Category: History

History, Sports

Curt Flood: The Pioneering “Well-Paid Slave”

Jeff Berger — In 2016, Colin Kapernick began a protest against social injustices experienced by African Americans when he “took a knee” during the playing of the national anthem before a National Football League (NFL) game. Public reaction was highly polarized. After the season ended, Kapernick was blacklisted by the NFL. (The NFL denied this.) Roll forward to 2020: This year athletes in all major … Continue reading Curt Flood: The Pioneering “Well-Paid Slave”

Jeff Berger4 Comments
History, Politics and Economics

Old Prohibition: Party and Leader in the Latter-day

Dave Gillespie — James is the name his parents gave him; James as in Bond, the hero in Ian Fleming novels and movie spy thrillers. But unlike Bond, that famous but fictional character, Hedges has friends and fellow partisans who know him simply as Jim. He is currently at the helm, insofar as anyone is, of the nation’s third oldest living electoral political party. The … Continue reading Old Prohibition: Party and Leader in the Latter-day

Dave Gillespie2 Comments
Books, History

Big Brother IS Watching You: Edward Snowden and Government Surveillance

Bob Bates — In 2013, the US government charged Edward Snowden with violating the Espionage Act for releasing National Security Agency (NSA) information, specifically for what the NSA termed its “bulk data collection program.” At the time the mainstream press focused on the material released, its content, and what it implied about US government surveillance of US citizens. The press also focused on questions about … Continue reading Big Brother IS Watching You: Edward Snowden and Government Surveillance

Bob Bates1 Comment
History, Politics and Economics

Madeline Albright’s Contribution to U.S. Foreign Policy

Jeff Berger — I recently read Madeline Albright’s latest book, Fascism: A Warning, published in 2018, which she completed while Donald Trump was still engaged in a war of words with Kim Jung-un of North Korea—before the two of them began their love affair. The book seems to have been prompted by her concerns about Trump, whose behavior is very similar to many 20th century … Continue reading Madeline Albright’s Contribution to U.S. Foreign Policy

Jeff Berger1 Comment
History

Franklin Roosevelt’s Contribution to Disability Rights

Ron Berger — Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) is considered by many to be one of the greatest presidents in the history of the United States, but he had to hide his polio-induced paralysis and use of a wheelchair lest the public think him too weak to be a national and world leader. During his public appearances, according to Daniel Holland, Roosevelt “worked hard to master … Continue reading Franklin Roosevelt’s Contribution to Disability Rights

Ron Berger1 Comment
Books, History

Living on the Edge of the World: Viking Settlement in the North Atlantic

Jeff Berger — Previously I published an article in Wise Guys entitled “Celebrating the Viking Past” that focused on the way Europeans and North Americans have remembered the Viking past. In this follow-up piece, I explain more fully how the Vikings explored the North Atlantic Ocean and settled in this region of the world. Their discovery of North America was only one short episode in the history … Continue reading Living on the Edge of the World: Viking Settlement in the North Atlantic

Jeff BergerLeave a comment
Picture of Ty Cobb at bat.
History, Sports

Peach

Mark Richardson — Ty Cobb has long been considered by many to have been the greatest hitter, and possibly the greatest all-around player, in major league baseball history. His tumultuous life both on and off the field has been examined and reexamined, but very few have succeeded in getting to the core of Tyrus Raymond Cobb, “The Georgia Peach.” Rather than examining Cobb himself, the … Continue reading Peach

Mark Richardson6 Comments
Culture and Society, Film and Television, History

Celebrating the Viking Past

Jeff Berger — Two popular television series have recently appeared to reignite the public’s interest in the history of the Vikings. One is the History Channel’s Vikings, which just completed its fifth season. The other is The Last Kingdom, with the first season produced by the BBC, the second season co-produced with Netflix, and the third season by Netflix alone. These two shows have several … Continue reading Celebrating the Viking Past

Jeff Berger6 Comments
Books, History

The Persistence of White Power Movements in America

Bob Bates — The topic of Kathleen Belew’s recent book, Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America (Harvard University Press, 2018), addresses a disturbing thread of the American fabric. She begins her book with a succinct account of the long history of violence at the hands of colonists and American citizenry and government, mainly white initiated, from the 17th to mid-20th centuries. But … Continue reading The Persistence of White Power Movements in America

Bob Bates3 Comments
History, Politics and Economics

Is Donald Trump a Fascist?

Ron Berger — Last November I was one of two speakers at a forum on “Fascism and the Holocaust in Historical and Contemporary Perspective” that was part of the Baeumler-Kaplan Holocaust Memorial Lecture Series at the University of Minnesota Duluth. I was there to talk about classical European fascism and the Holocaust; and Stas Vysotksy, my colleague in the sociology department at the University of … Continue reading Is Donald Trump a Fascist?

