Tag: American history

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There is no holiday or tradition that is both solemn and as deeply intertwined in the unique historical American ethnicity and spiritualism as Thanksgiving. The holiday has several meanings. The first is religious. The Mayflower Pilgrims celebrated their survival in Plymouth Colony with a feast and gave thanks to God for their blessings. Today, deep within American culture, Thanksgiving still carries the impulse to give thanks to the Almighty for one’s blessings during the year. (more…)

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History is important, American history particularly so. For better or worse — and I still don’t know if it’s for better or worse — everything America does and fails to do affects the world. President Clinton was very cautious about getting involved in the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s because he was thinking of the Vietnam War. George W. Bush went on to attack Iraq because he was thinking of the “lessons” of the Second World War. (more…)

John Singleton Copley, Portrait of Paul Revere, 1768

1,662 words

English original here

Beaucoup d’Américains patriotes objectent au Nationalisme Blanc parce qu’on leur dit qu’il est « non-américain ». L’Amérique, disent-ils, fut toujours une société multiraciale, dédiée à la proposition que « tous les hommes sont créés égaux ». Par conséquent, l’idée nationaliste blanche d’une société qui base la citoyenneté sur la race est étrangère à la tradition américaine. (more…)

2,676 words

Thomas Nelson Page
The Old Dominion: Her Making and Her Manners
1908

In compiling his famous 1908 essay collection The Old Dominion: Her Making and Her Manners, author Thomas Nelson Page seemed to have several goals in mind. Of course, offering a brief history of the Commonwealth of Virginia was one. He also quite clearly wished to rehabilitate the good name of his home state (more…)

Janice Drew, Vandalized Plymouth Rock

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The Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock 400 years ago. Sadly for the occasion, unknown vandals defaced the actual Plymouth rock and other monuments dedicated to the Pilgrims’ arrival.

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Stanley Crouch
Kansas City Lightning: The Rise & Times of Charlie Parker
HarperCollins, 2013

“The double consciousness so fundamental to jazz: the burdens of the soul met by the optimism of the groove.” — Stanley Crouch (more…)

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The New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project is the future of American education.

Buffalo Public Schools announced this month that the essay series will now be mandatory for its students and other school districts are soon to follow. The news was greeted with grumbles from acclaimed historians and conservatives, who despise 1619 Project’s attacks on sunny liberal view of American history. (more…)

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Edmund Morgan
American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia
New York: W.W. Norton, 1975

Jill Lepore
The Name of War: King Philip’s War and the Origins of American Identity
New York: Vintage, 1999

The Dissident Right must take back American history. (more…)

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Jill Lepore
This America: The Case for the Nation
New York: W. W. Norton, 2019

The theme of This America isn’t what Jill Lepore thinks it is.

Jill Lepore is a Harvard Professor of American History, and an incredibly prolific author – twenty-five books, and many essays in The New Yorker – with a fluid, appealing writing style. (more…)

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David McCullough
The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West
New York: Simon & Schuster, 2019

David McCullough’s latest book tells the story of the pioneers who settled the Northwest Territory (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, and most of Minnesota), mostly focusing on Ohio and spanning the signing of the Northwest Ordinance in 1787 up to 1853. (more…)

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In modern America, image is everything. Even war. Therefore, the United States Army is rolling out new uniforms reminiscent of something old—the iconic “pinks and greens” of the World War II “Greatest Generation.”

Probably not by coincidence,” The New York Times explained, “that’s what the Army was wearing the last time the nation celebrated total victory in a major war.” (more…)

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If there is a singular, inarguable principle that lies at the heart of America, it is liberty. The “Statue of Liberty” is perhaps our most iconic landmark, and the “Liberty Bell” in Philadelphia is one of our oldest national symbols. (more…)