Tag Archives: history

10.09.25
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THE IDEA OF AMERICA/DARREN WALKER

I have not read a more incisive overview of inequality in all of its forms than in Darren Walker’s THE IDEA OF AMERICA.

The book is a series of speeches and essays written and delivered by Walker during his tenure as president of the Ford Foundation. It is the embodiment of his work in transforming the foundation’s mission from grant making to addressing the issues of inequality and social justice in America.

In many ways THE IDEA OF AMERICA is a history lesson based upon the premise that the founding father’s, however flawed, enshrined a fluid document of promise and hope for democracy’s future. That even, “All men are created equal,” allowed for a promise for a better future, even though codified by all white men over half of which were slaveholders and all women were excluded. Of the founders Walker adds, “They initiated a grand, complicated experiment in self-government. It led to abolition and suffrage and worker’s rights and women’s rights-however slowly, however unevenly.”

The book is not an optimistic treatise. Many thoughts are foreboding. Walker sees an America diminished by division in a climate worsening daily. ” As certain democratic norms fall away it becomes harder to motivate oneself to act. We get exhausted by, even acclimated to, the daily onslaught.”

Walker is cautious about America’s future. ” In the not-too-distant past the American people would turn to their elected leader’s the president- for guidance and moral clarity. Today, in a vacuum of such moral leadership, fear temps many Americans to hunker down , protect themselves and their interests and withdraw for the purposes of safety and self-preservation .”

Walter Isaacson casts an optimistic note in his praise for THE IDEA OF AMERICA. “Darren Walker summons us, on the 250th anniversary of our founding, to remember our higher calling.”

I commend to you this very important read on the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding.

“`

04.12.25
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LEXINGTON AND CONCORD…250TH READING PREPARATION!

American independence and our nations history are of premium interest across all media. I would like to share with you three recommendations for enlightened reading of the events leading to the War of Independence and proceedings of the First and Second Congresses which lead to the Declaration of Independence of July 4th, 1776.

Nathaniel Philbrick’s Bunker Hill is a critical and remarkably readable history of events in the Massachusetts Bay Colony leading up to the ” Shot Heard Round The World” at Lexington and Concord on April 19th 1775. Though titled Bunker Hill the narrative goes far beyond that historic event putting the relationship between the Colonists and the British Parliament that lead to the war’s beginning in detailed perspective. The reader comes to an understanding of the City of Boston under Seige and how the colonist mindset there kindled a revolutionary spirit that ultimately encompassed all of the thirteen original Colonies.

A second remarkable read during this historic anniversary period is Our Lives, Our Fortunes & Our Sacred Honor, The Forging of American Independence 1774-1776, by Richard B. Beeman. While there is some historical overlap with Philbrick’s Bunker Hill, the additional perspective upon the familiar fixtures of the revolutionary movement is very worthwhile. Different takes on Samuel Adams, John Adams, John Hancock, Thomas Paine, John Dickinson, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington are found in each book. Beeman’s focus however is not on the military events of the day but more upon the First and Second Congresses in Philadelphia in 1775 and 1776 and the struggles between the patriots and the loyalists. Remember, these two conventions met while the early battles of the revolution were being fought with extremely mixed results. Beeman focuses upon the struggles for consensus that finally led to the wording of the declaration on July 2, 1776, and announced two days later on July 4th.

Who wrote the Declaration of Independence? Certainly not Jefferson as the sole author. Beeman is emphatic: The final product-Congress’s Declaration of Independence, not Jefferson’s-was in fact superior-more concise, more constrained, and, perhaps, even more elegant than the original.

Another very worthwhile read on events leading up to the Revolution is Rick Atkinson’s The British are Coming. ( see gordonsgoodreads). Atkinson has a new volume of this trilogy The Fate of the Day which will be released i later this month.

Enjoy this deep dive into American Revolutionary History.

01.21.25
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THE DEMON OF UNREST/ERIK LARSON/CODE DUELLO!

An enjoyable, readable academic approach to the lead up of the firing on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina Harbor and the beginning of the Civil War. THE DEMON OF UNREST by Erik Larson begins with Lincoln’s election and is a study of the pro-war extremists in the South, their hubris and misguided efforts to preserve slavery and the Cotton Kingdom. Cotton was the radicals scepter. A simple agricultural product could bring the North to its knees.

Ironically and timely, Larson also details the southern efforts to derail the counting of the electoral votes that ultimately ensured Lincoln’s victory. Often history proves that nothing is new.

Larson’s storytelling expertly reveals the heroism of Major Robert Anderson, Sumter’s commander and his beleaguered troops. The insight into Lincoln’s thought processes, often overwhelmed and extremely frustrating to his subordinates, is studied in detail. The workings of his ” Team of Rivals” cabinet is revealed as is President Buchanan’s duplicity. The plot to kill Lincoln before he took office somewhere on that long journey from Springfield, Illinois to Washington D.C. was real. Read of the ” real” life of Abner Doubleday.

Those of us who came to know diarist Mary Boykin Chesnut from Ken Burn’s Civil War will read her observations and understand her personality and the Southern pre-war mentality in even greater detail.

