Historically Thinking

I’ve been doing something revolutionary of late: recording meetings in person. Occasionally I did this in the WAUG studio at Augustana College, with a colleague who walked over to join me. But I’ve never actually taken my laptop and Blue Yeti microphone to someone’s office or place of business, sat down with them, and had […]

* Richard II's Treasure

* James Meredith

* The Maria Mitchell Association

* Film of Anwar Sadat's assassination 

* George Bancroft, History of the United States

Richard II’s Treasure James Meredith The Maria Mitchell Association Film of Anwar Sadat’s assassination  George Bancroft, History of the United States

Today’s conversation is about battles, but much more than that. It is a conversation about how we interpret history, often not interpreting it so much as imposing our will upon it. And it’s a conversation about the modern world, and our fascination with genius, and with finding quick and sure answers to difficult problems. My […]

Today's conversation is about battles, but much more than that. It is a conversation about how we interpret history, often not interpreting it so much as imposing our will upon it. And it's a conversation about the modern world, and our fascination with genius, and with finding quick and sure answers to difficult problems.

My guest today is Cathal Nolan, Professor of History at Boston University, and we discuss his book The Allure of Battle: A History of How Wars Have Been Won and Lost. Nolan believes that few battles are actually decisive, meaning that victory in battle does not necessarily determine who wins a war. It follows from that, he argues, that wars are rarely short. But, by focusing on model of decisive battles won by military genius, modern people (politicians, generals, and citizens alike) have deluded themselves time and time again that "the boys will be home by Christmas." But stalemate and attrition are as much a feature of modern warfare as it was in ancient or medieval warfare. Victory always requires suffering and immense sacrifice on the part of those who would be victorious. And no general, however brilliant, can change that.

 

What happened after Lewis and Clark returned The First Flight Around the World Eric Williams, Capitalism and Slavery Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Influence of Seapower Upon History, 1660-1783

* What happened after Lewis and Clark returned

* The First Flight Around the World

* Eric Williams, Capitalism and Slavery

* Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Influence of Seapower Upon History, 1660-1783

Following the creation of a federal constitution in 1787, the work was not even halfway completed. The Confederation Congress, the government of the United States, sent the new constitution to the states to be ratified. While Delaware passed it swiftly and unanimously–which is why it calls itself "the First State"–nearly everyone else engaged in vociferous debate. These ratification conventions are some of the most fascinating political events in American history.

Perhaps none excels Virginia's ratification convention for sheer drama. As Lorri Glover discusses today, all of Virginia's greatest figures then resident in the commonwealth–the notable exception being George Washington–were present. Leading those opposed to ratification were two of the finest orators in Virginia or in the rest of America, Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee. Advocating the new constitution was the weak-voiced, 5'4" James Madison, who compared to the two titanic figures opposing him was relatively unknown.

What followed then is the subject of our conversation, and of Lorri Glover's book The Fate of the Revolution: Virginia Debates the Constitution (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016).

Following the creation of a federal constitution in 1787, the work was not even halfway completed. The Confederation Congress, the government of the United States, sent the new constitution to the states to be ratified. While Delaware passed it swiftly and unanimously–which is why it calls itself “the First State”–nearly everyone else engaged in […]

It's a little surprising, perhaps, but the National Weather Service has some really great historical material on its website:

* Memorial Web Page for the 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane

* The Great New England Hurricane of 1938

From the Department of "It's really more interesting than it sounds"–John Baldwin, The Government of Philip Augustus: Foundations of French Royal Power in the Middle Ages

Resources from the Library of Congress on Constitution Day