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The View from My Ship
Browsing All Posts filed under »History«
Spanish History, 101
I first went to Spain in the late summer of 1964, sent by the USN as a newly minted Ensign to join my ship then in the Sixth Fleet. I landed in Rota, across the bay from the more famous city of Cadiz, and lingered there a few days waiting for a flight, first to […]
“Sowing the Oil” in Venezuela
September 14, 2017
I first went to Venezuela in about 1977. It was then politically quiet, economically well off, and possessed a working democracy. There were kinks and chinks in the armor of such a nice picture but I enjoyed my week there at a conference on the history of the Americas. The government was riding a […]
Marking the Anniversary of Our Entry into the First World War
July 5, 2017
Historians love anniversaries. It not only celebrates or commemorates the past, but gives us an excuse to write and talk about the past. Since the past is our specialty, bring on the anniversaries! Five hundred years ago, this year, the Augustinian friar, Martin Luther, posted his Ninety-Five theses on the church doors of Wittenberg in […]
Immigration, Redux
February 11, 2017
It is time to visit immigration-land once again, especially to correct many absurd and patently wrong assumptions about this hot button issue. The first immigrants to North America were, of course, the ancestors of the American Indians who arrived maybe fifteen or twenty thousand years ago. The second wave of immigrants were your ancestors and […]
Nationalism
February 11, 2017
Nationalism is complicated. One dictionary has seven different meanings, from “spirit or aspirations common to the whole of a nation” to “a movement, as in the arts, based upon the folk idioms, history, aspirations, etc. of a nation.” Sometimes patriotism and chauvinism are associated with nationalism. Perhaps the best definition is #5: “the policy or […]
Why Do I Need to Take History?
February 11, 2017
Well, if you know me a bit, you’ll think the old history prof is sounding off. “You gotta take history or you’ll be an ignoramus, or worse.” Maybe a politician I’m thinking, but not saying it. But I want to take up a larger issue, although I admit a partiality to history. It has been […]
Old Fashioned and Useless: Or the Great Cursive Debate
January 8, 2017
“Old fashioned” and “useless” I thought could be me and my cohort of pre-boomers (those born before 1946) on our way into retirement homes and given to just doddering around the garden watering the petunias. Writing cursive, or “long hand” as we used to say, is, I quickly discovered from a short search on the […]
Bible Gateway’s Verse of the Day
- Hebrews 10:30-31“For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
September 14, 2017
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