My takeaway from this best seller is to recommend it for those who will appreciate it’s detail and come to a greater understanding of Lincoln and the false sense of reality that drove South Carolina and the ultimate secession from the Union of the states that followed.

Also read and recommended by Gordon’s Good Reads, Erik Larson’s IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS

11.24.24
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SPYING ON THE SOUTH/ HORWITZ

In the 1850s, just prior to the Civil War at the height of the Cotton Kingdom and the southern slave society, a young Frederick Law Olmsted, just employed as a reporter for the fledgling New York Times was sent on a mission to report on the nature, culture and society of the American South. He had previously been wandering through Europe seeking a sense of personal direction.

But this was a real job with a paycheck, expectations and deadlines. Olmsted took his brother on what turned out to be two separate trips, the first into the eastern southern states and the second a year later a more adventurous journey through Kentucky then on to Tennessee and East and West Texas. Travel was by riverboat , trail horseback and foot.

Olmsted delivered hundreds of insightful detailed dispatches to the Times over these two years. Southern society, the cruelty of slavery, the grandiose lifestyles of plantation owners and of course of lasting impact on his future career, the American natural landscape. His political philosophy was sharpened by the early German settlers of the West Texas Hill Country and the southern gentry slave holders and their progeny. He and his brother enthusiastically tasted heritage cuisines in Cajun and Creole Country, and African in the deep south and came to an understanding of their cultural origins

Tony Horwitz in Spying on the South takes it upon himself to recreate step by step Olmsted’s two journeys. With some of the original manuscripts in hand he attempts to re-imagine what Olmsted observed 150 years earlier, admittedly an almost impossible task. In some respect everything had changed, pavement, highways, strip malls. I other cases, nothing changed. Attitudes, economic disparity, political divisions and yes the wonderful cuisines of the south remained. Did Howritz capture Olmsted’s trip? That was a tall order. However, Horwitz’s trek on pack mules in West Texas likely came closest to the Olmsted experience!

Frederick Law Olmsted went on to develop a world renown reputation as a landscape architect and an advocate for public lands and shared spaces. Central Park is considered among his masterpieces from both a social and a landscape perspective. Without question the Olmsted design and social imprimatur was deeply nurtured by his two adventures in the pre Civil War American South.

For more on Frederick Law Olmsted see gordonsgoodreads.com Olmsted & Yosemite.

10.28.24
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MAKING THE PRESIDENCY/CHERVINSKY

Lindsay M. Chervinski’s book MAKING THE PRESIDENCY/ John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic is a must read for its relevance to the historical perspective of the Electoral College and the precedent of the election of John Adams as its relates to the controversies of 2020 and 2024.

Chervinski has produced a great academic yet entertaining work in understanding the historic perspective of our electoral process through the lens of John Adams and the hotly contested election of first Adams himself succeeding George Washington and then his loss to Thomas Jefferson in his bid for a second term.

The author elevates the contributions of John Adams to our democracy and in his defining of the early powers of the presidency. It is a case study of the implications of the Alien and Sedition Acts, the establishment of highly partisan political parties in the election process and the fascinating intrigue and plotting of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Both unlikely bedfellows in the bitter Jefferson-Adams electoral contest.

” History repeats itself ” can become a cliche. After reading MAKING THE PRESIDENCY you will quickly see how history can fast forward.

For those in Massachusetts or nearby, Revolutionary Spaces is hosting a discussion with Lindsay Chervinsky on Thursday, November 21 at 1PM at Old South Meeting House in Boston. For reservations go to revolutionary spaces.org There is no charge for admission.

06.18.24
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JUNETEENTH/TWO IMPORTANT TITLES

John Swanson Jacobs, son of Harriet Jacobs both of whom escaped slavery, is now available in a rediscovered narrative titled A TRUE STORY OF SLAVERY THE UNITED STATES GOVERNED BY SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND DESPOTS.

The book goes far beyond Jacob’s bondage and escape there from to crystallize his views on the very government and the US Constitution that allowed the institution to continue and thrive through the end of the Civil War. Jacob’s SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND DESPOTS are clearly defined by his narrative as the white American oligarchy that that allowed and supported slavery’s existence. In his own words, Jacobs holds all American citizens, North and South accountable for writing -absolute rule over an unfree people- into the democratic charter. Jacob’s narrative is one of the very few first hand accounts of slavery that survive, including his mother’s Harriet Jacob’s INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRL and also the NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS, AN AMErICAN SLAVE. Before leaving America for Australia and then a life at sea he briefly joined the lecture circuit with Frederick Douglas. The book also includes a biography of Jacobs by Jonathan Schroeder titled NO LONGER YOURS.

Another important Juneteenth volume is Matthew Stewart’s AN EMANCIPATION OF THE MIND RADICAL PHILOSOPHY, THE WAR OVER SLAVERY, AND THE REFOUNDING OF AMERICA.

