Empire for Liberty: America in the Long Nineteenth Century

[volksmarschall]

Ahh, so in this timeline Thomas Jackson does it again. Truly one of the most inscrutable, yet fascinating, characters amongst the military men of the war.

Yet if the Union can out-stubborn the South, if they have the stomach for it.

I was quite pleased to see a few familiar names in the CSA armies during the war. So we get to have familiar faces once again in TTL. And I felt like, given what happened, it would be fitting that he got to keep his nickname.

I'm a little surprised by Tennessee's prominent role as one of the "Original Eight," given that in our TL they were the last state to officially secede -- and IIRC, the vote was fairly heavily contested even then.

That, and KY never left per OTL as in TTL. This is still alt-history despite the extensive inclusion of historicity.

We already got an earlier meeting in Nashville for the Fire Eaters back a few chapters ago, so I hinted at, and established, an early precedence for TN. Plus there will be some nice campaigns too that center in the state. Very contested. Much like how it also took VA and NC a bit to finally jump on board with the Confederacy too. But I don't really care much for detailing the nitty gritty of politics in the AAR (as you can all probably already gather by now, would run counter to the main themes I've set for us in the AAR).

Your home state, no? Is the state of your alma mater, also in the heart of Nashville, I remember as much. We'll be visiting Nashville some more!

 

[volksmarschall]

CHAPTER VII: THE RED SPRING


Nothing New Under the Sun
​

As the Civil War commenced, it is important to remember that the war did not just affect the young men and boys, sometimes old men too, who were marching off to war. As soldiers from the Union and Confederacy bled on the fields of battle in the spring of 1860, toxic venom between political parties, families, and ethno-religious groups equally erupted with bloodshed.

Contrary to revisionist claims, America was founded a self-consciously Protestant nation. We have already dispensed with modern mythology by showing how, in actuality, the idea of the “separation of church and state” was very much in line with Protestant thought of the eighteenth century with deep anti-Catholic intentionality behind it. We have also demonstrated how, despite this umbrella “Protestantism,” Protestant denominationalism was also—at various times throughout American history—very frictional and conflictual. This, of course, is the natural product between universalist pretensions and pluralist reality.

In the north, the most fervent supporters of the Civil War were the New England Congregationalists—the children and heirs of the Puritans. This breed of Anglo-American Protestant stock were the most self-consciously Protestant, anti-Catholic, but also socially, politically, and culturally activist in their mindset. As Talcott Parsons said in his great book A Theory of Social Action, the greatest contribution (if you consider it great) from the Puritans was the culture of “instrumental social activism” bequeathed to the United States. For these staunch believers in America’s providential mission, and the binding covenant signed onto at the Constitutional Convention, the war represented a test, and punishment, from God for America’s sins (e.g. slavery), that would ultimately decide whether or not Americans were the New Israelites.

It is often forgotten in traditional Judaism that the election of Israel was as much a burden and curse as it was a blessing. True, the Jews shared a special and more immediate relationship with the Divine than other nations. The flip side of this was that, “to whom much is given, much is required.” Bound by the laws and the covenants established by God to his people, the Jews of old were beset with the seemingly insurmountable task of abiding in purity of faith and action, to all the dictates that accompanied election. This notion of election was present among the Puritans too, who, as we have also shown, deliberately stylized themselves as the New Israelites and looked to the Old Testament, rather than New Testament, as their guiding book. (And we have also highlighted how the Old Testament played tremendous influence in Scotch-Irish Presbyterianism and Afro-American Christianity too.)

The spirit of American millenarianism came to fruition in the Civil War. Many interpreted the truly apocalyptic event as the ultimate sign precipitating the return of Christ. As one scholar put it, “Before the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, Christian philosophy of history was largely grounded upon the legacy of the fathers of the church, most notably St. Augustine, whereby eschatology and apocalypse were removed from the process of history…the Reformation gave rise to a new historical consciousness…[d]irected by the literal rather than allegorical interpretation of divine prophecy, the Protestants turned to history in order to explain the historical process in light of God’s word…Protestant historiography may be characterized as an apocalyptic mode of historical thought.”[1] The American Civil War, to be sure, in the minds of almost all American Protestants, was a sign of the apocalypse and end times.

