121 years ago today (in fact nearly to the hour I write this), the then Assistant Secretary of the Navy (!), Theodore Roosevelt ordered the Pacific Squadron of Commodore George Dewey to ready for an attack of the Spanish fleet docked in Manilla. That’s right: Before the Congress acted and without anyone’s knowledge, this warmonger…
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This is a recording of a lecture/class discussion on the turn of the century debate on the legitimacy (or lack thereof) of American overseas expansionism. I cite and reference to a large extent the great work of Stephen Kinzer on the subject matter found in: Enjoy.
featured sources: Anders Stephanson, Manifest Destiny and the American Empire of Right, 1995. Andrew Jackson, “Letter to Moses Dawson”, 1848. John Gast, American Progress, 1872.
Is satire so much more effective when it lands so close to the truth?
The actually good presidents of the United States–that state designed to be the smallest and most limited ever created which has become instead, the largest and most ubiquitous in history–are not found on the top of the consensus “presidential” historians’ lists. They are nowhere among the top 10 of the public’s vision of the best…
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*available in iBookstore An indispensable tool that not only helped me ace all my tests in AP European History, but also served as a great review for THE test on MayDay. Aced it!” Norah S., high school student, Chicago, IL
To be fair, I forewarn my students that–as we begin a study of the Constitution or Gilded Age economics for that matter–I tend to act like a toddler. Like a toddler, I repeat the question “why” throughout class. “Why is the sky blue?”; “Why do blow-pops tastes so good?”; “How does one get to the…
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