He May Have Been Cool Looking . . .
The other day I was editing an entry about Ambrose E. Burnside, a Union general during the Civil War.* As you can tell from the photograph, this is the same… Read More»
Was Our Liberty Born in Slavery?
I was reading Henry Wiencek’s 2003 book about George Washington and slavery, An Imperfect God, and came across a provocative idea about the relationship between American democracy and slavery. We’re… Read More»
It's a Complicated Story
. . . by which I mean race in America. I know, this is hardly a penetrating insight, but it’s on the mind regardless, what with Barack Obama reminding us… Read More»
Oh the Irony
If my math is correct, then yesterday was the one hundred sixty-second anniversary of the start of the Mexican War. Not that this sort of anniversary requires a parade or… Read More»
Mr. Lincoln and the Picketts
I took Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels (1974) off the shelf on Friday and idly opened to the foreword. I’ve always loved how it includes dramatic biographical sketches of the… Read More»
Surpassing Fine
I was sitting on my front porch the other morning reading Styron’s The Confessions of Nat Turner. It was a beautiful morning—clear, warm, breezy—and with my coffee and a decent… Read More»
On the Voice of Nat Turner
Encyclopedia Virginia is getting its Civil War list up and running and, consequently, I am trying to get started on a whole list of my own Civil War reading. At… Read More»
'She was 11 and nicknamed Bean'
There are a couple pieces in this morning’s Washington Post on Mildred Loving, who died on Friday. Both emphasize her reticence, her refusal to place herself at the center of… Read More»
Just a Girl Who Fell in Love with a Boy
Mildred Loving, the Virginia woman who challenged all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court the state’s ban on interracial marriage, died on Friday. She was sixty-eight years old. Here’s… Read More»
The Real Magill
The point of Encyclopedia Virginia is to collect what’s known. Sometimes, however, we stumble upon the heretofore unknown and that, for lack of a more sophisticated phrase, is pretty cool.… Read More»
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