It is, by today’s standards, perhaps hard to understand that the most fervent and militant supporters of the war were the churches themselves. Far from calling for peace, especially in New England, American Protestants were calling for the war. They saw it as a sign of God’s providential hand moving through history: the redemption of America, the overcoming of past sins, the opportunity to avoid what the Jews of the Old Testament could not. And so it was that when Douglas gave his call for 50,000 men, New England—on its own—provided enough volunteers, even though Douglas had limited the call of regiments in most of the upper New England states (like Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Maine) because of their relatively small population sizes. Massachusetts was, perhaps, the most enthusiastic state for the war, supplied some 15,000 volunteers within three weeks of issuing the call. The bulk of the properly called for regiments fell upon states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, however. And in states like New York and Pennsylvania, this spelled troubled.

A parade of Union volunteers march off to war. The banner reads, "One Destiny. One Country. One Constitution." This reflects the binding, eternal, and sacred understanding of the Covenant Contract from the Puritans through John Locke. One Destiny. One Country. One Constitution. Once a member, always a member. New England, and certain Midwestern states at the heart of the abolitionist struggle, like Indiana and Ohio, were the most fervent states in their support for the war.​

New York and Pennsylvania were among the most heavily hit states with Catholic immigration over the last two decades (along with Massachusetts). Unlike upper New England, New York and Pennsylvania were far less ubiquitous in their Protestantism. Congregationalism, including Unitarianism (which, in 1860, was very much considered part of the Protestant tradition unlike it is today), dominated New England Protestant culture and had little qualm with joining the ranks in a war that they saw as just and righteous. New York and Pennsylvania had strong elements of old Dutch Presbyterianism, some of whom weren’t particularly fond—even after all of these years—of being “American.” Methodism and Baptism were also strong, and whereas New England Congregationalism was not really hurt by Southern secession, American Methodism and Baptism were forced into schism with southern churches breaking away into “Southern” Methodist or “Southern” Baptist denominations. While many American Protestants, especially in the north, had grown to advance the cause of abolitionism, there were nevertheless lingering tensions.

In fact, some churches broke off between northern and southern wings because of slavery. As northern parishes took a more vigorously anti-slavery and abolitionist stance, the southern parishes belonging to the same denominations left to form their own independent confederations. Hence, the Methodist Episcopal Church (forerunner to the United Methodist Church today) broke off and the southern congregations became Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The Presbyterian Church in the United States broke apart with its southern wing becoming the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America, and the American Baptist Church fragmented as early as 1845 with its southern contingent forming the Southern Baptist Convention. (To this day the Southern Baptist Convention retains Southern in its name, even though it has since spread to all parts of the country.)

This boiled over between old stock Protestants, especially among those who lacked the same vigor of their New England brothers and sisters for the war, and the arriving Catholic immigrants. The Catholic Church, in contrast, responded with the call long established in Catholic moral philosophy—to do one’s duty as a citizen wherever he may be. Some Catholics did enthusiastically join up for the fight. Some seeing it as both as a religious and secular duty. Others because they figured that this was their way of “becoming American.” Others, still, resisted.

News of the defeat at Lexington had just hit the north when, on May 30, New York experienced the first of multiple riots during the war. The “New York volunteer riot” as historians have come to call it, broke out between New York’s upper-class Protestants and lower-class Irish Catholics (in particular). Some wealthier New York families (almost all Protestant) were able to “buy” their way out of volunteer duties. Recruiters plucked heavily from the newly arrived Irish Catholic population to compensate. Some of these families, and men, were less than enthusiastic about what they saw as deliberate corruption and bypassing of law through wealth that they were not capable of overcoming themselves. Indeed, one registration roll alone indicates that 19 families lost all of their sons to the volunteer call, supply a total of 106 men into the 69th Regiment of Volunteers.

On May 30, some Catholics refused to comply. They marched up New York and began demonstrating against the city’s Protestant elite. A riot eventually broke out that was not ended until May 3. Close to 200 people were injured, and 59 killed. It was an embarrassment for the city, and the nation, to be sure. Not only were men dying in battle, men, boys, and even women, were dying in the streets of the Union because of old conflicts being brought up again because of the war itself.

New York was not alone, from May 31 to June 1, the “Philadelphia Volunteer Riot” also broke out, leaving 19 people dead and another 100 injured. Such events strained the already growing tension between American Protestants and Catholics, which need not have been exasperated in this moment of Civil War. Some American Catholics, fearful of what was about to fall upon them—as well as the heavier burden being levied upon Catholics in certain states, fled north to Canada. This too, caused anti-Catholic sentiment in places like Ontario, which received the bulwark of American Catholic immigrants.

