Category Archives: History

Juan Williams Firing from NPR

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I was surprised to learn that Juan Williams appears on Fox News.  I understand that NPR can’t pay much, but Fox?  Ah well.

I will say, however, I don’t agree with his being fired for having very human reactions towards those Muslims that dress outwardly as Muslims.  He, unlike those of us in other parts of the country (Metro Detroit), did not grow up with the culture being a part of the natural landscape.  If it isn’t a full-fledged niqab, the person is probably not completely radical. 

I have other issues with wearing a niqab when someone is driving, but I digress.  (I have experienced drivers wearing a niqab, and do not want them on the road!)

Anyway, I found the outcry against Helen Thomas, a Christian Arab-American taking the side of the Palestinian cause disconcerting as well.  It is not racism to believe that the nation of Israel has no more right to exist than the Palestinian state.  It really isn’t.  It is a matter of socially and racially charged politics.

Personally?  I don’t care whether Israel exists or not.  History shows that whoever has the firepower to keep the land is the one who wins.  That is the business of the folks who live there.  I don’t agree with material support of either either side by the US government with my tax dollars, but that is because I’m an isolationist on all fronts and would limit aide to emergency relief.  I’d also pull us out of almost all foreign military bases.  (Certain semi-protectorates would have to be examined closely.)

Anyway, I understand that NPR wants to be seen as neutral on all accounts.  Even their letters to the editor often highlight when interviewers or hosts are not being even-keeled.  What bothers me is this growing expectation that everyone in the press and politics must tow some party line.  This does nothing to help engage the necessary conversations.

The reality is that, yes, Juan Williams said things that can be construed quite negatively.  On the other hand, what he said only tends to indicate that he is a human being with all the foibles that comes with.

No one is without prejudice.  His admitting his is not the worst sin ever.  It might even have been seen as a way to open dialog among a more mature audience.  But, I have long given up the idea that the US is made up of a mature audience unless it comes to prurient interests.

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U.S. (Halliburton?) Identifies (Admits?) Vast Riches of Minerals in Afghanistan

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I realize that this sounds a bit on the conspiracy side of things.  I know that this may cause me to lose any credibility with many folks out there.  And perhaps I have just been enjoying too many Conspiracy and Paranormal Podcasts.  But, in the end, it seems way too convenient that the Soviets knew of these resources and Halliburton is a major contractor for the US military and mining and oil interests for there not to have been some level of purpose there.

For those who are unaware, the US military has long been used by business interests to forward their goals to make more profit.  It is something that some history teachers touch upon, but many don’t.  Smedley Butler – the man who saved the Union before World War II – even wrote a book called War is a Racket after serving as a general.

Why did Smedley Butler think this?  Well, the very lucrative banana and other plantations of South America were major financial interests of the robber barons of the era.  We stayed in the Philippines for the same reason.  It was always about money and trade.  Also, the opening of Japan was because the US Navy threatened to open fire if the Japanese didn’t open their ports to trade.

So, Afghanistan has the largest known deposits of lithium (batteries, computers, etc.), cobalt (more high tech), and other minerals crucial in the creation of computers, batteries, and other technologies which run our world today.

Why wouldn’t I think that Halliburton – or Brown and Root, or some other incarnation – influenced things so that we would have a strong military presence in Afghanistan?  I find the protestations of this being a surprise rather hard to swallow when the Soviets knew before they left Afghanistan.

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Chicago Diversion : Environmental Threat and Economic Opportunity?

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In 1885 Chicago built a diversion to carry waste water to the Mississippi out from Lake Michigan. This led to a number of locks and such that supersede the Great Lakes Compact and the Boundary Waters Treaty that govern water usage in the Great Lakes basin due to a SCOTUS decision from around the 1890s (I already returned the library book – The Great Lakes Water Wars).

Since this time, there have been major diversions that have gone into the Great Lakes – notably the one developed during WWII in Ontario that feeds into Thunder Bay. The rule of thumb has been that if it remains inside the basin there isn’t much to worry about, but if it is outside the basin (excepting Chicago due to an antiquated SCOTUS decision), it is not approved.

