Category: History & Culture
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How do monuments augment a country’s national identity?
If this is a topic of interest, I highly recommend Lawrence Vale’s article “Mediated Monuments & National Identity.” Here’s the abstract I wrote of this article with full citation at the bottom in case you want to look it up. It even mentions the Petronas Twin Towers from my country of residence! Lawrence J. Vale…
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Did Truman Start the Vietnam War?
The headline is purposefully provocative. How could Truman, who came on the scene after Roosevelt’s death in April 1945, have started the Vietnam War of two decades later? He didn’t, of course, but the case could be made, and was made in my thesis, that Truman instituted a policy shift towards Indochina which set the…
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History: Booker T. Washington’s “Up from Slavery”
Booker T. Washington’s autobiography “Up from Slavery” is the classic look at post-slavery, post-Civil War America that is both instructive, surprising, and insightful for our modern society. Washington was a young boy when he received his freedom after the war, and he had the insatiable desire for learning. He would let nothing stop him, no…
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Know Your History: What the Emancipation Proclamation Really Did
It freed the slaves. Not really. What’s the deal? Let’s break it down a little so we can understand exactly why Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was a master stroke of genius – even if it didn’t free one slave! It was late summer in 1962 and the war between the Union and Confederacy was not…
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Use that language or lose it!
When I left Vietnam in December of 2003 after living there for nearly 10 years, I was fluent in the language. I could hold a conversation with anyone on most any non-technical topic (and even some of those if they were related to history or culture.) I revisited Vietnam and 2005 and felt like I…
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Know Your History: Get rid of the bum, Teddy Roosevelt!
In one of those ironic, funny moments in history, Teddy Roosevelt unexpectedly became president of the United States in September of 1901 when President William McKinley died of an assassins bullet. Why was it ironic and funny? Certainly not because of McKinley’s death, which was tragic and heart-breaking for the country. It was ironic and…
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On Confederate Flags and Democracy
It’s hard to miss the current flap about whether Confederate flags should be used in conjunction with … well, anything. This debate, of course, stems out of the horrific recent shooting at a South Carolina church where a young, self-avowed white supremacist killed nine African Americans. In response to this, many voices on each side…
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Poor English! Expect it. It’s always been with us.
In this fascinating article in the Economist, the author highlights esteemed writers and teachers through the centuries who have lamented how the English language is in decline. Pupils don’t know the rudimentary elements of grammar, and even well-known writers are using the language in “inelegant” ways. While some bemoan the fact that English is getting…
Author Mark W Sasse 