Nevertheless, some of the most famous Union units from the war, the 69th New York Volunteers, and the 28th Massachusetts Volunteers, constituted the most famous regiments of the “Irish Brigade,” one of the most famous and recognizable units of the Union Army during the war. Not only with their golden harp and green flag, but their war motto: “Faugh a Ballagh” (or “Clear the Way!”). Fenian Brotherhood soldiers, many still fervent Irish nationalists, also joined the ranks of the Union forces. Even French Catholics from Quebec rallied behind Douglas’s call and sent 1,500 volunteers by June. Some of the English-speaking Union soldiers took to nicknaming the Francophone regiment “Napoleon’s American Brigade.”[2]

The Flag of the 69th New York Volunteers, part of the famous "Irish Brigade." The Irish Brigade was made up of all Irish regiments, generally recruited from New York and Massachusetts. The Civil War marked the first time that extensive Catholic populations served in America's military. Many saw this as their ticket, so to speak, into the American nation and culture. This was not without detractors. Although Catholics fought on both sides, and often spoken of highly by Protestant officers, there nevertheless remained deep tensions between Protestant nativists and Catholic immigrants throughout the Union, including in the ranks of the army.​

The contribution of the Irish, in particular, would come to leave an indelible mark on American culture. While we know that the Civil War transformed the nation, what is often forgotten is how the Civil War also transformed the United States into a proto-universalist nation of the world instead of a confederacy of particularist states and peoples. Irish culture became American culture through the war, just as the same way that African, German, and Polish culture became American culture because of the role that these ethnic groups played. Many of the war’s famous hymns and tunes were taken from Irish tunes, or Irish tunes became American tunes as Irish Catholic soldiers marched off to war.

While it is true that Irish Catholics, in particular, suffered much discrimination, even in the Civil War, their tremendous impact in the war made a lasting legacy in America. It is in the Civil War that many of the cultures of the world became part of American culture and history. And this should not be forgotten either.



[1] Avihu Zakai, Jonathan Edwards’s Philosophy of History, 168-169.

[2] This, of course, is fictional and represents the incorporation of the state of Quebec into this time line’s Civil War.

SUGGESTED READING

C.C. Goen, Broken Churches, Broken Nation: Denomination Schisms and the Coming Civil War

Mark Noll, The Civil War as a Theological Crisis

George Rable, God’s Almost Chosen People: A Religious History of the American Civil War

Harry S. Stout, Upon the Altar of the Nation: A Moral History of the Civil War​

 

[stnylan]

There is no doubt that war can forge a nation as well as break one.

Mmm, I wonder if you can sneak into an update about the civil war was integral in the spread of baseball as a national sport? I realise that may be a little low-brow compared to some of the themes this AAR has touched upon, but the baseball fan in me (one of the relative few on this side of the pond admittedly) would relish a post looking at how the war and its impact on nationhood also had other impacts, more "common" but no less deep.

 

[volksmarschall]

There is no doubt that war can forge a nation as well as break one.

Mmm, I wonder if you can sneak into an update about the civil war was integral in the spread of baseball as a national sport? I realise that may be a little low-brow compared to some of the themes this AAR has touched upon, but the baseball fan in me (one of the relative few on this side of the pond admittedly) would relish a post looking at how the war and its impact on nationhood also had other impacts, more "common" but no less deep.

You know, I think I will. I myself also love baseball. It's my favorite sport. I'm not sure it's "low-brow." It's definitely a cultural theme, and we're really exploring a lot of culture in this AAR so I don't see why not! Really wasn't on my mind but since you brought it up, I'm sure I'll find the appropriate place to get it in.

 

[Specialist290]

As always, a fascinating look at a relatively underexplored area of American history, even granting that the Civil War itself as a whole has been pretty much done to death. I've always found the history of the Irish Brigade and the role of immigrants in the Union (and, to an admittedly lesser degree, Confederate) armies.

 

[Jape]

Excellent as always Volk, as Specialist says a very interesting trip into an often overlooked area of the Civil War and the motivations of the Union.

 

[volksmarschall]

As always, a fascinating look at a relatively underexplored area of American history, even granting that the Civil War itself as a whole has been pretty much done to death. I've always found the history of the Irish Brigade and the role of immigrants in the Union (and, to an admittedly lesser degree, Confederate) armies.