For those unfamiliar with how the Great Lakes basin governance works, it takes the agreement of all the governors of the states or the executives of the provinces to allow a diversion if it is under a certain volume. If it exceeds that volume, the Boundary Waters Treaty comes into play – as does the updated Compact – and all the executives in both the Great Lakes States and Provinces must approve with subsequent approval in Ottawa and D.C. (Yeah, how long do you think that would take?)

Anyway, the Chicago Diversion has continued to add more and more suburbs outside the basin by staying within their overall volume allowance from an over 100 year old SCOTUS decision that SCOTUS just decided it would not re-hear. For whatever reason, Michigan’s case to cut off the links that allow for the carp to enter the lakes (and genetic materials have already been found on top of the fences) despite the likelihood of them destroying both fishing and tourism interests in an already weakened economic area.

Now, the main diversion and overall waterways surrounding Chicago are antiquated. Would it not make sense to use Federal monies to not only prevent the carp from invading international waters (Canada is still the USA’s largest trading partner); but, also, to engender a major infrastructure project in one of the areas of the country suffering from massive unemployment by updating an over 100 year old water system?

Or, are Chicago and federal politicians so corrupt and short-sighted that they cannot see this will turn into a major international incident if not headed off at the pass?

The Great Lakes Water Wars

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Water, fresh water, is, possibly, the most precious resource on earth. In some parts of the world the controversies and battles are obvious. In those areas with a seemingly endless supply, there are underlying tensions that most of the world doesn’t recognize.

Peter Annin’s The Great Lakes Water Wars takes the reader through the major legal battles regarding diversions – from 1855 to the state of the Great Lakes Compact in 2006. (It passed all legislations as of 2006.) This is a lighter read than one might expect for a book mired in complex legal settlements and international entanglements.

510kdKc-NPLAnnin starts with the tragedy of the Aral Sea. Some people may not see the relevance of the devastation to the central soviets of the former Soviet Union, but it is a stark reminder of what could happen to the Great Lakes basin if just diversions were mismanaged.

Once Annin brings us back to the Great Lakes, he starts with the Chicago Diversion. Back before modern waste treatment was available, the Chicago government saw fit to change the course of the Chicago River. The other states surrounding Lake Michigan were livid. Wisconsin brought this in front of the Supreme Court which handed down one of the most complicated mathematical decisions ever in U.S. history.

Chicago keeps adding new suburbs to this diversion due to their being grandfathered in under all the newer agreements. This is despite the fact that their water system is in much needed disrepair, and, unmentioned in the book, the diversion has become a major ecological threat. (The book does not go into anything other than diversions.)

The Chicago diversion caused a great deal of panic throughout the basin. Soon the states and provinces surrounding the Great Lakes pressured their federal governments to create the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty to help prevent major diversions. (Of course, during WWII there was the diversion into the Great Lakes at Thunder Bay in Ontario, Canada.)

This set up a somewhat informal system where each state’s governor had to approve any given diversion – excepting the existing Chicago diversion. If it was under a certain amount, the Canadian provinces did not have to be involved, however, if a certain threshold was not met. If that threshold were met, both federal governments would have to approve the diversion as well.

Annin takes us through a variety of approved and denied diversions and addresses the weaknesses that they highlighted in the system. The basin governments set out to correct this with The Great Lakes Charter of 1986 – which went through many revisions and challenges until the adoption of the Compact.

Annin also goes through the very interesting use of a western water law expert by those involved in creating the Compact. There was a very real disagreement from those steeped in the traditions of eastern water law about his conclusions. Eastern water law holds water as a commons, while western law holds it as a “first come, first serve” resource. This is, of course, an oversimplification, but the best explanation I can contain in a book review.

The Great Lakes Water Wars is an excellent addition to any library seeking information on the state of the Great Lakes. Though he does not address anything but diversion, diversion is a topic that deserves its own book.

Introduction to the Lakes : Introduction to the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway

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More on Our Freshwater Seas.

Introduction to the lakes: An introduction to the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway by Frederick Louis Whitlark was written in 1959. It was one of the first books I found in our library system and though it is very outdated, it still has a wealth of historical information on the shipping industry of the lakes.

Whitlark goes through the commonly used ships and their routes in the mid-twentieth century. The routes taken are detailed in the book as well. When this book was written, the Mackinac Bridge was still brand new. He goes through the many lighthouses that dot the shores of the Great Lakes mentioning the (now retired) Lightship Huron that guided many a vessel through the waters surrounding Port Huron.

