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The View from My Ship
Browsing All Posts filed under »History«
A Historian’s View of Critical Race Theory and the 1619 Project, Part 2
A few weeks ago we ventured into the mine field of Critical Race Theory and the 1619 Project which supports it. We did this as a professional historian might, by an examination of both the facts and the hypothesis or interpretation of those facts. Today let’s examine what other historians have said about CRT and […]
A Historian’s View of Critical Race Theory and the 1619 Project, Part 1
July 27, 2021
Last summer, the Pandemic Summer of 2020, I took up two subjects that have now come to dominate the political discourse in our country. Everyone seems to have an opinion on CRT and the 1619 theory and how they impact the nature of our country’s history. I thought I’d revisit these from the perspective of […]
Liberty
July 27, 2021
First of all, we—the United States—are a big and complex country. There is no one philosophy, one political expression, one economic truth or any other large label to explain what we are, no matter how loud people shout the “truth.” Some will always challenge a generality, and that particular virtue—the right to challenge and question […]
The Way We Were
July 10, 2021
The Way We Were A few weeks ago I turned to the war channel, channel 112 or whatever we call it today, and watched the build up to Pearl Harbor, especially focusing on the Japanese ambitious empire-building over Asia, and, among other atrocities, the rape of Nanking, China in 1937. I had forgotten how brutal […]
Old and New History
May 4, 2021
Slavery was abolished by the Emancipation Declaration of 1863 and uprooted by the final military victory of North over the South in April 1865. There followed a century of conflict largely in the South to free truly the ex-slaves and give them all the rights of all citizens, like the right to vote, to have […]
Biden Administration to Deliver Peace and Prosperity to Central America, Part 1
April 12, 2021
This is part 1 of a two-part Port Rail on the history of the Americas, North, Central, and South, and the current immigration crisis or challenge or whatever you want to call the open border policy the Biden administration has put into place with respect to the border and immigration. If it hasn’t become perfectly […]
The Etymology Wars
April 9, 2021
Today the old is being replaced by the new, a necessary stage we are told by scholars of revolutions that has to take place before the revolution can succeed. It is an attempt to replace ancient and accepted truths with the “new” truth. Simply put, old words are given new meanings, or new words are […]
Teaching with James
March 12, 2021
In earlier columns we dealt with different aspects of research and teaching. We examined teaching in general as one of the three principal missions of a modern university—teaching, research, and service. We also explored the “Socratic method” of teaching. Today let’s consider another approach, in this instance by one of my favorite Biblical teachers, James, […]
Privilege and Equity
January 31, 2021
This is going to be a thought piece which some of you may like and some may dislike. But I compose it with the old rules in place: we can disagree on just about anything, but we agree to listen to each other with civility, and usually reach an accord or compromise. There are however […]
November 22, 1963
December 1, 2020
Today is the 57th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. More than half a century ago sounds like a lot of time. Maybe this happened back at the end of the Roman Empire, or he was shot on a Crusade, or by the rebels at the Battle of Gettysburg. Or, given that […]
Bible Gateway’s Verse of the Day
- Psalm 119:130“The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.”
July 27, 2021
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