I'm not sure there will ever not be enough for historians to write about concerning the Civil War! But I plan to bring up a lot with immigrant communities and the CW. A lot of people forget that other notable groups were also very important: Poles (who knows General Włodzimierz Krzyżanowski?), Germans (though they'll well known), but also Swedes! Ernst von Vegesack left Sweden to volunteer for the Union Army. People forget that the Union army was bolstered by foreign volunteers! In doing so, bringing their cultures with them, and, in being remembered for their contributions, left a mark on American history and culture as a result. This is surely the most under reported story!

Excellent as always Volk, as Specialist says a very interesting trip into an often overlooked area of the Civil War and the motivations of the Union.

Thanks Jape! Always good to see you whenever you're around. And you know me well enough to know that it's really about trying to bring out as much as possible to all of those readers with interest, rather than necessarily go back over the "same old story."

 

[Nathan Madien]

Speaking of culture...

A parade of Union volunteers march off to war. The banner reads, "One Destiny. One Country. One Constitution." This reflects the binding, eternal, and sacred understanding of the Covenant Contract from the Puritans through John Locke. One Destiny. One Country. One Constitution. Once a member, always a member. New England, and certain Midwestern states at the heart of the abolitionist struggle, like Indiana and Ohio, were the most fervent states in their support for the war.

I love the fact that one end of the banner is attached to P.T. Barnum's famous American Museum. Barnum is largely remembered today for his involvment with the circus and the phrase "There's a sucker born every minute" (although there is no evidence he ever said it). It turns out that he also opposed slavery, supported African-American suffrage, and advocated prohibition.

 

[volksmarschall]

Speaking of culture...

I love the fact that one end of the banner is attached to P.T. Barnum's famous American Museum. Barnum is largely remembered today for his involvment with the circus and the phrase "There's a sucker born every minute" (although there is no evidence he ever said it). It turns out that he also opposed slavery, supported African-American suffrage, and advocated prohibition.

I never really noticed that! lol. Makes sense then doesn't it?

 

[Specialist290]

I Poles (who knows General Włodzimierz Krzyżanowski?)...

It's funny that you mention Krzyżanowski, because I knew of him (or at least I knew his unforgettable, unpronounceable name) from a relatively early age because he was a brigade commander in the old Sierra Civil War Generals strategy games. I always just referred to him as "Crazyguy" because I wasn't even going to try to untangle those consonant clusters

 

[volksmarschall]

It's funny that you mention Krzyżanowski, because I knew of him (or at least I knew his unforgettable, unpronounceable name) from a relatively early age because he was a brigade commander in the old Sierra Civil War Generals strategy games. I always just referred to him as "Crazyguy" because I wasn't even going to try to untangle those consonant clusters

OMG! I played those games when I was growing up!

Robert E. Lee Civil War General. Grant, Lee, and Sherman: Civil War Generals 2!!!!

And I loved the soundtrack of the game!!!!! So majestic and beautiful.

 

[stnylan]

Nothing quite like the sound of ageing gamers reminiscing in the morning

 

[RossN]

Go the Irish Brigade, maybe we'll finally get some respect around here!

As always fascinating work volksmarschall. Very interesting to see how the war is changing things.

 

[volksmarschall]

CHAPTER VII: THE RED SPRING


The End of the Old South
​

The move toward war between north and south had profound ramifications and changes to the “Old South.” Of course, the Old South was predominately agrarian, localist, dominated by slavery, but also deeply social. The winds of change were blowing however. As one historian commented, the Civil War represented the end of the Cavalier, pseudo-aristocratic, gentlemanly, agrarian south that was to be replaced by a vengeful, segregated, anti-Washington, but ironically also an industrial, centralized, and urban (at least in comparison to the antebellum era) South. They might have asserted a new idea of “states’ rights” (which is a concept that emerged after the Civil War), but the irony of the Civil War is that southern state governments were more centralized and powerful than they were in the antebellum period.

The call to arms hit southern families particular hard. While southern armories were seized, and factories in New Orleans and Atlanta began churning out munitions and weapons for the new Confederacy, many Confederate volunteers came equipped with family trousers, shirts, and flintlocks that their fathers had used while serving either in the War of 1812 or the Mexican Wars. Many letters attest that elderly fathers, for the first time, removed their trophy muskets from their fireplace mantles or closets, cleaning them off, and passing them on to their newly volunteered soldier sons. Pioneer and settler families who had made passage into Appalachia, many armed with their own private arms, swelled the ranks of the Confederacy with unstandardized long rifles and knives.

