Today in 1966, the National Historic Preservation Act became law, and it launched a massive effort to save historic buildings around the country that were in danger of encroaching urban sprawl and demolition. (You can read the act here. It is a well written defense of history.) In thinking about the effects of this momentous…
Tag: U.S. History
Are you willing to die?
Today is National Medal of Honor Day. This year, it happens to also be Good Friday, which seems especially appropriate, given Jesus’ words the night before his crucifixion: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life…
Why Jefferson Davis’ statue should remain
Some people have recommended that the statue of Jefferson Davis be removed from the rotunda of the Kentucky state capitol. I would like to present an alternate option that does more credit to our great Commonwealth. The matter is currently under review by the Kentucky Historic Properties Advisory Commission. They recently called for public comment…
Death, censorship, and reality
This morning I was sent a link to this article in The Atlantic, which describes a photo taken by war photographer Kenneth Jarecke at the end of Operation Desert Storm. The photo was not chosen for publication in the U.S., based on its graphic nature. This prompted me to examine more closely how Americans view…
“Lessons Learned” Part 2
The current meltdown in Iraq has me revisiting the “Lessons Learned” topic I covered several months ago (see the post here). I’d like to address some of the readers’ comments from that post, and add some observations which have occurred to me since then. I will be discussing these thoughts in tandem with ideas from…
Museum: The National WWI Museum
Kansas City, Missouri is home to the National World War I Museum, and I visited while I was attending the annual conference of the Society for Military History. Let’s take a look at what makes this museum tick: Quality of research The availability of technical specs for the weaponry on display, and the broad strokes…
Book: Unfamiliar Fishes
ALWAYS look through the bargain books at Barnes & Noble! I was flipping through stacks of surplus Chicken Soup for the Construction Worker’s Soul, Thomas Paine reprints, and Atkins diet cookbooks when I found Sarah Vowell’s Unfamiliar Fishes. Bargain-priced at $4.99. Signed by the author. Seriously! Look: I first became familiar with Sarah Vowell through…
Book: The Monuments Men
How to thwart a pillager With his book, The Monuments Men, Robert Edsel has brought a little-known piece of the Allied effort in World War II to the front of our consciousness. The MFAA, or “Monuments Men” were a tiny group of American, British, and French soldiers who scoured Europe for the thousands of pieces…
Museum: War birds brought to life
In Addison, Texas, north of Dallas, you can find a gem of a museum. The Cavanaugh Flight Museum specializes in air-worthy historical planes, and is the home of the Commemorative Air Force’s heavy bombers. I last visited the Cavanaugh in December, 2013. Quality of research The Cavanaugh museum has well-researched narrative, especially from a technical…
Letters from the past
What if we could hear, first-hand, what it was like to be on a ship in Pearl Harbor during the Japanese raid on December 7th, 1941? What if one of your family-members had an eye-witness story about the November, 2004 Battle of Fallujah in their email? Are you a U.S. veteran with a stack of…