History

Summary of Greco-Persian Wars, Herodotus, Plutarch and Aeschylus Celebrate Greek Victory
Greek and Roman History

Summary of Greco-Persian Wars, Ancient Historians Herodotus, Plutarch and Aeschylus Celebrate Greek Victory

07/05/2023 Bruce Strom 2

The wars between Greek city-states, and Persian influence in these wars, continued after a short peace, and lasted another generation, exhausting the Greek city-states, leading to their subjection of Philip of Macedon and Alexander the Great. The lesson that Alexander learned from of all these wars, starting with the Greco-Persian Wars, and from Xenophon’s leading the Greek mercenary armies from the heart of the Persian Empire, Babylon, back to Greek territory, was that the Greek hoplite armies were vastly superior to the Persian fighting forces. This meant for Alexander the Great that the Persian Empire was ripe for the taking. […]

Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, Biography of Cyrus the Great, King of Persia
Greek and Roman History

Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, Biography of Cyrus the Great, King of Persia

06/28/2023 Bruce Strom 6

During his first hunt, Cyrus the Great eagerly pressed his horse to chase a great stag. His horse slipped, going to his knees, nearly throwing him, but “the boy managed to keep his seat, and the horse recovered its footing,” and shortly “Cyrus let fly his javelin, and the stag fell dead, a beautiful big creature.” When they were dismounted, admiring the slain stag, Cyrus sprang back on his horse when he heard a “frenzied wild boar charging down on them. He charged to meet it, drawing his bow with the surest aim possible, struck the beast in the forehead, and laid him low.” Cyrus would later display this brave coolness when under fire in battle. […]

Should Blacks Receive Reparations? Happy Juneteenth from Atlantic Magazine, Civil Rights Articles
Civil Rights

Should Blacks Receive Reparations? Happy Juneteenth from Atlantic Magazine, Civil Rights Articles

06/23/2023 Bruce Strom 0

The most compelling story in the Atlantic Juneteenth collection is “The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates. He is one of the Black Lives Matter banned authors, banned for making sensitive white children ashamed of their past history, ashamed that slavery was indeed the cause of the Civil War, ashamed of the brutal history of Jim Crow and KKK violence during Reconstruction and Redemption targeted at blacks. Ta-Nehisi Coates’ works were deleted from the AP Black History Studies course in a futile attempt to make it acceptable to Red State schools. If they wanted to change the emphasis to the AP Lost Cause White History Studies course, they would have better luck. […]

14th Amendment National Debt Insurrection SMALL
Civil War and Reconstruction

Unenforced Sections of the 14th Reconstruction Amendment: Public Debt and Insurrection

05/26/2023 Bruce Strom 1

Is this Republican blackmail constitutional? Most scholars and the Justice Department do not think so, although there are some conservative scholars who disagree. And there is no Supreme Court precedent for this question. President Biden has publicly stated that the Fourteenth Amendment question is on the table. […]

Slavery Was Cause of Civil War SMALL
Civil War and Reconstruction

We Fought the Civil War to Preserve Slavery, Confederate Leaders Proclaimed

05/19/2023 Bruce Strom 3

The Confederate VP Stephens proclaimed:
“Our new government’s foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.”

Stephens continues, “Our confederacy is founded upon principles in strict conformity with these laws” establishing slavery. “This stone which was rejected by the first builders ‘is become the chief of the corner,’ the real ‘corner-stone,’ in our new edifice.” This is religious imagery, as Christ was proclaimed as the corner-stone of Christianity.

Furthermore, the Confederate VP Stephens proclaimed that the new Confederate “Constitution has put at rest forever all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution, African slavery as it exists among us, and the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization.” […]

Erasmus In Praise of Folly
Catholic Middle Ages and Beyond

Erasmus, Luther’s Predecessor, The Praise of Folly

02/17/2023 Bruce Strom 0

Folly reminds us of the tension between the vulgar and the devout. “The pious, since they aim primarily at what is almost alien to the crass senses, are numbed and stunned by the sensual. In contrast, the ordinary person gravitates towards them.” Thus, many negligent people value bodily sensations such as “sex, love of food, sleep, anger, pride, and envy. The pious wage a constant war against these urges, whereas the vulgar crowd considers that without them life has no real existence.” […]

General Longstreet and Reconstruction
Civil Rights

Terror During Reconstruction, White League Confronts General Longstreet and Union Army

02/10/2023 Bruce Strom 3

We will tell the stories of General Longstreet and the Union Major Merrill. General James Longstreet, a former Confederate general who had become a pariah in the South when he changed his party affiliation to Lincoln’s Republican Party, tried to prevent the insurrection in New Orleans. For his second posting during Reconstruction, Major Merrill attempted to reverse the insurrection of parishes on the outskirts of New Orleans. […]

Civil Rights

Chaos of Reconstruction, Terror After the Civil War

02/08/2023 Bruce Strom 1

Major Merrill says that he knew that the “Ku Klux Klan is much greater in numbers than is commonly supposed, and that a large number of the most respectable people in the county are more or less intimately connected with it. The debauched sentiment of the old slave-holding communities sees no great offense in whipping a negro for being a radical. The old sentiment is rife, where differences of opinion are settled by killing the man who dares to disagree with them.” […]

Civil Rights

Booker T Washington, Later Autobiography, My Larger Education

01/27/2023 Bruce Strom 0

When Booker T Washington first started Tuskegee Institute, he immediately had to raise funds from the white businessmen of Macon County. He explains his pitch, “the best way to influence the Southern white man in our community, I have found, is to convince him that you are of value to that community. For example, if you are a teacher, the best way to get the influence of your white neighbors is to convince them that you are teaching something that will make your students” acquire skills that “adds something of value to the community.” I showed them that “the presence of Tuskegee Institute meant better farms and gardens, good housekeeping, good schools, and law and order.” […]

Current Events and History

Ukrainian President Zelensky Speaks to Joint Session of Congress, Reflections on David Frum Editorial in Atlantic Magazine

12/23/2022 Bruce Strom 0

David Frum writes, “Zelensky came to Washington to speak for his nation. He came to Washington to ask for assistance. But above all, he came to Washington to recall Americans to themselves. He came to say, My embattled people believe in you. Embedded in his words of trust was a challenge: If we believe in you, perhaps you can again believe in yourselves?” […]