The irony of the Civil War was that, even had the South won, the victory would have been the result of the mobilization, transformation, and industrialization of the Confederate States of America. And this is precisely what was occurring in the opening months of the war. Southern states, with the localist and agrarian composition, rapidly and centralized and organized. The states acting in greater cooperation with each other. The Confederate capitol was re-located to Richmond, Virginia. All members of the Confederate Legislature made the journey. Additionally, one of the major factors in the move was the fact that Richmond, with about 40,000 people living in the city in 1860, was a major population and industrial center for the Confederate States. It would become easier to plan the industries of Richmond for the war to come.

As the siren call for war blossomed, Southerners of many stripes and walks of life began contributing to the war effort. And, of course, the war was expected to be short. Many Confederates were still skeptical that their former countrymen would seek a decisive engagement in pitched battle. Even if they would, one or two Southern victories should seal the war. How wrong they were.

A photo of Confederate volunteers during the American Civil War. Many soldiers came from the lower rungs of Southern society, though the officer corps tended to come from the more notable and wealthy families that dotted the South.​

The Battle of Lexington was a triumph for the Confederacy. It was an embarrassment for the Union. The defeat of Union forces at Peterson’s Hill in Missouri only added insult to injury. But the Union was determined to press on. President Douglas announced his determination to fight on to victory, and the Democrats, Republicans, and Know Nothings all established a nominal commitment to winning the war in their party platforms. The South, meanwhile, expected the victories at New Orleans, Lexington, and Peterson’s Hill to conclude the war. They had whipped the Yankees in all three engagements. Surely these Yankee northerners would not have the stomach to continue to press into the face of such tenacity and firepower?

The reality was, however, that the Union commitment to winning the war at its upper echelons of power demanded the same from the Confederacy. In demanding the same from the Confederacy, the idyllic picture of the Old South was going to die regardless. The need for greater communications, supply lines, logistics, industry, mobilization, centralization, and organization was inescapable. To be sure, the newly formed Confederacy was behind on all accounts. But the Confederacy was rapidly progressing to make amends for this. As stated, the Civil War transformed the Old South into the New South—regardless of the fact that if it won, the war itself ensured that the Old South was never going to be the Old South ever again.

While it was often unaccustomed to meet people from out of state, let alone, town, the war also forged new identities in the South. Men no longer came to see themselves as just Virginian or Alabaman. A soft pan-Southern nationalism formed. The diverse religious composition of the South also suffered from this pan-southern nationalism.

In 1860, the South was the most religiously diverse region of the United States. Baptists and Methodists, Episcopalians and Catholics (including Irish), Presbyterians and Huguenots, Lutherans and even African-American Christianity (“slave religion”), and the list goes on. While it is true that the north had a fair religious diversity itself, northern America was dominated by the twin pillars of Congregationalism and Episcopalianism, with growing influxes of Catholics, and smaller proportions of Lutherans, to be sure. Methodism was prominent in the rural regions of the Midwest, Pennsylvania, and New York, but northern religion was fairly centralized and cohesive while southern religion was diverse, intermixed, and composite. Walking the streets of Boston, for instance, would be dominated by Congregationalists (including Unitarians) and Episcopalians. Conversely, one could walk through New Orleans, Atlanta, or Richmond and find the vast plurality of Christian churches that dominated the Southern landscape.

Despite this, the Confederate army and leadership was largely Presbyterian. The interspliced Episcopalians were of the Low Church Calvinist variety, rather than the more ornate high church “Anglo-Catholic” stripe that was far more prominent in New England. The pan-southern nationalism also led to a pan-Presbyterianism in the American South that soon became the poster child of Southern Protestant religiosity. This is not to discount, in any way, the contributions or importance of other religious denominations in war and their relationship to Confederate politics—but the fact remains that the Confederate Army revivals, many of its top generals, and politicians, were Presbyterian or Reformed Episcopalian.

Theologically, one might make sense of this from the strict determinism of Calvinist thought. Presbyterianism did, in some important ways, differ from the Congregational/Puritan Calvinism of the North. Nevertheless, the belief that God’s determinist providence would have led to the foundation of the Confederate States, and that God controlled the destiny of history, would give good comfort to the consciousness of the Confederate States. Surely God must have a plan for the Confederate States if these Confederate States was born? (And, of course, the Confederates thought exactly that.) This countered the more free-will oriented Arminianism of Southern Baptism and Methodism that equally played an important role in the Confederate States but their theologies left too much room for non-guarantees.