This volume is a highly charged analysis of how government, the white oligarchy, American’s prominent religious denominations and the economics of the plantation/cotton economy forced and kept four million human beings in bondage. In the effort to dominate the national political system the slaveholders were able to count on the antidemocratic aspects of the US Constitution: The overrepresentation of the small states in the Senate and the Electoral College; the growing power of the unelected judiciary: and the absence on meaningful checks on the corruption of state governments.

Of great interest to this reader was the influence of German revolutionaries, progressives and intellectuals upon the American abolitionist movement. They called themselves the 48ERS, having been among the some 10,000 Germans emigrating to America during that period. They included Friedrich Knapp, Ludwig Feuerbach, journalist Ottilie Assign, August Willich, Carl Schurz and many others. There were some 10,000 German immigrants living in the Ohio Valley by the start of the Civil War whose abolitionist views were made well known to President Lincoln.

Two volumes written over 250 years apart, one by an escaped slave the other by a modern day historian zero in on the same underlying issues that allowed slavery to exist and in some cases remain a threat to American democracy to this very day. I can think of two more timely reads.

05.23.24
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AN UNFINISHED LOVE STORY/DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN

Anderson Cooper gave the perfect description of Doris Kearns Goodwin when he called her a national treasure. His quote appears on the dust cover of Kearns Goodwin’s new book AN UNFINISHED LOVE STORY, A PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE 1960S.

Richard Goodwin while in his twenties and early thirties was a speechwriter and inner circle advisor to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson and then later to Robert F. Kennedy. For years, all of Goodwin’s personal papers of the era sat collected in some thirty boxes stored in the Kearns Goodwin home at Concord, Massachusetts. In their later years after over 40 years of marriage Richard in his 80s and Kearns in her seventies decided it was time to open the boxes and write his personal history. By this time Kearns had established herself as among the most prestigious of presidential Pulitzer Prize winning historians. ( Search Gordons GoodReads).

What is remarkable about this book is the insiders look behind the scenes of the personalities and the inner workings of the campaigns and administrations of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. Added to the narrative is the disruptive force of Robert Kennedy and how Richard Goodwin navigated his mixed loyalties. Those loyalties of course spilled over into the Kearns/Goodwin love story, she being an ardent loyalist of Johnson and Richard having left the Johnson inner circle for Bobby Kennedy’s ill fated primary campaign against LBJ.

The reader learns of the beginnings of the Peace Corps ( an off the cuff-JFK speech in Michigan), the LBJ Great Society the inside strategy of the Voting Rights Act, The Civil Rights Act and LBJ’s famous joint session of Congress speech in which Goodwin co-opted Martin Luther King’s We shall overcome. Insight into the transition from the Kennedy to the Johnson administration after JFK’s death evoke a combination of anger and empathy. The Robert Kennedy personality for all of its strength and weaknesses is on abundant display.

A remarkable aspect of AN UNFINISHED LOVE STORY is the lesson learned of how great writers and politicians learn how complicated and controversial legislation can be properly packaged and themed to insure success. Kennedy, Goodwin and LBJ were a brilliant combination in fulfilling this task.

As readers of Gordons Good Reads surely know I too elevate Doris Kearns Goodwin as a National Treasure. AN UNFINISHED LOVE STORY IS a must read for those interested in American political history of the 1960S.

04.28.24
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THE RISE AND FALL OF THE SECOND AMERICAN REPUBLIC/MANISHA SINHA

The title is exactly what this academic work entails. What became of Lincoln’s vision of a unified American Republic following the initial Republic’s dismemberment during the Civil War? The years are 1860-1920. A very broad survey of a period when the philosophy of today’s political parties were reversed.

Manisha Sinha, Chair in American History at the University of Connecticut has written a scholarly detailed description of how Lincoln’s dream of Reconstruction was eviscerated in a cascading series of events that returned the defeated South into a post-war era of subservision of any and all rights gained by the Slaves with the Emancipation Proclamation and the passage of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution. Sinha also places the Abolitionist movement in the North under a microscope and delves into the conflicts that developed between Abolitionists and Suffragettes as to who should be granted the right to vote.

From the day he took the Oath of Office following Lincoln’s assassination, President Andrew Johnson began a step by step premeditated campaign to restore The Lost Clause in the American South. For a brief period there was hope. The right to vote by black majorities in many regions saw former slaves elected to local and state offices. However this success, unprotected by the eventual withdrawal of federal troops and the political destruction of the Freedmen’s Bureau led to lawless revenge by the former plantation aristocracy. Sinha’s narrative details the horrors of the Black Codes, Lynchings, Poll Taxes, Jim Crow, and inmate leased labor that prevailed throughout the south.

The Rise and Fall is more than a deep review of Reconstruction. The narrative carries forward to Manifest Destiny and the Westward Expansion which led to the devastating impact upon Native Americans in the in the new territories. It is a general survey of politics, self interests, the Lost Cause, the impact upon labor during the industrial revolution, failed policies and racism in America from 1860-1920, long before the modern day Civil Rights Movement began. It is the perfect prelude to that forthcoming era.

This is an extremely complicated era in American History and Manisha Sinha does a brilliant job in enlightening the reader. An important addition to one’s library of American History.