1,535 words
A blogger associated with the antifa bragged at the beginning of this week that arrests were imminent against demonstrators who had participated in the August 11, 2017 tiki torch march in Charlottesville, Virginia. Three people have been arrested so far, but this may be only the beginning. (more…)
4,143 words
After nearly 20 years of exile in New York City, I recently returned home to the South. I went to New York for a job and arrived full of hope, delighted at the prospect of a new life in “the greatest city in the world.” My preconceptions about the city were almost all positive, and, as I later discovered, heavily romanticized. (more…)
3,359 words
National divorce is the natural consequence of America’s highly politicized culture. Cable news channels routinely feature the term “civil war.” Average Americans divide along political lines in their personal and social lives, and nowhere is this more pronounced than on college campuses. America’s internal divisions are here to stay. (more…)
1,354 words
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…)
Thomas Nelson Page
Thomas Nelson Page
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What was life like in the antebellum South? Obviously it’s going to be a matter of perspective. Thomas Nelson Page provided one such viewpoint, the type we seldom hear about lately. He was a lawyer in his early career and a diplomat later, but is best known as a writer.
Aside from several novels, he published a non-fiction account of the Old South as he remembered it during his boyhood. This was Social Life in Old Virginia Before the War (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1897). It’s a quick read, providing a glimpse into a bygone time. (more…)
Captain John Smith, one of the Jamestown colony’s early leaders.
Captain John Smith, one of the Jamestown colony’s early leaders.
4,356 words
The Pilgrims who funded Plymouth Colony receive a great deal of glory. This glory is well deserved, but other shiploads of colonists did valorous things as well. The same year the Mayflower[1] crossed the Atlantic, so too did the Bona Nova. The latter vessel’s destination was Virginia, but it was swept northwards by the tides and wind. The crew recovered the situation by beating against the wind back towards Virginia, arriving in January of 1621. (more…)
Glenn Youngkin
Glenn Youngkin
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Surprisingly, moderate Republican Glenn Youngkin won the Virginia gubernatorial race this week. Once a battleground, Virginia has become a solid blue state in recent years. Republicans last won a statewide race in 2009, and few commentators gave Youngkin a shot to win. Donald Trump lost the state by 10 points in 2020, and Republicans lost the gubernatorial race in 2017 by the same margin. This time, however, the Republican candidate won it by over two points. (more…)
3,353 words
It was a sweltering July afternoon at the Malvern Hill battle site — more than 150 years gone since it had been the scene of General Robert E. Lee’s debut in the 1862 Seven Days campaign. It was the conclusion of his defense of Richmond from the numerically-superior Army of the Potomac, led by George McClellan. (more…)