Tag Archive for ‘american history’
The Power of the Press: My Lai and Seymour Hersh
On March 16, 1968, in a small Vietnamese village, “something dark and bloody” took place.
On November 12, 1969, journalist Seymour Hersh broke the story of the massacre in My Lai during the Vietnam War. Hersh won a Pulitzer Prize for the story. It was a story that changed history.
Dropped into the village by [...]
Defending “terrorists”: What would the Founders do?
In the midst of all the “Tea Party” chatter these days, it is a tad surprising that the anniversary of another significant Boston event went largely unnoticed last week. It was, after all, 240 years ago on March 5, 1770, that the Boston Massacre took place.
And what was the “Boston Massacre,” class?
A mob [...]
Don’t Know Much About John Steinbeck
Born on February 27, 1902 in Salinas, California in 1902, was a writer I consider a major personal influence.
John Steinbeck built his reputation writing about the struggles of down-and-out people: Dust Bowl farmers and pearl divers, prostitutes, jobless migrants, and Depression-era hobos.
Washington’s “Confession”
I hope we all know that the cherry tree story is a legend, made up by a pseudobiographer but chiseled into American folklore.
But there is a true story about a young George Washington that most of us never hear. It is the story of his first actual military experience and his signing of a “murder confession.” It is not only more interesting than the cherry tree story but a lot more revealing.
“He told the truth, mainly.” –Huck Finn
Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.
–Notice at the opening of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
America doesn’t have a national holiday to honor a writer. But if we did, [...]
A Presidential Library
The recent success of such award-winning and bestselling presidential biographies as American Lion by Jon Meacham, John Adams by David McCullough as well as Doris Kearns Goodwin’s portrait of Lincoln’s Cabinet, Team of Rivals, are all excellent reminders of our fascination with the Presidency. And a tribute to the value of great historians.
With Presidents [...]
Ordering Coffee Changes the World
Never underestimate the power of four teenagers.
Fifty years ago, a deliberate act of disobedience by four college kids shook America.
