Kenneth C. Davis's Blog, page 80
April 8, 2015
Speaking at Baltimore’s Enoch Pratt Free Library-May 18
On Monday May 18, I will be appearing at the landmark Enoch Pratt Free Library in downtown Baltimore, Maryland at 6:30 PM. This event is free.
I will be there to discuss my new book, THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF AMERICA AT WAR.
More details and directions are available from Enoch Pratt Free Library.
April 1, 2015
New book lands on my desk!
There are many wonderful days in a writer’s life (–along with some dreadful ones)!
THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF AMERICA AT WAR: Untold Tales from Yorktown to Fallujah (May 5-Hachette Books/Random House Audio)
But few are as special as the day a box of brand new books arrives. There’s a lot of expectation — and some anxiety.
For a few minutes, though, we get to take a deep breath and marvel at the possibilities.
Most of all, you know that there is much hard work still to come –making sure the world knows what you have been doing, locked away in your office for months at a time.
And then I always think of all of the people who made this book possible –editors, designers, copy editors, publicists. There is a great team of them at my publisher Hachette Books and audio publisher Random House.
So, many thanks to all of them.
Watch for more announcements of appearances and bookstore events. And thanks for being readers!
March 31, 2015
Who Said It (3/31/15)
George Washington, “Letter to Touro Synagogue,” (August 18, 1790)
The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy—a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.
It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.
Complete Text and Source: Touro Synagogue
President George Washington visited the oldest synagogue in America in August 1790 while on a tour of New England.
This letter was written to the congregation there after his visit. It stands as one of the great documents in the history of America’s freedom of conscience. The Touro Synagogue website offers a comprehensive history of the letter and its significance.
March 23, 2015
Who Said It? (3/23/15)
Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. –Dwight D. Eisenhower
Eisenhower at Camp Meade (US Army, Public Domain Source: Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum)
President Dwight D. Eisenhower, “Farewell Address to the Nation” (January 17, 1961)
Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. Because this need is so sharp and apparent I confess that I lay down my official responsibilities in this field with a definite sense of disappointment. As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war–as one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years–I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight.
Complete Text: Teaching American History
This is the speech in which Eisenhower also warned:
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.
Dwight D. Eisenhower died on March 29, 1969. His New York Times obituary.
May 13-Speaking at Porter Square Books
The Hidden History of America At War-May 5,2015 (Hachette Books/Random House Audio)
On Wednesday May 13, I will be appearing at Porter Square Books in Cambridge Mass., to talk about my new book, The Hidden History of America At War: Untold Tales from Yorktown to Fallujah.
I hope you will join in.
For more information about Porter Square Books.
June 11-Speaking at Fraunces Tavern Museum
On Thursday June 11, I will be speaking at New York City’s landmark Fraunces Tavern Museum –scene of Washington’s Farewell to his troops in 1783. I hope you can join me at this remarkable historic site to discuss my new book THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF AMERICA AT WAR: Untold Tales from Yorktown to Fallujah.
Information and directions to the Museum.
The Long Room at Frances Tavern Museum
March 19, 2015
June 4-Speaking at the Pritzker Military Museum (Chicago)
On June 4, I will be speaking at the Pritzker Military Museum and Library in Chicago at 6 PM. I will be there to discuss my new book, THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF AMERICA AT WAR:Untold Tales from Yorktown to Fallujah.
I hope you will join me
The Hidden History of America At War-May 5,2015 (Hachette Books/Random House Audio)
March 17, 2015
When Irish Eyes Were Not Smiling-The Bible Riots
(This is a revised version of a post that originally appeared on March 17, 2012)
It is the day for the “wearing of the green,” parades and an unfortunate connection between being Irish and imbibing. For the day, everybody feels “a little Irish.”
But it was not always a happy go lucky virtue to be Irish in America. Once upon a time, the Irish –and specifically Irish Catholics– were vilified by the majority in White Anglo-Saxon Protestant America. The Irish were considered the dregs by “Nativist” Americans who leveled at Irish immigrants all of the insults and charges typically aimed at every hated immigrant group: they were lazy, uneducated, dirty, disease-ridden, a criminal class who stole jobs from Americans. And dangerous. The Irish were said to be plotting to overturn the U.S. government and install the Pope in a new Vatican.
One notorious chapter in the hidden history of Irish-Americans is left out of most textbook– the violently anti-Catholic, anti-Irish “Bible Riots” of 1844.
In May 1844, Philadelphia –the City of Brotherly Love– was torn apart by a series of bloody riots. Known as the “Bible Riots,” they grew out of the vicious anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic sentiment that was so widespread in 19th century America. Families were burned out of their homes. Churches were destroyed. And more than two dozen people died in one of the worst urban riots in American History.
You can read more about America’s history of intolerance –religious and otherwise– in this Smithsonian essay, “America’s True History of Religious Tolerance.”
The story of the “Bible Riots” is another untold tale that I explore in my book A NATION RISING.
March 9, 2015
Starred PW Review of Forthcoming “Hidden History of America At War”
The first critical review of my forthcoming book, The Hidden History of America At War: Untold Tales from Yorktown to Fallujah has just appeared in a “Starred Review” in Publishers Weekly.
“His searing analyses and ability to see the forest as well as the trees make for an absorbing and infuriating read as he highlights the strategic missteps, bad decisions, needless loss of life, horrific war crimes, and political hubris that often accompany war.”
Please read the full review here
Starred PW Review of Forthcoming “Hidden History of America At Waar”
The first critical review of my forthcoming book, The Hidden History of America At War: Untold Tales from Yorktown to Fallujah has just appeared in a “Starred Review” in Publishers Weekly.
“His searing analyses and ability to see the forest as well as the trees make for an absorbing and infuriating read as he highlights the strategic missteps, bad decisions, needless loss of life, horrific war crimes, and political hubris that often accompany war.”
Please read the full review here
