No crystal ball for 2018 (or the Civil War): Winston Churchill’s insight for historians
A Swedish proverb says, "Shared joy is a double joy." In this season of the year, I share my relish for Winston Churchill in an excerpt from The Last Lion…
A Swedish proverb says, "Shared joy is a double joy." In this season of the year, I share my relish for Winston Churchill in an excerpt from The Last Lion…
Spending Christmas behind bars isn't anybody's idea of fun. That's what happened to former U.S. Senator George Wallace Jones in late December 1861, after the federal government seized a personal…
In Ray Bradbury's short story, "A Sound of Thunder," a safari company takes visitors to any year in the past. Visitors can shoot any animal, even prehistoric ones. They can…
Artillery specialist P.J. Kelly had ten years of experience, serving His Royal Majesty. When Kelly arrived in Iowa, he probably never imagined he would serve both sides in a civil…
The presidency is a traditional American square dance, involving a second partner (Congress), sometimes a third partner (the Supreme Court), and occasionally many others (state and federal officials). They all…
It is hard to deny Abraham Lincoln’s political acumen. He understood his constituents, and he sagely analyzed his political opponents, including Republicans and Northern Democrats. Lincoln combined his knowledge of…
“There’s a battle outside and it is ragin’ … for the times they are a-changin’.” Bob Dylan could’ve sung these words about Abraham Lincoln and the nation after Fort Sumter.…
Lincoln had the consummate skills of a lawyer, a politician, and a storyteller. Added to those skills, he had impressive logic. In many cases, Lincoln served himself, the Republican Party,…
I was a member of the Abraham Lincoln fan club as a boy. Dad was a member, too. He taped a Lincoln quote to his bedroom mirror: “My father taught…
Football announcers, amazingly enough, parallel the work of historians: They both offer play-by-play comments, descriptions of players, speculation, and post-game analysis. Historian Philip Leigh has written a thoughtful book, The…