Category: Social History
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Ground Zero Confederates
Last week the venerable New York Times weighed in on the Ground Zero Mosque controversy (it favors its construction) oddly enough by invoking the spirit of reconciliation between North and South after the Late Unpleasantness. The country often has had the wisdom to choose graciousness and reconciliation over triumphalism, as is plain from the many […]
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Short Takes
UPDATE II: Amazon.com has a special on Ken Burns’ Civil War documentary—less than forty bucks today only! UPDATE: I watched an interview on After Words with David Kilcullen, a former Australian soldier and counterinsurgency adviser to US commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan on C-SPAN last night. It’s definitely worth watching not only for what’s going […]
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Henry Morton Stanley, Confederate
Henry Morton Stanley is best remembered for his role as an African explorer. His 1874-77 journey, charting the Congo river, started the Scramble for Africa. Before Stanley, the white man had been largely content to nibble at the edges, staking little more than ports such as Freetown, Cape Town and Mombasa. After Stanley, the white […]
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Tom Dula and Zeb Vance
Rob Neufeld has posted the third part of the series on the Tom Dula saga, detailing the role of his chief defense council, former NC governor Zebulon Vance. Neufeld begins by stating that Vance himself had run afoul of the Yankee government. On May 13, 1865, Federal General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick had Vance arrested at […]
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Hang Down Your Head, Tom Dula
Asheville newspaperman Rob Neufeld has a two part series on Tom Dula, better known (and pronounced) as Tom Dooley. If you’re from my generation you can remember the Kingston Trio singing the sad ballad, which became a huge national hit and is credited with launching the folk revival of the early 60s. Hang down your […]
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Short Takes
Confederate general Ambrose Powell Hill, a man controversial enough in life, continues to cause problems 145 years after his death—or at least his portrait does. Nine years ago, amid considerable controversy, Hill’s portrait was removed from the county courthouse and put on display at the Museum of Culpeper History. During all that time, further controversy […]
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Short Takes
Henry Louis Gates, perhaps better known for his role in the “beer summit,” pens an excellent article on the slavery “blame game.” While we are all familiar with the role played by the United States and the European colonial powers like Britain, France, Holland, Portugal and Spain, there is very little discussion of the role […]