Ron Berger15 Comments
History, Politics and Economics

Russia and Ukraine: Ongoing Tensions

Jeff Berger — In August of 2017, I published an article in Wise Guys about Ukraine entitled “Understanding Ukraine: The Historical Context of Current Events.” Ukraine is in the news again as it struggles against Russia, once again exacerbating the tensions between Russia and the United States. On November 30, 2018, Vice News spent 12 minutes on the current situation in Crimea. (I have not seen … Continue reading Russia and Ukraine: Ongoing Tensions

Jeff Berger1 Comment
Creative Nonfiction, History, Philosophy and Religion, Travel

Finding Nebuchadnezzar in Poland

DeWitt Clinton — All of us are hungry as dogs, though it’s not even noon, but our guide in green shoes wants us to stop at this grocery store, pick up some cheeses and breads so we won’t have to waste any time, so we can spend more time at Treblinka where we will wander around thousands of stones, each one a village which was … Continue reading Finding Nebuchadnezzar in Poland

dewittc3 Comments
Books, History, Politics and Economics

1968: The Year That Changed U.S. Politics, and Our Lives

Ron Berger — For people of my generation, the baby boomers, Lawrence O’Donnell’s Playing With Fire: The 1968 Election and the Transformation of American Politics (Penguin Press, 2017), is a trip down memory lane. It was not only a year that changed U.S. politics, but our very lives. For starters, there were the traumatic assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. There … Continue reading 1968: The Year That Changed U.S. Politics, and Our Lives

Ron Berger6 Comments
History, Music and Art, Travel

Forty-Eight Hours in Budapest: A Photographic Essay

Charles Cottle and James Cottle — In May 2017 my brother Jim and I traveled on a tour of central Europe. The major cities on the tour included Budapest, Vienna, Prague, and Berlin. The first city on the tour was Budapest, Hungary. Featured here are my brother’s photos of the major architectural sites that one can visit in only two days in Budapest. I have … Continue reading Forty-Eight Hours in Budapest: A Photographic Essay

Charles Cottle3 Comments
Creative Nonfiction, History

Picking Up a Prisoner at Dachau

Warren R. Johnson — Though it is not a particularly well-known fact, the “bunker” of the former concentration camp at Dachau was used after World War II as an American stockade. Until 1970, soldiers either awaiting trial or sentenced to less than a year’s confinement were imprisoned there. The “bunker,” a series of cells, is directly behind the former administration building that is now the … Continue reading Picking Up a Prisoner at Dachau

warrenrjohnson3 Comments
Photo of Jordan Chambers with five children, four of which appear to be white
History

The White Slave Jordan Chambers

Dave Gillespie and Judi F. Gillespie — Surprising though it may be, it is true. Through most of the long global history of slavery, race or “blood” was largely unconnected to which side of the slave-free line of demarcation a human creature of God fell. Slavery was the fruit of war and conquest and, regardless of skin color, slaves were people who or whose ancestors … Continue reading The White Slave Jordan Chambers

Dave Gillespie5 Comments
History

American Fighter Pilot: A Tribute to a Veteran and Gentleman

Bob Bates — Toward the end of World War II in the turbulent skies over France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany, thousands of rounds of German ground artillery exploded around American P-47s of the 406th Fighter Group’s 514th Squadron. Flying close support in a grouping of twelve surrounding an American B-26 heavy bomber, Lieutenant Warren Webster in his red-nosed P-47 Thunderbolt often found himself and his … Continue reading American Fighter Pilot: A Tribute to a Veteran and Gentleman

Bob Bates7 Comments
History

Remembering the U.S. Torture Regime

Ron Berger — In the spring of 2004, during the early years of the Iraq War launched by the administration of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, reports of widespread abuse, humiliation, and outright torture of Iraqi prisoners held by US intelligence operatives, military personnel, and private contractors in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq hit the news. Some of the interrogators had taken photos … Continue reading Remembering the U.S. Torture Regime

Ron Berger3 Comments
History

Labyrinth of Enigmas: The JFK Assassination

Bob Bates — When Jack Ruby died in prison on January 3, 1967, barely three years after he ended Lee Harvey Oswald’s life with one fatal shot to his gut, any information Ruby had on a JFK assassination plot went to the grave with him. The Warren Commission, operative between December 1963 and September 1964, had attempted to interview Ruby early on in their information … Continue reading Labyrinth of Enigmas: The JFK Assassination

Bob Bates2 Comments