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.

Principle: Sowing & Reaping (Part III)

  

I’ve spent two days talking about how important it is to sow Biblical principles in our society. Yesterday, I noted that no matter how well we sow, there will always be those who refuse to accept God’s truths. Sowing the right seeds will not automatically result in reaping the right harvest. The soil/heart in which they are sown must receive them. Yet there is the promise from God that sowing the right seeds generally will bring a good harvest. In early America,… Read more »

American Character: Edward Winslow

  

There probably aren’t too many Americans who know the name Edward Winslow. He was one of the Pilgrims, a trusted friend and helper for William Bradford for many years. As with Bradford, Winslow’s Christian faith led him to depart England for Holland, and then on to the New World. Winslow suffered in the same way Bradford did at first in the new colony of Plymouth. The first winter was severe, and half the company died. One of those was Winslow’s… Read more »

Jack Kemp

  

Republican Visionary Jack Kemp—former pro football quarterback, congressman, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, vice-presidential candidate in the 1996 election—died yesterday of cancer.  If anyone was a face for the Reagan Revolution of the 1980s—besides Ronald Reagan, of course—it was Congressman Kemp. Champion of the concept of supply-side economics, which posited that if you reduce tax rates you increase incentive, productivity, and revenues simultaneously, Kemp worked tirelessly and joyfully for America’s economic salvation. He was also solid on what conservatives… Read more »

American Character: William Bradford

  

He was only in his twenties when the awesome responsibility of governing a community was thrust upon him. Then, for 35 years of the next 40, he continued to lead that community, being reelected annually. That must mean he was doing something right. His name was William Bradford, governor of the Pilgrim colony of Plymouth. He arrived on the Mayflower in 1620 along with a band of his fellow believers. In England, they were called Separatists because they didn’t want… Read more »

American Character: Pocahontas

  

To some, she is the stuff of legend. Perhaps that’s why Disney felt comfortable making a film that is largely fantasy. First, she was not an alluring young woman when she met Capt. John Smith; she was about ten years old. Fantasy is at work also in the image of John Smith here. Pocahontas was fascinated with these English settlers. She spent time at the fort playing with the young boys. Her father, Chief Powhatan, didn’t mind her visiting his… Read more »

American Character: Chanco

  

Most of you probably looked at the name in the title above and said, “Who is that?” Character is not found only among the well known; it appears in those we might call “the common man” as well. I call Chanco an example of American character even though he was not one of the early English settlers. Rather, he was a native American, one already living here when the English arrived. The backdrop: Jamestown was 15 years young in 1622…. Read more »

American Character: Capt. John Smith

  

I spent a few days posting on the principle of Christian character. Throughout American history, there have been individuals who have exhibited certain of those traits and, by them, have contributed greatly to our history. Some of those people may not have been Christians themselves, except in the cultural sense, but they still exemplify the qualities that are essential for a society to work. One such man was Capt. John Smith—soldier, adventurer, mapmaker of the New World. One of Smith’s… Read more »