history
Past politicians, legislation and political movements have changed the course of history in ways both big and small. Welcome to our blast to the past.
Instead of Tearing Down History and Monuments, Why not Build It Up
So the statue issue has come home to a nearby community in Mt. Kisco, New York. Facebook allowed the opposing sides to fire the first salvos. On Father’s Day, a town group exploded over a petition to tear down a statue of Christopher Columbus, and let me tell you, it was on. I offered one brief comment. But I decided to take cover and engage here. In the interest of full disclosure, though, let me first reveal the long standing bias that begins my point of view
By Rich Monetti6 years ago in The Swamp
How the Tides Almost Turned
They came off the boats to a world they never could imagine. Some called this southern land of swamps and Spanish moss their home from birth, while others derived from another continent, across the ocean. However, the one thing that these people did have in common was their status as human capital; animate tools for the institution of slavery, which fueled the economies of every nation which claimed the land as theirs; from France, to Spain, to France (again), and finally to the United States. The prosperity of an ethnic minority would be built and supported, for generation after generation in this region until the end of the Civil War, by the toil, complacency, and suffering of enslaved Africans; people with virtually no sense of freedom or enfranchisement in a nation conceived in the Enlightenment ideas of liberal democracy, personal liberty, and equality for all. Yet, for one brief moment, this system of morally putrid exploitation, would be violently challenged and bear the potential of stipulating the power of American expansion. In January of 1811, 500 slaves of Louisiana’s German Coast (an agricultural region dominated by plantation homes and sugar cane fields) rose up in defiant rebellion against their masters and nearly took New Orleans for themselves; to become a center for an independent black republic. Yet, this was by no means an anarchic act of racial resistance created in the heat of the moment. Rather, it was a masterfully organized, ingeniously calculated, and strategically planned effort to undermine the slave-owning class and reinforce such Enlightenment ideas into a full and legitimate practice. This is the story of the Louisiana Revolt of 1811.
By Jacob Herr6 years ago in The Swamp
Home and Away: The Domestic and External Irish response to the Jewish refugee situation in Europe
This paper will focus on two distinctively contrasting philosophies regarding the Jewish refugee crisis during the second world war. These separate philosophies have differing roots, one deriving from domestic politics and the other from European politics. The domestic and external Irish response to the exodus of Jews fleeing from their homes displays an extremely interesting contradiction. This essay first sets out to discuss Ireland’s neutrality and her place in Europe. This, in turn, could be said to have affected the political agenda of the Irish government and general consensus on allowing European Jews to enter the country. Relationships between political figures also portray a multitude of themes at work within the administration, particularly concerning antisemitism and improving Ireland’s place in Europe. One could argue that the policy of industrial protectionism was also a significant element in conjuring up anti-Jewish feeling. The next part of the paper focuses on the external Irish viewpoint, which is personified through three remarkable Irish philanthropic figures, active in saving victims of conflict during the 1940s. The two Irish figures that I wish to focus on are namely, Mary Elmes and Hubert Butler. Both were educated and had lived outside Ireland for a time, yet maintained strong links to the Irish nation and different political and perhaps religious motivations.
By K.R Coughlan 6 years ago in The Swamp
The Lost Generation
After the Civil War, plantations and farming on that grand scale had forever ended. The Industrial Revolution began bringing in businesses left and right and society was now supporting factory jobs over field work. However it wasn’t until World War 1 that America finally gained some international headway in the industrial world. The Economy of the 1920s was much different than it is today; that may seem a little redundant and obvious but nonetheless true.. Britain was no longer the banker of the world, Britain and France had contracted monumental debts during the war and were both depleted. Since the United States didn’t enter the war till later on, the economic damage was not severe. The American economy was actually stimulated by the war. Exported goods had increased by three fold, by 1928 America made over about a third of the worlds’ manufactured goods and four fifths of new industries were based in the States.
By Mae McCreery6 years ago in The Swamp
The Lost Generation
What can we take away from this decade of bootlegged alcohol and wild dancing? While many writers and artists romanticize this decade, it had daily struggles and problems that we still face today. They worried about work, about politics, the government and who ran it, mob bosses controlling the cops, and much more. However, they knew how to live in the moment. If the First World War taught the younger generation anything, it was to never take anything for granted. So many people died in the war, women in Germany had a one out of three chance of finding a husband. France and Britain took years to recover from the war, while America was the new Industrial Head of the world.
By Mae McCreery6 years ago in The Swamp
The Lost Generation
“That’s what you all are. You are a ‘lost generation’. You have no respect for anything.” Gertrude Stein told Ernest Hemingway, repeating what she heard an angry Mechanic tell his young assistant, a WW1 vet. As she continues to rant about his generation, he replies “Who is calling who a ‘lost generation’?”
By Mae McCreery6 years ago in The Swamp
