Новости за 14.06.2018

They fled under cover of darkness and traveled hundreds of miles to a distant country where they would be safe.

Cartoon protesting Jefferson’s embargo (ograbme, backwards).

Not long after Thomas Jefferson took office, Britain and France went to war again and both nations began blocking foreign ports of trade and violating American neutral rights at sea by seizing U.S. merchant ships along with their valuable cargoes and crew. Even more inflammatory, the British resumed its practice of kidnapping and impressing American sailors into the Royal Navy. Then, in June, 1807, the British warship H.M.S. Leopard attacked the U.S. merchant ship Chesapeake... Читать дальше...

During the increasing consolidation, centralization, and bureaucratization which marked the political life of the 17th Century, no ruler exemplified the absolutism which marked that era as much as Louis XIV of France. Authoritarianism as practiced by the “Sun King” was a relatively novel type of tyranny, predicated on absolute allegiance to the sovereign, who in turn was in many ways identical with the burgeoning nation-state itself. Louis’s reign was marked by its reactionary nature: his opposition to religious toleration... Читать дальше...

Related Link America’s 150-Year Opioid Epidemic by Clinton Lawson

Of late journalists have been asking me about the history of narcotic addiction in America, the subject of Dark Paradise and Addicts Who Survived. Here is what I tell them, and what I tell anyone looking for a brief, then-and-now introduction.

Prior to the current epidemic of opioid addiction, the United States experienced three historically significant epidemics of opiate addiction. They were historically significant because each shaped... Читать дальше...

The historian who lived a long life is working on a long article—a monograph, perhaps, about city planning and urbanism in provincial Russia, finding and shaping Catherine the Great’s imperial urban space. Born in 1925, Albert Schmidt calls himself a workaholic, and insists he always has been, but he tries to have fun too. 

It’s New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s last day in office. I spoke with him while he was still packing up his office. We talked about why he removed statues from his city that honored the Confederacy, his new book — In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History — and of course the question many have for him: Are you running for president?Transcript

Although the U.S. mass media are awash with stories about America’s “booming economy,” the benefits are distributed very unequally, when they are distributed at all.

Suggesting that President Trump lacks a “moral compass” is not a new criticism. But this charge requires further exploration. The fault is twofold. The first is a personal failing, the second a societal one. We shall examine both of these dimensions in some detail, but first several paragraphs about the moral compass of President Obama and the values of some of our outstanding previous presidents.

At a time when we have the controversies surrounding Donald Trump in the White House, we have seen in the past few years the dramatic rise of the 18th President of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant, in rankings of polls of scholars in history and political science.

Some Founding Fathers, like John Dickinson, supported the colonists’ insurgency, but not independence. Some favored independence, but with little change in America’s social and political fabric. Still others, like Alexander Hamilton, who in 1776 referred to England as an “old wrinkled, withered, worn-out hag,” thought they wanted America changed until changes began to occur, and thereafter they sought to erect barriers to make it difficult to bring about further change. But some revolutionaries... Читать дальше...

One cannot escape the fact that Asperger worked within a system of mass killing as a conscious participant, very much tied to his world and to its horrors. – Edith Sheffer, Asperger’s Children

The Great Mosque of Córdoba turned church after the Reconquista - By Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0

To: The 2017-2018 Pulitzer Board

From: Philip Nobile

Re: The Pulitzer's Gentlemen's Agreements 

I am writing the full Board because neither your Chair Eugene Robinson nor your Administrator Dana Canedy responded to my March 30 email and subsequent phone calls to the Pulitzer office seeking comment on my draft of "The Prize That Taints the Pulitzer's Ethics and Honor" posted on the History News Network on April 20.  

The article makes the case for reviewing the bona fides... Читать дальше...

Dr. Jerry Falwell, the founder of Liberty University, was a Christian pastor and televangelist - By Liberty University - Liberty University, CC BY-SA 3.0

"Smoke Over Widnes," photograph c. 1898. Photographer unknown. Courtesy: Robert Martindale. 

Related Link The North Korean Nuclear Crisis in History (Interviews with Mitch Lerner and David Fields)

This year is the 100th anniversary of the passage of the landmark Migratory Bird Act, passed by Congress to prevent the killing and mutilation of millions of birds in order to create feather accentuated women’s wear that was eagerly purchased by the wealthy. To celebrate the act, and the liberation of all those birds, the New-York Historical Society has opened “Feathers: Fashion and the Fight for Wildlife,” an intriguing and thought-provoking exhibit that chronicles the murder of so many birds... Читать дальше...

Related Link Historians' comments on the summit 

As Donald Trump lands in Singapore for his historic summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, there is reason for concerned citizens around the world to be pleased. What a few months ago looked like imminent war has (for the moment) been averted, and the Trump administration deserves credit for charting a new, bold course in US-North Korea relations. Though there are obvious risks in the kind of unprecedented high-level direct diplomacy... Читать дальше...