The result of the war did not just lead to a new centralization and organization of the politics of the Southern states, it also transformed Southern identity to a more inclusive (and exclusive at the same time) southern nationalism that was theologically underpinned by strict Calvinism of the Presbyterian variety. The winds of change were blowing indeed. The war created a much more unified and centralized South than previously possible. And it was necessary for this to conduct the war. In some ways, the Confederacy probably lasted as long as it did because of the rapid changes accelerated in the early months of the war. The Old South, if it was not already dying by 1860, was certainly given a significant hammer blow—not by the Union, but from within.

Richmond, Virginia. Richmond became the capital of the Confederate States of America soon after the war began and Virginia joined the young Confederacy. The move to Richmond was political and economic. It established the Confederate political presence not far from Washington. More importantly, however, Richmond was the third most populous city in the Confederacy with a strong manufacturing base compared to other metropolitan areas in the Confederacy. The Confederate political class, located in the city, was therefore better able to direct and orient that city's industrial base for military purposes.​

Another one of the features of the changing tides—especially theologically, was the new chasm between social theology (coming from the north) and fundamentalism (emerging in the South). While it is equally true that American Protestant fundamentalism also took root in the north and west, a certain strand of fundamentalism becomes identifiable in southern Presbyterianism in defense of slavery and its theologizing of the providential hand in the Civil War. The stronger and stricter literalism that emerged in southern Presbyterianism had explicitly theologico-political overtures and meanings to it. The more progressive and historicist readings emerging in northern Protestantism equally had very explicit theologico-political intent.

The cavalier, agrarian, localist, and de-centralized picture of the South that is often romanticized about certainly has a lot of truth to it. Even well into the 20th century with the publication by the so-called “Southern Agrarians,” I’ll Take My Stand: The South and the Agrarian Tradition. But another aspect of that wind of change is that the cavalier, agrarian, localist, and de-centralized Old South was experiencing momentous militarization, industrializing, centralizing, and organizing changes as the result of the necessities of fighting the Civil War. The old canard that war leads to a stronger and more centralized State and political economy is most definitely true. While we know that the South was never fighting to "defend the ways of the Old South," the reality of the war was that the culture and way of life of the Old South was transformed

The victories at New Orleans, Lexington, and Peterson’s Hill did little to curb this ongoing change in southern society. The commitment by the Union ensured the continued centralization and pan-southern nationalism of the Confederate States. The ramifications of this are still with us, in many ways, today.

SUGGESTED READING

George Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture

Mark Noll, America’s God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln

_____, The Civil War as a Theological Crisis

Albert Raboteau, Slave Religion: The “Invisible Institution” in the Antebellum South​

 

[Tankman987]

Huh, this cleared up quite a few misconceptions I had about the Civil war, thank you!

 

[Idhrendur]

It's not surprising that the South would be transformed by the very act of fighting the civil war. But like so many historical matters, one often doesn't think about it until it's been pointed out. So thanks for pointing it out!

 

[stnylan]

Nothing is so fragile as the mirage of nostalgia when facing up against the pressure cooker of today.

 

[volksmarschall]

Huh, this cleared up quite a few misconceptions I had about the Civil war, thank you!

It's not surprising that the South would be transformed by the very act of fighting the civil war. But like so many historical matters, one often doesn't think about it until it's been pointed out. So thanks for pointing it out!

Well, that's a vintage volksmarschall AAR then, isn't it? Not only can we have a fun time with a game, and me taking Quebec and swaths of Mexico, but we can only also learn about neglected historiography!

Nothing is so fragile as the mirage of nostalgia when facing up against the pressure cooker of today.

Time to break the veil and get around the smoke and mirrors! As is often the case, the scholarship is out in public. It's just a matter of finding it, being aware, or being part of such schools of historiography--as I'm sure you well know about yourself!

 

[stnylan]

Time to break the veil and get around the smoke and mirrors! As is often the case, the scholarship is out in public. It's just a matter of finding it, being aware, or being part of such schools of historiography--as I'm sure you well know about yourself!

Let's just say that major news sites (such as the BBC et al) frequently annoy me, as I am sure they do you too

 

[volksmarschall]

Let's just say that major news sites (such as the BBC et al) frequently annoy me, as I am sure they do you too

Kindred spirits for sure! I tend to avoid mass media, or plebeian media, just because I don't ever hear anything remotely truthful, or intellectual, in them and I'm prone to getting very annoyed with anything written or said by journalists who wouldn't know their right from the left if it hit them in the face.