Category: History

The Battle of Monmouth: A Most Consequential Revolutionary War Battle

In spite of the victory in New York at Saratoga in October of 1777, several losses around the same time in Pennsylvania resulted in the capture of the capital city of Philadelphia, which forced the Second Continental Congress to flee to York. The rather demoralized Continental Army would spend the winter at Valley Forge. Miserably…


Hong Kong Does Not Care About the United Nations

Commentary This year marked the 34th anniversary of the June 4th incident, a 1989 student-led demonstration in China that resulted in bloody suppression and massacre. Since then, the annual June 4th candlelight vigil has been part of Hong Kong’s history until 2020, when the national security law banned such national security-threatening activities. However, with the…


Book Review: ‘Desert Armour: Tank Warfare in North Africa’

For those interested in the minute details of how tank warfare was conducted during 1940 and 1941 in North Africa, Robert Forczyk has written an exhaustive work in his new “Desert Armour: Tank Warfare in North Africa: Beda Fomm to Operation Crusader, 1940–41.” Forczyk is not merely a military historian, but also served 18 years as…


Snuffed Out but Not Forgotten: Old Baldy Lighthouse

A few years ago, while climbing Oak Island Lighthouse, which is the newest lighthouse in North Carolina built in 1958, I could see a small island situated just where the Cape Fear River empties into the Atlantic Ocean. On it, barely visible, is the oldest lighthouse in North Carolina, referred to as Old Baldy. Recently,…


Rewind, Review, and Re-rate: ‘Red Cliff’

2008-2009 | R | 2h 28m | Action, Adventure, Drama John Woo is a name that is synonymous with excitement, danger and, of course, pulse-pounding action. Woo cut his teeth on many ’80s and early ’90s Hong Kong action classics such as “The Killer,” “Bullet in the Head,” and “Hard Boiled,” the latter widely considered his…


James Walker’s ‘The Battle of Lookout Mountain’

The 13-foot by 30-foot “Battle of Lookout Mountain” painting has only been on display at the Lookout Mountain Battlefield Visitor Center since 1986. For close to half a century, it lay wrapped up and out of view. How the painting came about requires travelers to visit Chattanooga, Tennessee, which borders Chickamauga, Georgia. Significant Civil War…


Book Review: ‘Gothic War on Terror: Killing, Haunting, and PTSD in American Film, Fiction, Comics, and Video Games’

Danel Olson is known in the academic and film world for dissecting the psychology and history behind well-known films, like “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “The Shining.” His latest works have delved into the fictional creations inspired by the September 11 terrorist attacks and the Global War on Terror that ensued over the following two decades. His…


Enjoy Awarding-Winning Movie and Meet the Cast While Touring a Hudson River Castle

With summer arriving, give yourself a relaxing weekend on an island in the Hudson River, visit an old Scottish castle, and watch an award-winning crime movie. An island on the Hudson River, a castle, and a crime movie? The three things together sound a little outlandish. But on Saturday June 17, it’s happening. The director…


The D-Day Tugboat That ‘Saved Our Bacon’ and Bloodied the Enemy

As the orange rays from Lake Ontario’s setting sun filter through the glass windows of the tugboat’s elevated steel pilothouse, one can almost see her crew. Their faces, slightly blurred by time, are still fixed in anxious rigidity. As they pass around the binoculars, each man leans forward slightly, in a vain attempt to magnify…


Hedy Lamarr: Hollywood Star and Inventor

After a day’s filming for a movie, Hedy Lamarr (1914–2000) would often slip unnoticed from her set trailer to get in a swim in her agent’s pool. There, she might be seen pausing after a lap contemplating her latest idea. Lamarr didn’t like the fame and attention she received from being a star actress during…