Category: The Historical Muse

Thoughts on history and the historical profession. Clio is the muse of history–this category title is a play on that concept.

“The Witness & the President” Comes to the Reagan Ranch Center

  

My book, The Witness and the President: Whittaker Chambers, Ronald Reagan, and the Future of Freedom, has been out now since early November. I’ve had the opportunity to speak about it before a number of groups locally. It documents the impact Chambers had on Reagan as the latter read Chambers’s masterful autobiography, Witness. Chambers helped Reagan understand why people would be attracted to communism, and spurred him on to take on communism, which ultimately led to the breakup of the… Read more »

Remembering Nancy Reagan

  

Nancy Reagan passed away Sunday at the age of 94. It’s like the end of an era. The students I teach now were born after Ronald Reagan left office; they have no personal knowledge of him or how he impacted our country. Lacking knowledge of perhaps the greatest president of the twentieth century, they obviously know nothing about his wife either. Nancy Davis was a Hollywood actress in the late 1940s who was falsely accused of being a communist, her… Read more »

The Coercive Acts & the Spark of Resistance

  

The Boston Tea Party of 16 December 1773 is what sparked the American Revolution. Yes, many other incidents preceded it, but the reaction to it by the British government led to the armed conflict and, ultimately, independence. George III’s government was so incensed by the Tea Party that it decided to teach Massachusetts a lesson, one that would crush the “rebellion” and warn all the other colonies that they had better not try anything similar. The government’s action, though, had… Read more »

Introduction to Chambers-Reagan

  

For those of you who have been thinking about buying my new book on Ronald Reagan and Whittaker Chambers, yet haven’t quite made the commitment, let me provide you with an excerpt from my introduction: Any author should ask himself certain questions before attempting to write a book. Some immediately come to mind when considering the topic of this book: Are there not enough books on Ronald Reagan? Why add another one to the ever-increasing supply? Why focus on Whittaker… Read more »

Boston’s Tea Party: Standing on Principle?

  

My last American history post pointed to the integrity displayed by John Adams as he defended the soldiers indicted for the Boston Massacre in 1770. After that event, an uneasy peace prevailed for three years as the British Parliament ceased its efforts to antagonize its American colonies. The tax on tea still existed, but colonists found other ways to get their tea. The East India Tea Company, closely connected to the government, was suffering, so, in 1773, the Parliament passed… Read more »

John Adams & Integrity: The Boston Massacre

  

Boston, on 5 March 1770, was the scene of an ugly incident. Having the King’s troops stationed in the city to ensure Bostonians followed Parliament’s edicts created a constant tension. The presence of those troops made citizens feel as if they were being treated like traitors to the Crown. Some of those troops, poorly paid, were looking for part-time work, which only increased the tension, as they would take jobs away from the locals. Clashes between soldiers and citizens were… Read more »

A Constitutional Protest: The American Colonial Example

  

The American colonies used every legal means available to them to protest unconstitutional acts of Parliament. When the Townshend Acts were passed in 1767, taxing tea, lead, paper, and glass without any representation on their part in Parliament, Massachusetts took action. Under the leadership of Samuel Adams, the Massachusetts assembly wrote the Circular Letter, stating that the measures were clearly opposed to all British constitutional precedents. Not only were they being taxed without their consent, but troops had been sent… Read more »