Category Archives: Historical Figures

The Quartet – Founders of the America We Live In

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QuartetJoseph J. Ellis sub-titles his book Orchestrating the Second American Revolution 1783 – 1789.

In 1776, thirteen American colonies won their independence and prepared to go their separate ways, “destined to become a western version of Europe, a constellation of rival political camps and countries.” The Articles of Confederation were a Peace Pact among them, not a national government. Any far-away government was distrusted like the “quasi-paranoid hostility towards… London… [and] described as inherently arbitrary, imperious, and corrupt.” (Distances were hard to overcome back then.)

Ellis sketches biographies and covers pre-Constitution attempts at governance, the Revolutionary War, the dawning Enlightenment, the Great Debate that led to the US Constitution, and the “not-so-vacant” western lands that rendered “the local and state perspective… pathetically provincial.” Ellis provides a lot of detail on the flaws in the Confederation and political machinations that created the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Drawing on “massive,” “recently published” primary sources as well as other scholars; Ellis presents a compact 174 pages (Epub edition) with appropriate notes – fattened by appendices containing the texts of the Articles of Confederation, Constitution of the United States, and The Bill of Rights.

The vast majority of Americans had no interest in an American nation. It was “a small group of prominent leaders, in disregard to popular opinion, [who] carried the American story in a new direction.” Continue reading →

As American as Apple Pie

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pie_apple.svg.medAn article on Slate.com explains that sweet dessert pies are a fairly recent invention:

“We eat sweet pie at Thanksgiving on the premise that it captures the cuisine of colonial America. It does nothing of the kind. Sweet pie didn’t gain wide popularity until the 19th century… (in A Tramp Abroad, Mark Twain included sweet pies in a list of things he missed about his homeland…), and the full American pie menu, in all of its moods and seasons, did not come into being till the 20th. American as apple pie, the phrase and concept, entered our lexicon in the late and cosmopolitan throes of the Jazz Age. The most American thing about pie, in fact, may be its retroactive claim of folksy authenticity and early dominance.” The apple’s status as an immigrant seems appropriate since it mirrors most of America’s families.

Today I Found Out notes that “the first recorded recipe for apple pie was written in 1381 in England, and called for figs, raisins, pears, and saffron in addition to apples.” But no sugar – a rare and expensive ingredient – and the pastry was used as a baking container, not to be eaten. “A recipe for apple pie very similar to today’s recipes appeared in a Dutch cookbook in 1514.” But the apple pie hadn’t made it to America yet.

Skipping ahead to World War II, a common soldiers’ slogan was “‘for mom and apple pie’ which later gave rise to ‘as American as motherhood and apple pie’. Along with Phrase Finder, Today agrees that “apparently in the 1960s, we began to be ‘as American as apple pie.'”

I found one outlier. Kelly Kazek posted that the phrase “was in use by the 1860s, leading to its place in history as an American favorite,” but – alas – she lists no citation. Could “1860s” be a typo? Her phone number is on the web page, though, if you’d like to pester her.

Grant

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front cover of Grant biographyI posted a review of the more than thousand page Ulysses S. Grant autobiography and thought I should follow that with the 173 page biography by John Mosier for those who want to know more about Grant but don’t have many days of reading time to commit. I understand that, although I will comment that the autobiography gives a much richer insight into the man and his remarkable accomplishments as a general. My primary complaint about Moiser’s book is that he could have reduced it by any number of pages if he hadn’t spent so much time comparing Grant’s military actions to those of other great generals. A couple of instances would have been appropriate and instructive, but there are dozens of instances.

