Kenneth C. Davis's Blog, page 128
October 22, 2009
TODAY IN HISTORY: A Real October Scare– The Missile Crisis
For Americans alive in 1962, it was much more scary than any Halloween. For nearly two weeks in October, the world came as close to World War III or an all-out nuclear war as it has ever been.
On October 22, 1962, President John F. Kennedy announced an air and naval blockade of Cuba, following the discovery of Soviet missile bases on the island.
Here is the New York Times account written by Anthony Lewis
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1022.html#article
Following the...
October 19, 2009
Why we "Hide" our History: A videoblog
People ask me two questions all the time: Why don't we know much about History?
And why is so much of America's History Hidden?
To the first the answer is simple. It was boring.
And to the second, we lie.
Sometimes these lies are little white lies –like Washington and the Cherry Tree. But sometimes they are Big Lies.
Let me give you an example of a BIG LIE. I was in a wonderful historical village in Florida, doing some research. A Spanish mission, with a neighboring Indian village, it featured an ...
October 16, 2009
Today in Literature: Oscar Wilde and Eugene O'Neill
Born this day are two great and influential writers.
Irish-American Eugene O'Neill, born in 1888 in a New York City Broadway hotel. Son of a famous actor, he became arguably America's greatest playwright. Four Pulitzer Prizes went to his work, including one posthumously for Long Day's Journey Into Night
Read more about O'Neill at the PBS "American Masters" site
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/oneill_e.html
It is also the birthdate of Dublin-born (1854) Oscar Wilde, one of the m...
October 14, 2009
TODAY IN HISTORY: Death to Quakers
More Great moments in the religious history of a "Christian nation."
Did they tell you that the Puritans came to America in search of religious freedom?
That part is true. But it was for themselves, not anybody else. Religious dissidents did not fare well in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Just ask Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson. They were both banished from Boston.
(My recent blog about Roger Williams: http://www.dontknowmuch.com/2009/10/today-in-history-roger-williams-and-san-francisco/)
B...
October 12, 2009
Of Columbus Day and Crosses
"It's the — the cross is the — is the most common symbol of — of — of the resting place of the dead."
Those were the words of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia during a Supreme Court questioning session. The case involves a cross honoring veterans that has been placed on federal lands. The fuller context of Scalia's exchange with an attorney arguing the case can be found in Professor Geoffrey Stone's recent blog on the Huffington Post.
October 9, 2009
TODAY in HISTORY: Roger Williams and San Francisco
It is one of those curious coincidences of American history. But on this date–October 9th– Roger Williams, a dissident preacher, was "banned from Boston" (in 1635) and Junipero Serra dedicated Mission Dolores in what would become San Francisco (in 1776).
Separated by more than century and a continent, they might seem like unconnected events. But these are two extraordinary moments in the history of a so-called "Christian nation" and –more to the point– its treatment of Native Americans.
Born i...
October 5, 2009
The World is a Pear: Columbus Day
"In fourteen hundred and ninety-two/Columbus sailed the ocean blue."
We all remember that. But after that basic date, things get a little fuzzy. Here's what they didn't tell you–
Most educated people knew that the world was not flat.
Columbus never set foot in what would become America.
Christopher Columbus made four voyages to the so-called New World. And his discoveries opened an astonishing era of exploration and exploitation. His arrival marked the beginning of the end for tens of millions...
September 30, 2009
Don't Know Much About Truman Capote
"Oh my, it's fruitcake weather!"
It's not the first line many people associate with Truman Capote, born September 30, 1924 in New Orleans. But it is in one of my favorites, A Christmas Memory, a 1956 short story originally published in Mademoiselle.
This Depression-era story of a young boy and his favorite aunt making holiday fruitcakes is far removed from the author's most famous work– the book that made "true crime" a literary genre.
"Nonfiction novel"—it may sound like an oxymoron, but...
September 25, 2009
Don't Know Much About Faulkner
Yesterday Fitzgerald. Today Faulkner. This American master was born in New Albany, Mississippi on September 25, 1897.
The past is never dead. It's not even past.
History haunts the present in William Faulkner's novels, as this famous line from Requiem for a Nun (1951) suggests. Faulkner's great novels focus on the decline of the southern aristocracy in and around the fictional town of Jefferson. He invented old Mississippi families like the Compsons, the Bundrens, the Sutpens, and the...
September 24, 2009
Don't Know Much About F. Scott Fitzgerald
Born September 24, 1896: F. Scott Fitzgerald in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was named Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald after the author of The Star-Spangled Banner, a distant relative of his mother's.
It was an age of miracles, it was an age of art, it was an age of excess, and it was an age of satire.
In his work and his life, F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) captured the spirit of the Roaring Twenties. Against a backdrop of bright lights, jazz and liquor (lots of liquor), such novels as This Side...
