As a history nerd, I’ve always claimed that so much never makes it into the school history books. I have another example. Recently, I ran across a book entitled Black Newspapers & America’s War For Democracy 1914-1920 by William G. Jordan (University of North Carolina Press, 2001). On page 42, I ran across a paragraph
Think genocide and the first thing you probably think of is the Holocaust. Yet every once in a while, evidence surfaces that the Holocaust was even worse than most of us can imagine. Take the Reverend Patrick Desbois, a French Roman Catholic priest (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Desbois). His grandfather was a French soldier in World War II who
During my lifetime I’ve seen a lot of progress on race relations in this country. I can still remember my first television commercial featuring African-Americans. It was for Crest toothpaste, and it featured middle-class suburbia, except the family was black. It was unusual enough to interrupt our family dinner. No big deal today. We’ve come
You don’t study history for long without developing a certain sense of irony. Recently our president was accused of talking disparagingly about Haiti (among other countries). That’s why I was intrigued when I found an article entitled “How Haitians Helped Win The American Revolution” by Pooja Bhatia. Here’s the situation: In 1779, colonial rebels laid
With all the virtue-challenged public figures these days, perhaps it’s time to go back to basics. Founding fathers basics. One of the most fascinating founding fathers was Ben Franklin. He had a remarkable life as a successful businessman, humorist, scientist, and public servant. Did he have a secret? He may have. I’ve been reading about
One of the hottest political issues of the 1970s was the move to add an Equal Rights Amendment for women to the U.S. Constitution. It looked like a sure thing until a conservative backlash stalled its ratification three states short; 35 states ratified, but 38 were needed. The initiative failed. Yet today nobody talks about
One hot topic in the culture wars has been the proper holiday greeting — “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays”? Not that I want to get involved in this contemporary debate, but as a history nerd I couldn’t help notice the following item on the December 23rd Ozy Presidential Daily News Brief email — It’s enough
One of my favorite quotes is “History will be kind to me for I intend to write it” by Winston Churchill. So much of history either is never documented — what self-respecting slave owner would ever admit he’d learned anything from a slave? — or is biased by modern interpretation. Recently I found another example
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. — George Santayana As a history nerd, I’ve always been interested in one of our past’s most scholarly dilemmas — how do you remember the dark side of history without glorifying it? Setting aside the issue of Confederate monuments, I have three examples of
On November 22, 1890, Charles de Gaulle was born in Lille, France. He is best known for leading Free France against the Nazi occupation in World War II, then becoming the symbol of post-war France by organizing the Fifth Republic in 1958 and serving as president until 1969. He was also a decorated officer in