Moiser is indeed a Grant fan. The fly cover says, “…Mosier reveals the man behind the military legend, showing how Grant’s creativity and genius off the battlefield shaped him into one of our nation’s greatest military leaders.” Grant had many critics, and the book attributes much of the criticism to other generals (read Halleck) who feared Grant’s successes would detract from their careers. Newspapers were filled with stories about the horrible slaughters of Civil War battles, and there emerged an image that Grant was a drunken butcher who won battles by sacrificing the lives of thousands of the soldiers in his overwhelmingly large forces. My belief is that Grant was indeed a master strategist who cared deeply about human life, understood the need for solid logistics, and was amazingly quick at determining proper tactics to take advantage of terrain. In short, I believe Grant was a leader in the true definition of what would make the average soldier in the trenches or on the march look at him and decide he was a man worth following. I submit the absolute trust given Grant by William Sherman, who famously said something to the effect “I know that you will come save me, if alive.” I can’t think of a more powerful endorsement of trust between comrades in arms. Continue reading →

The Complete Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant

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complete-personal-memoirs-of-us-grantI’ve been busy reading about the U.S. plans for nuclear war with the Soviet Union in the late 1940s and fell behind on reading on other history subjects. No worries, I found a review of Grant’s autobiography in my file when I was writing reviews under the title of “Amateur Historian.” Volume I is 584 pages and Volume II is 554 pages with a 78 page Appendix. The origin of Grant’s books is interesting.  Mark Twain was suffering financial problems and heard that Grant was interested in publishing his memoirs to overcome similar financial problems.  He visited Grant and offered to publish the book with a 75/25 split of profits. Grant knew by the time he accepted the offer that he was dying of mouth and throat cancer.  There are reports Twain furnished Grant with cases of Vin Tonique Mariani, a Bordeaux wine combined with cocaine.  The “tonic” allowed Grant to overcome pain and finish his writing before he died.

Grant’s books details troop movements before, during, and after various battles, complete with names of officers commanding various segments of both armies.  Logistical efforts and geography of the battle sites are described, along with detailed hand drawn maps.  Although I understand the significance of these descriptions, I admit to skimming while looking for anecdotes that would reveal more about Grant. Grant’s actual name was Hiram Ulysses Grant, but he was appointed to West Point as Ulysses Simpson Grant, with the Simpson being taken from his mother’s maiden name. West Point had a policy of not accepting any name other than what was on the nomination form, so the incorrect name stuck. Current lore finds it ironic that the general who led Federal troops at the end of the Civil War had U.S. as his first two initials. His detractors said his initials stood for “Unconditional Surrender Grant.”   Continue reading →

Method in My Madness

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Dictionary.com defines this phrase as meaning “a plan behind a person’s apparently inexplicable behavior.” The source is no mystery. Phrase Finder notes this phrase came from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, 1602, but it has been adapted over time. The actual line from the play is ‘Though this be madness yet there is method in it‘.

Interestingly, the Oxford Dictionaries lists the quote in the modern form: “whatever he was about, there was method in his madness [From Shakespeare’s Hamlet ( ii. ii. 211)]”

Sparknotes clears this up by presenting the original text and modern adaptation side by side:

  • Original – POLONIUS says (aside) Though this be madness, yet there is method in ’t.—(to HAMLET) Will you walk out of the air, my lord?
  • Modern – POLONIUS says (to himself) There’s a method to his madness. (to HAMLET) Will you step outside, my lord?

I’m happy to see the modern version, though the translator isn’t cited. I’ve never been very fond of Shakespeare because it’s practically a foreign language. I’m sure some people will, however, be horrified at the translation.

It sometimes seems as if Shakespeare coined half of the English language.

Law of Holes

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Wikipedia says “the law of holes refers to a proverb which states that ‘if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging'”. This means, if you find yourself in an untenable position, you should stop and change, rather than exacerbate it. Wiki identifies the first use of a similar phrase and meaning in 1911 in the Washington Post. A version closer to the modern phrase has been attributed to humorist Will Rogers, and a modern version appeared in print in 1964 in The Bankers Magazine. The phrase has become popular in the UK thanks to British politician Denis Healey in the 1980s, who expressed the thought as “’when your opponent is in a hole and digging, for god’s sake don’t stop him’ or alternately ‘why would you want to take away his shovel?'” [ipglossary.com] If you sort out the “black hole” references in a google search, this political meaning seems most popular.