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You want a confederate monument? My body is a confederate monument.
By Caroline Randall Williams NEW YORK TIMES, June 26, 2020 If there are those who want to remember the legacy of the Confederacy, if they...
Apr 6, 20234 min read
Book Review: The 1619 Project
His name was Thomas Dartmouth Rice, a New York entertainer who performed under the stage name of T. D. Rice. In 1828, Rice had been a...
Mar 30, 20238 min read
In Search of the America Dream
The book is entitled, "The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone And How We Can Prosper Together", by Heather McGhee. What the book does...
Mar 20, 20237 min read
Book Review: "Caste: The Origins of our Discontents" by Isabel Wilkerson
It seems we live in a caste society. This is the message of "Caste: The Origins of our Discontents" by Isabel Wilkerson, a Pulitzer...
Mar 20, 20236 min read
Book review: Waging a Good War: A Military History of the Civil Rights Movement, by Thomas E. Ricks
Thomas E. Ricks, a Pulitzer Price winning war correspondent, focuses his considerable reporting skill on the American Civil Rights...
Mar 18, 20235 min read
Washington in New York, chs 8 & 9
CHAPTER 8: A QUESTION OF BALANCE Oliver Ellsworth: now there’s a Founding Father you rarely hear about. Ellsworth was not a pamphleteer...
Feb 24, 202322 min read
Civil Rights on trial—New York Times v. Sullivan
Can a Supreme Court decision change the social fabric of the United States? That’s among the issues addressed in NEW YORK TIMES v....
Feb 21, 20233 min read
Pastor-in-Chief
The last thing I needed was to read another Lincoln biography. But a Lincoln biography given to me by my brother Charles, continued to...
Jan 23, 20238 min read
Book Review: Abraham Lincoln, by Benjamin P. Thomas
This very special Lincoln biography, originally published in 1952, benefits from the 1947 opening of the Robert Todd Lincoln Collection...
Jan 17, 20237 min read
Book Review: Lincoln on the Verge, by Ted Widmer
What this book does masterfully well is show how the president-elect Abraham Lincoln shored up northern morale in preparation for the...
Jan 16, 20235 min read
book review -- George Marshall: Defender of the Republic
In an age of political cynicism, name calling, and deep political division (where political opponents are routinely demonized), it's...
Sep 1, 202211 min read
The Western Ranch House
The California of the 1850s that greeted the first wave of American settlers was primarily comprised of large, fenceless cattle ranches...
Aug 15, 20226 min read
The California Missions
One of the most famous roads in all the world is California Route One, a coastal highway that traverses the entire length of the state. ...
Aug 14, 20227 min read
A Dish for a Poet
Seasons Greetings, The followings is “A Dish for a Poet” which is read aloud at our house this time each year, and never fails to amuse:...
Feb 10, 20221 min read
Old Town
We visited Philadelphia recently, specifically Old Town, that part of the city where the Founding Fathers created the Declaration of...
Feb 10, 20225 min read
Travels with George
Book Review: Travels with George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy, by Nathaniel Philbrick. I've read countless books about George...
Feb 10, 20224 min read
Pastor-in-Chief
The last thing I needed was to read another Lincoln biography. But a Lincoln biography given to me by my brother Charles, continued to...
Feb 10, 20229 min read
Steven Spielberg's American Trilogy
Three Movies by Steven Spielberg That Define the American Ideal AMISTAD (1997) – An Independent Judiciary LINCOLN (2012) – Democracy THE...
Feb 10, 20226 min read
George Washington, on his birthday
February 22 is George Washington’s birthday. Below is my review of “Cincinnatus: George Washington and the Enlightenment,” by Pulitzer...
Jan 2, 20223 min read
The Progressive Era Presidents
It was the time of the huddled masses, of immigrants, slums and overcrowded cities, of long hours and deplorable working conditions in...
Jan 2, 20228 min read
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