History | The Port Rail

Browsing All Posts filed under »History«

Quid omnes tangit debet

June 7, 2022

I thought I would sound erudite and educated in the old-fashioned way today and try out some Latin on you. We’re all familiar with e pluribus unum but how many know what it means? Not too long ago I ran into Quid omnes tangit debet while working on the iconic Dominican priest Bartolomé de las […]

White Racists, 2022 Update

April 20, 2022

White Racists, 2022 Update Over the past several years, the University of Alabama’s Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion vigorously denied it teaches white racism is inevitable, endemic, and cannot be changed. But is this what they teach? A couple of summers ago DEI at UA hosted a “common read” of the New York Times […]

What Were You Doing in 1965?

April 8, 2022

What Were You Doing in 1965? Over the past few months, I have read a lot of newspaper articles—most on the front pages—about the marches from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. In fact, I didn’t read much more in my local newspaper other than articles celebrating Black History Month. Which is fine. This is, after […]

Revising History: The Not-So-Subtle Ways We Interpret the Past

February 8, 2022

We play with our children with words. “Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, and so are you.” We learn, in fact, to communicate. Then something happens along the way. Someone says, “hey that’s not always true, we have white roses,” or something equally silly that challenges what the words say. Some of […]

History: What Is It?

January 22, 2022

In our older ages, my wife Louise and I have discovered new interests. She is studying mathematics with her piano instructor who is a math and music student at UA, and I am reading about how podcasts work. Why is this? Basically, we like to learn. I am an historian not only by training with […]

Going to School, Years Ago

January 22, 2022

What was it like going to school a half century ago? Or maybe a century ago? My brother graduated from Georgia Tech seventy years ago in 1952. And for you all who like ancient history, my grandfather was born before the Civil War. I mentioned that to some undergraduate students a few years ago and […]

The Kidnapping of Higher Education in Alabama

December 24, 2021

In the past five to ten years the University of Alabama has abandoned its dedication to the basic elements of higher education in the country: namely, placing excellence and freedom of speech (or academic freedom) as the twin principles that have helped place Alabama among the top 500 universities and colleges in the nation. Programs […]

What Is the Right Model?

November 4, 2021

This is the third or fourth column this autumn on our basic history. I forget how many we have done over the years just like I forget how many times I entered a classroom or seminar room at UA for over forty years and taught a course. Hundreds? Thousands? Goodness, what a question, probably since […]

A Historian’s View of Critical Race Theory and the 1619 Project, Part 3

August 9, 2021

Over the past few weeks, we have taken a look at the origins of the critical race theory now so popular among some sectors of the American population, pundits, and politicians among them. Today let’s tackle the theory itself. We are taking a look at the theory largely because it is based on an interpretation […]