Archive for the ‘ Early American ’ Category

The American Revolution Was a Stupid Idea

I am not talking about the basic idea here, but its timing. If it had not been for France (and the French Fleet in particular) we would have lost the war. The British had to supply their troops entirely from a home base on the other side of the Atlantic. When the French Fleet started [ READ MORE ]

The Common Good

I am learning about the Revolution of 1800, as I am listening to Empire of Liberty. I find this history as interesting as any novel, and I keep wondering why more Americans aren’t interested. This election marked a fundamental shift in the way Americans thought about themselves – basically they stopped thinking and started acting [ READ MORE ]

The First General in George Washington’s Life Was His Mother

I am listening to Washington: A Life - the first good biography of our first President. As the author Ron Chernow says, this is because Washington concealed his true nature too well in public life. He only revealed his inner self in his many letters – which have only lately been made available to scholars. George’s father, widowed with young [ READ MORE ]

Lack of Love

This is something I am an expert on. I have no way of knowing for sure, but I suspect it is a common condition. And an unrecognized one, because recognizing it is painful – and who wants more pain in their lives? Not me. But as I said last time, I got the bright idea of [ READ MORE ]

Americans Were Once Real

It sometimes takes awhile for me to understand myself – to figure out what is going on in my deep self. My deep self and my surface self are two different beings – and they often do not communicate very well. It takes awhile for my surface self, who has to use words, to understand [ READ MORE ]

What the Founding Fathers Were Really Like

I am going to rely on two books here: Sensibility and the American Revolution and The Creation of the American Republic 1776-1787. From page ix of the later: One of most important historical discoveries that has taken place in the decades since I wrote this book has been the discovery of the importance of politeness to eighteenth Century [ READ MORE ]

Sensibility and the American Revolution

This is the name of a book I am reading now. It is about sensibility, something I never heard of, before I read an article in the New York Review: Those Sentimental Americans, where I also got the link to the book. The author, Sarah Knott, has picked a slippery subject, but her writing ability can [ READ MORE ]

The Beliefs That Rule America

I got these ideas from Morris Berman, in his latest book A Question of Values. He, in turn got them from many other people. Morris is an interesting guy, and he now lives in Mexico, which is more compatible with his way of life. He self-published this book, courtesy of Amazon – perhaps because he [ READ MORE ]

The Party System Has Been the Curse of Democracy

I am tempted to make that statement even stronger: the party system has destroyed democracy. It is a parasite on democracy and diverts precious social resources from it. Instead of concentrating on finding the right people for the job, enormous energy is used by the parties in their own interests. They take power away from [ READ MORE ]

Andrew Jackson

This is the fifth follow-up to my posting Locke, Rousseau, Adams, Jefferson, Jackson, where I promised to go into each man further. You can see the one about Locke here, Rousseau here, Adams here, and Jefferson here. Andrew was, to put it bluntly, a disreputable character – just like many of his fellow-Americans. He was a frontiersman, to [ READ MORE ]

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