narration of 1960’s Spartacus refers to the Christian faith overthrowing the pagan “tyranny” of Rome, implying that all that was wrong with ancient Roman society was due to paganism. Except as the narrator makes clear a moment later, slavery wasn’t abolished for another 2,000 years. That’s right, Christianity did nothing to abolish slavery; when … Continue reading A Real Gladiator Never Says I’m Sorry
History
Historical Persons I’d Like to Meet
About two years ago on a Saturday Q&A, the good folks at E-V.com were asked to name a historical figure that they’d like to meet. They replied with ten persons. So I decided to make a list and I easily came up with ten persons of my own, and I could have easily doubled it. … Continue reading Historical Persons I’d Like to Meet
The Worst Riot in U.S. History
James McPherson’s Pulitzer Prize winning Battle Cry of Freedom is often pointed to as one of the best, if not the best, books on America’s Civil War. I bought it shortly after it came out in 1988, though it took me a few years before I worked up the stamina to read the full book. … Continue reading The Worst Riot in U.S. History
The Ballad of Guiteau
“A story about religion, sex, an assassination, and silverware.” That’s how the August 4th episode of the Criminal podcast is described on their website, and it’s a pretty accurate description. I’d highly recommend it as it serves as an excellent introduction to the video clip that I’m including at the end of this post. I’m … Continue reading The Ballad of Guiteau
Removing Relics of “The Lost Cause”
From the Wikipedia entry for Ty Seidule: James Tyrus Seidule (born 1962) is a retired United States Army brigadier general, the former head of the history department at the United States Military Academy, the first professor emeritus of history at West Point, and the inaugural Joshua Chamberlain Fellow at Hamilton College. Seidule is also the … Continue reading Removing Relics of “The Lost Cause”
HHH
In 1968 I still didn’t have the right to vote as the 26th Amendment had not yet been added to our Constitution, so it didn’t matter all that much that I couldn’t decide which of the major party candidates I supported. I still considered myself a Republican in those days, and if I could have … Continue reading HHH
Go Read ’em
The good folks at E-V.com have another great piece today: Ron DeSantis... and the Lost Cause It’s all about the new “standards” for teaching slavery in Florida, but it’s much more than that as it goes into the history of the so-called Lost Cause, the Southern historians attempts to whitewash the causes of the Civil … Continue reading Go Read ’em
Independence Day
I was wondering when folks started calling this day the Fourth of July rather than Independence Day, and it turns out it was always thus: When 18th-century state legislatures planned the first July 4 observances, they didn’t bother to give the day a proper name. Meanwhile, Mark Evanier has a good story about a song … Continue reading Independence Day
Then and Now
The good folks at Electoral-Vote.com have published an interesting map of the electoral votes in the 1976 and 2020 elections: As they say: Compare the 1976 map with the 2020 map. Eleven states (including D.C.) stayed blue (D.C., Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin). Twelve states stayed red … Continue reading Then and Now
Litterae ex Domus Alba
In the second year Latin textbook that we used in high school, there appeared this modern use of the eloquent Latin language: Eight girls at New York's Dalton School had translated President Kennedy's Inaugural Address of 1961 into Latin and sent their translation to the White House. This is the reply they received from the … Continue reading Litterae ex Domus Alba