Shawn > Recent Status Updates

"'Fundamentalism' implies rejection of the modern world; 'populism' connotes attempts made by nation-states to enter that world."

"I myself might have done it differently, quite differently in places; for if translation is not betrayal, it is at least an inadequate service, and nowhere more so than in the case of a literature like Persian, abounding in echoes, allusions and word-plays of maddening complexity and subtlety."

Certainly thorough and comprehensive. I wish it had a glossary for all of the nautical terms, and a diagram of the types of ships. The anatomy of a boat. Another note, the battles are described good enough but I can't help but imagine a better writer putting it all together. Some stuff feels incomplete, or too much summarized. But altogether, this big book is solid. Just can't call it 'a masterpiece'.

Ouch, shots fired! America was profiting from war in Europe, and this guy Randolph, Virginian congressman John Randolph, a 'skilled debater', calls America out, saying that American interests in trade & commercialism is really just "this mushroom, this fungus of war." Whew--fungus of war. Damn.

Astounded & appalled by the prevalence of dueling. The Navy had a real problem. "yet the wisest Legislatures and the most able Magistrates have for some hundred years in vain endeavored to check it. It is one of those Evils which is consequent upon Society. It most frequently proceeds from the noblest feelings of the Heart. Before it can be stopped, the State of Society itself must change,"

Dueling was a significant problem.

"The most trivial disagreement was liable to trigger a challenge. One midshipman was offended when another entered the room wearing a hat. Another challenged a messmate because the offender had spilled some water on a letter he was writing."

Wow. U.S. Navy is the 1,000-pound gorilla, everyone knows. But this, it's when the Navy was just a baby, infant gorilla. Who'da known that [we] were out there dealing with N. Africa, the northern coasts, the Mediterranean, the Barbary states, w/emperors, pirates, merchantmen, it's like a scene where you can see that U.S.A. was entering & transitioning the world of antiquity. From British naval dominance to--

Really cool to learn about the turning point in American war footing: Many were pro-French, and did not want a Navy b/c it jeopardized relations w/France. But after it was proven clear that American ambassadors were threatened & humiliated by French dignitaries, the American nation puffed up its chest, flared its nostrils, and became the 1,000-pound Gorilla that it is now. French sympathizers (Rep) were silenced.