An entire section of the book is dedicated to the commerce that was current in the 1950s when the lakes were plied with outgoing industrial wares and raw materials. Mention is made of the then dying pleasure cruises and steamships that dominated that industry on the lakes.

Each lake (Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie, and Ontario) and major waterway (St. Marys River, Waterlink between Erie and Huron, and Welland Ship Canal) within the basin as well as those making up the St. Lawrence Seaway (Thousand Island, Internation Rapids, Lake St. Frances, Soulanges, and Lachine) are given their own sections. Each section details common routes and the ships that ply them.

Rudimentary maps and drawings are interspersed throughout the book to aid the reader in understanding the unique geography of the area. Though mentioned, Whitlark does not spend much time on the many, many shipwrecks that make the Great Lakes considered some of the most treacherous waters in the world.

Introduction to the lakes: An introduction to the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway shows its age in such memorable quotes as:

We are quite sure that the first civilized men to see any part of the Great Lakes drainage basin were Norewegian Vikings. A replica of the DragonShip in which Leif Erikson sailed to the New World in 997 A.D. is located in Duluth. p. 158

Despite that, this is a worthy read for those interested in the history of the Great Lakes.

Freshwater Heritage : A History of Sail on the Great Lakes, 1670-1918

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From time to time I will be reviewing books on The Great Lakes and Michigan as part of a series celebrating the grandeur of North America’s freshwater seas. If anyone wants to join in, I will be happy to start a read-a-long.

Freshwater Heritage: A History of Sail on the Great Lakes, 1670-1918 by Don Bamford is a delightful history from the beginnings of sailing on the Great Lakes. I am not someone familiar with sailing terminology or boating, for that matter, but this book was very accessible to even me.

Mr. Bamford takes the reader on a journey from the early discovery by the French of Lake Ontario – and their expansion into the other freshwater seas and rivers that intersect the center of the North American continent. He has us follow LaSalle’s efforts to control the waterways despite issues with his fellows and sponsors in France.

51qP8ZR7+JLThe end of French control of the Lakes allowed the British (and, eventually, the Americans) to gain a strong foothold in the Great Lakes basin. Mr. Bamford shows the importance of the technology of sailing ships that was imported from Europe for dominance on the lakes. The same shipbuilding skills that gave the USA the USS Constitution (oldest commissioned Naval vessel anywhere) allowed the United States to dominate the Great Lakes. Of course, Don Bamford also clearly illustrates that the majority of the time both the British and the Americans were in a game of avoiding each other’s ships – or trading them through capture.

One of the unique characters of Freshwater Heritage: A History of Sail on the Great Lakes, 1670-1918 was the attention given to how the challenges of building ships in the wilderness settings surrounding the Great Lakes – even where there were older settlements such as Detroit. The skill these early shipbuilders displayed cannot be underestimated. The tools used were hand tools without the electrical power we take for granted today. You can almost see the skilled tradesmen as they carved and assembled the ship’s parts into one of the majestic sailboats that dominated the lakes through the 19th century.

The last portion of Freshwater Heritage: A History of Sail on the Great Lakes, 1670-1918 is devoted to the various trades that sailing boats supported on the lakes. Starting with the fur trade that was dominated by John Astor, Bamford shows how Astor’s monopoly came to dominate. His sections on the fishing and lumber industries that decimated the fish population in the lakes and its surrounding forests brings understanding to how that happened despite its brevity. Lastly, he includes a section on the seemingly forgotten mining industry that Michigan dominated through its Upper Peninsula copper and iron mines.

Freshwater Heritage: A History of Sail on the Great Lakes, 1670-1918 is a pleasant journey through the majesty of the historical sailing vessels that dominated the freshwater seas known as the Great Lakes. It is well worth the time of any history buff or serious maritime history student. Don Bamford’s 32 years of research were well-served in this publication.

Howard Goodall’s Big Bangs (DVD)

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I am a complete ignoramus about music. When I was in school, we kept losing music teachers such that, since I was not forced into piano lessons, I never learned to read music. It is a woeful detriment that I may attempt to overcome someday. On the other hand, there is my husband who is a very talented musician and lover of music history. He got the utterly fascinating Howard Goodall’s Big Bangs from the library system and I was cursing him for keeping me from chores I needed to do.

