Tag: History

Book Review: ‘Save the Last Bullet’

With each passing year, another collection of works about World War II is produced. From economic analyses to military histories to biographies to historical fiction, there seems to be an endless supply. The war was a moment, lasting less than a decade, in which the world attempted to destroy itself. It is a moment that…


Vindication: Harriet Beecher Stowe and the ‘Byron Scandal’

“So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war.” Whether Abraham Lincoln greeted Harriet Beecher Stowe with those words during her 1862 visit to the White House is uncertain, but if so, they were accurate. Stowe was little—she stood less than five feet tall—and the novel she had written 10…


One Country, United

When Ulysses S. Grant entered the president’s office in 1869, echoes of the Civil War tensions that he helped to resolve still reverberated in his mind—and in the nation at large. In response, he commissioned a set of paintings to represent the Union’s indivisibility and to symbolize the nation’s post-war recovery. “Liberty” by Constantino Brumidi is mounted…


Book Review: ‘Lockett and the Devil’s Path’

“Lockett and the Devil’s Path” is the fourth in a series of historical fiction by author T.J. Johnston. But no worries if you haven’t read the other three; it’s just fine as a standalone. If you are a fan and have been anxiously waiting for the fourth, you won’t be disappointed as Mr. Johnston’s main…


Greek Hoplites and Their Weapon of Choice: The Aspis

Defending one’s homeland requires the use of the most powerful weapons at hand. In ancient Greece, soldiers used the spear, sword, and shield. From about 700 to 300 B.C., the Greeks chose the aspis as the shield of choice. Hoplites, the infantry of ancient Greek city-states, defended their lands for centuries with this most important…


Joseph Warren, the Spy Doctor of the Revolutionary War

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison are names typically associated with America’s founding, but others deserving mention are cloaked in obscurity. One such man is Dr. Joseph Warren, a Massachusetts native and patriot who played an instrumental role in the drive for America’s independence. Warren was a respected physician in the 1760s. The son…


George Bird Grinnell: The Father of American Conservation

The parents of George Bird Grinnell (1849–1938) must have had great intuition when they gave him his middle name. Grinnell would become the father of American conservation with a particular affinity for ornithology―the study of birds. “Diary of the Washburn Expedition to the Yellowstone and Firehole Rivers in the Year 1870” (1905). (Public Domain) Born…


Rewind, Review, and Re-Rate: ‘Operation Pacific’

1951 | Not Rated | 1h 51m | Drama, Romance, War When it comes to war movies, submarine warfare films can be some of the most intense ones to experience. Some of that intensity is due to the physical confines of submarines themselves—relatively cramped conditions where men of war must learn to live together while…


President Grant’s Last Battle: Writing His Autobiography Before Succumbing to Cancer

The summer of 1885 was a scorcher, but that wasn’t the hot topic in America that year. On June 16, a national hero battling terminal cancer retreated to a small cottage in the cooler mountains of upstate New York in a valiant effort to finish his long awaited memoirs. The famous Civil War general had…


Nathanael Greene: Washington’s Friend and Trusted General

From a young age he walked with a limp, but that would not stop Nathanael Greene from achieving a distinguished military career during the War for Independence. In fact, after George Washington, Greene has been called by historians the “second best” American general in the Revolutionary War. In his article, “The Most Underrated General in American…