Howard Goodall is probably best known to Americans as the person responsible for the music on Blackadder and Red Dwarf. He decided to turn his considerable talent on a project looking at the things that changed Western music in truly incredible ways.

Howard Goodall’s Big Bangs is two discs with 5 well-done documentaries on the history of Western Music.

The first episode is Notation. As someone with a lacking musical education, I did not realize that musical notation was a real newcomer in historical terms. (History buff here. If it isn’t at least 1,000 years old, it’s new.) Prior to this uniquely European invention, there was no way to save music in a fixed form. Various musical pieces were victimized by the old “telephone game” so that we will forever wonder how much of the original composer’s intent was still left of those pieces that predate notation.

51Avn9thnzLThe second episode is Equal Temperament. This one put me to sleep, but, it enthralled my mathematics loving husband. Yes, it was heavy on the math behind how the equal temperament unique to European music made European music much more standard. (According to DH, Arabic music has a different equal temperament. This discussion, however, is over my head.)

The third episode is Opera. I hate opera, but found the episode fascinating. (I hate opera because I feel physical pain from certain pieces when they are sung.) The story of opera is the story of revolution, it seems. It was, and is, a cheeky art that allows much that cannot be said plainly to be said via music and song.

The fourth episode is Piano. This made my internal engineer’s heart go pitter patter. Going over the precursors of the piano forte and following how this revolutionized composing so that a composer could “hear” in his mind what would be played in the concert hall.

The fifth episode is Recorded Sound. This goes through the how Edison’s invention revolutionized music and what is considered “good” music. It also showed how it created an equalizing influence on who could hear and support music while creating expectations of what might be played during a concert.

Howard Goodall’s Big Bangs is a wonderful romp through the history of Western music for both the musically literate and illiterate.

The Legend of the Shadowless Sword (Movie)

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DH and I watched the subtitled version of The Legend of the Shadowless Sword (with Digital Copy) and were utterly captivated. The first words from my husband’s mouth was “OOH, that’s pretty.”

The Legend of the Shadowless Sword (with Digital Copy) is an excellent example of Korean film making with major Hong Kong influences. The fight and battle scenes are excellent and beautifully choreographed. The acting is top notch, and the story is rather good for a martial arts epic.

The movie starts on the Western frontier of the Asian kingdoms. The prince of Behae is hiding from his enemies among the Georans. A female assassin, Soho, is sent to find and bring him back to lead his troops in claiming his throne.

51m+z0arzcLThe problem? Another woman assassin and her army are hot on their trail trying to prevent the prince from ever claiming his throne.

The costumes are beautiful. This is a feast for the eyes. The Legend of the Shadowless Sword (with Digital Copy) is one of the best martial arts films I have seen on DVD in recent memory. I highly recommend this one to anyone who enjoys martial arts movies – even without dubbing.

Bath Massacre : America’s First School Bombing

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51vYwhzLLbLUpon finishing Bath Massacre: America’s First School Bombing by Arnie Bernstein I turned on my TV to see that 7 students in the Detroit Public Schools were hospitalized at two area hospitals. Synchronicity is odd. There are few similarities as the Detroit shooting occurred at an area bus stop and the Bath Massacre took out an entire school save the targets being school children.

I lived in one of the towns immediately affected by the massacre – not Bath, Michigan – so already had some knowledge of the tragedy. I was living there when Columbine happened. People remembered a much larger tragedy that happened on May 18, 1927.

On May 18, 1927, area farmer, and former school board member and treasurer, Andrew Kehoe, had wired his farm and the Bath Consolidated School with dynamite, killing 45 people, mostly children, and injuring 58. This is still the worst single school disaster in modern history.

The book is a decent retelling of that horrific day. Bath Massacre: America’s First School Bombing suffers from two major flaws. First, the need for Arnie Bernstein to include non sequiturs about Chicago in the book. (These should have never been left by the editors. I can only think they were looking for padding.) Second, the short shrift given to Nellie Kehoe’s medical needs and the expenses that must have entailed from those.

The finances of Andrew and Nellie Kehoe were not investigated to the point I would have liked to see. Nor were the stresses of Nellie’s many hospitalizations. This leaves one to wonder if Kehoe, who blamed taxation for his money woes, was faced with mounting medical bills that he felt he could have paid had he not been paying taxes. That this speculation was not delved into more, instead, Bernstein had to unnecessarily mention connections the area had to Al Capone, was a major flaw.

The chapters detailing the bombing and rescue efforts are riveting, if dry. I was very surprised to find that Bernstein has a Master’s in Creative Writing. (The only reason I can overlook the use of Wikipedia(!) as a source in his endnotes. Completely irresponsible in a history book. Use authoritative sources people.) His style reads more like a history theses rather than the true crime story this really is. This flaw comes mainly from focusing on things that were not relevant to the story in the first part of the book and ignoring the financial angle of this crime.

Bath Massacre: America’s First School Bombing is one of only two easily obtained books – and the only in-print book – on this major American tragedy. No one living in Bath at the time was untouched. Today, there is a memorial park with a variety of tributes. Entering town, one can feel the sadness that still resides in the essence of the town.

For those who want to know more about the origins of suicide bombers and their victims, Bath Massacre: America’s First School Bombing, is a good place to start. Andrew Kehoe was the first of what would be an ongoing criminal-type in the modern era – mass murderer who kills himself/herself during their crime.

The Lost History of Christianity : The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church — and How It Died (Audiobook)

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Read by Dick Hill, Philip Jenkins’ book, The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia–and How It Died I got to revisit one of my favorite historical periods – the growth and decline (and preservation) of the various Apostolic Churches.

First, I have one minor annoyance – Jenkins keeps claiming that this is a “lost” or “unknown” history. I don’t think you can spend any time studying the history of Central Asia, Turkey, China, or Russia without having had at least a passing familiarity with the topics he covers. There are even some historians who have argued that China would have been Christian save for the various competing creeds literally fighting in the streets outside the Forbidden Palace. The Chinese Emperor looked askance at a group preaching peace as they were engaged in mortal combat with their supposed brethren.

I forgot that most people are not used to dealing with large populations of Arab Christians as we do in the Detroit Area. Syrian and Marionite Churches exist here. Didn’t everyone know that Chaldeans are Iraqi Christians? Or that Armenians can trace their Church to Apostolic origins?

Sadly, I then remembered that the vast majority of people have little more than a passing familiarity with their own history – let alone the history of people’s who have all but disappeared from the planet. (And, in looking at some of the reviews on Amazon, it is apparent that many cannot differentiate between theology and history.)

The book, however, is an excellent survey of the history of the established Apostolic Churches and how they managed to survive – or not – in the Eastern theater. Though Jenkins emphasizes the decline into crypto-Christianity or complete disappearance, even he has to recognize the remarkable resilience of the surviving Christian communities when competing with the evangelizing of both Islam and Buddhism. Both Islam and Buddhism have a much stronger tie to nationalism than Christianity did in that area. (European Christianity – and by extension, US Christianity – have a much more nationalistic identity.)

Jenkins theses is that religions die. And that the study of how they die is vital to understanding how to safeguard against that happening again. He takes us through the ups and downs of the various Christian sects that did not necessarily report back to Rome. Many of these self-same sects held great political power under a variety of non-Christian governments only to find themselves later persecuted by subsequent administrations or sultanates. These Churches seemed to have been built on shifting sands.

He takes us through the many ethnic cleansings that occurred against Christians throughout the Eastern world. These were the blueprints used to carry out modern genocides. (Genocide is not new, only the word.) The Christians who lived and survived in these areas were truly living the warning Christ gave that we, as Christians, would be hated as much, if not more, than He was.

Jenkins takes us up into the 21st Century and the destruction of Iraq and its powerful Chaldean community. He touches on the integral part Arab and Central Asian Christians have played in the history of Islam and how it has come to exist in our world today. And shows once again how the ignorance of Western Christians has actively damaged their Eastern brethren.

lostchristianhistoryUltimately, Jenkins falls into the theory that it is geography that makes the difference in whether a population survives or does not. Isolated communities continued – mountain peoples, always a stubborn lot, held on to Christianity longer than others, save the Copts in Egypt. The Copts having their own unique geographic and geopolitical insulation that protected them from some of the worst horrors visited upon their brethren to the East.

For those unfamiliar with Central Asian, Asian, and African Apostolic Church history The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia–and How It Died is well worth reading or listening to.