So, this is where Baltimore originates, though they are not pronounced the same.
That Brugger Maryland history that's so heavy -- no matter. El V grabbed it the minute he left the dinner table.
Thus poor me am left with Wikipedia, which Brugger did not have, thus he didn't include the information as to the origin of 'Baltimore,' beyond the investment of the title upon Secretary of State, Sir George Calvert by King James in the 17th century, which passed to his son, Sir Cecil Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore.
The Maryland land grant was given to Sir Cecil. The first Lord Baltimore, Sir George, got lands in Newfoundland. In all cases, boats, coasts, ports, fish, naval trade was the portion of the Baltimores, back on the old sod or in the New World, north or south.
It seems prophetic that my favorite season of The Wire, was themed around Baltimore's port and dock workers.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
The History Of Maryland
Maryland: A Middle Temperament 1634-1980 (1988) by Robert J. Brugger arrived this afternoon. This history is considered currently the definitive history of that state. With index it's 850 pp. It's too heavy to hold. Sigh.
Also arrived The Price of Freedom: Slavery and Manumission in Baltimore and Early National Maryland (1997) by T. Stephen Whitman. This is a slim, but dense book, with tables and graphs and many statistics dredged out of primary economic and legal documents such as wills, legislation, sales and registration fee receipts, that sort of thing. This is the kind of history that is the opposite in the spectrum of historical research that sees narrative, story-telling history as the end point, that also believes there are no facts in history, only 'feeling' and opinion. But laws are facts. Though opinions can be written about a law, and a law can be interpreted, particularly in its application by, say, a judge or a sheriff, a law is fact, just as are taxes. I get so freakin' tired of those people.
It's sadly comic too, that these are the same people become livid if you bring up actual history that shows how little our national myths are founded in the reality of actions of the times that the mythologies of this nation describe.
The mythology that is propaganda: I'm particularly aware of this process by watching the interminable Winds of War and War and Rememberance, the television miniseries from the 1980's that tell the tale of WWII. According to these propagandistic mythologies on the home screen, WWII was conducted entirely in palatial offices and homes, by very attractive people wearing only the most becoming and stylish clothes -- even Jewish refugees are all very wealthy and well dressed and always end up in the homes of other wealthy people. Yes, even in occupied Paris of 1943, all the women are dressed in the most lovely clothes -- even the Jewish women who are wearing the Star -- the star is of solid gold, pinned upon courture. Their hair is done to perfection, their hats of unspeakable delight, their jewels in perfect taste. Everyone eats and drinks the most splendid food and wines, served impeccably upon snowy damask and perfect china. Now I remember reading often Simone de De Beauvoir's accounts of what it was like in Paris during those years. I recall vividly her own vivid memories of what it was like to get a new dress after the war was over -- which took a while. This took even longer in England. But in these miniseries, even in England all are dressed in high fashion and most becomingly, their hair and teeth are perfect and they eat so well in hallowed halls and dining rooms. Even in the U.S. there is a slight inconvenience from the rationing of gasoline, but that matters not all -- we put our autos up on blocks and ride in military vehicles, which are always there for us when we need them.
The only people who suffer are the soviets -- and they deserve it because they're dirty commies and we're supporting them with Lend Lease. That they lose 40 million people on the course of refusing a separate peace and keeping Hitler harassed by war on two fronts instead of one, well, that's the price they should be grateful to have paid.
These kinds of mythologies are worse than fairy tales, they are pernicious lies, just like all those lies told of the War of Southern Aggression.
Also arrived The Price of Freedom: Slavery and Manumission in Baltimore and Early National Maryland (1997) by T. Stephen Whitman. This is a slim, but dense book, with tables and graphs and many statistics dredged out of primary economic and legal documents such as wills, legislation, sales and registration fee receipts, that sort of thing. This is the kind of history that is the opposite in the spectrum of historical research that sees narrative, story-telling history as the end point, that also believes there are no facts in history, only 'feeling' and opinion. But laws are facts. Though opinions can be written about a law, and a law can be interpreted, particularly in its application by, say, a judge or a sheriff, a law is fact, just as are taxes. I get so freakin' tired of those people.
It's sadly comic too, that these are the same people become livid if you bring up actual history that shows how little our national myths are founded in the reality of actions of the times that the mythologies of this nation describe.
The mythology that is propaganda: I'm particularly aware of this process by watching the interminable Winds of War and War and Rememberance, the television miniseries from the 1980's that tell the tale of WWII. According to these propagandistic mythologies on the home screen, WWII was conducted entirely in palatial offices and homes, by very attractive people wearing only the most becoming and stylish clothes -- even Jewish refugees are all very wealthy and well dressed and always end up in the homes of other wealthy people. Yes, even in occupied Paris of 1943, all the women are dressed in the most lovely clothes -- even the Jewish women who are wearing the Star -- the star is of solid gold, pinned upon courture. Their hair is done to perfection, their hats of unspeakable delight, their jewels in perfect taste. Everyone eats and drinks the most splendid food and wines, served impeccably upon snowy damask and perfect china. Now I remember reading often Simone de De Beauvoir's accounts of what it was like in Paris during those years. I recall vividly her own vivid memories of what it was like to get a new dress after the war was over -- which took a while. This took even longer in England. But in these miniseries, even in England all are dressed in high fashion and most becomingly, their hair and teeth are perfect and they eat so well in hallowed halls and dining rooms. Even in the U.S. there is a slight inconvenience from the rationing of gasoline, but that matters not all -- we put our autos up on blocks and ride in military vehicles, which are always there for us when we need them.
The only people who suffer are the soviets -- and they deserve it because they're dirty commies and we're supporting them with Lend Lease. That they lose 40 million people on the course of refusing a separate peace and keeping Hitler harassed by war on two fronts instead of one, well, that's the price they should be grateful to have paid.
These kinds of mythologies are worse than fairy tales, they are pernicious lies, just like all those lies told of the War of Southern Aggression.
Computer Shopping -- Argh!
I must have a travel computer, but one of the netbooks won't be powerful enough, to function as my 'desk' computer in Maryland. A netbook, whatever, would be better for travel, such as the upcoming trip to New Orleans, but not enough to function as a the real work, at home computer.
The idea is that I'm going to get a flat screen monitor for use 'at home,' which most of this coming year will be in Maryland, but that I can still pack it up when we come back (frequently) to NYC during that time, and for other trips such as the guest thing at the U of Southern Mississippi, etc. So it has to have more capacities than a netbook, etc. I'll also get a mouse because I loathe touch pads.
What should I get? I have no idea!
The idea is that I'm going to get a flat screen monitor for use 'at home,' which most of this coming year will be in Maryland, but that I can still pack it up when we come back (frequently) to NYC during that time, and for other trips such as the guest thing at the U of Southern Mississippi, etc. So it has to have more capacities than a netbook, etc. I'll also get a mouse because I loathe touch pads.
What should I get? I have no idea!
Monday, June 28, 2010
97 + Degrees So It Must Be Time For
Potato salad, lettuce and tomato salad, cantalope, ham and iced tea.
Even with the a/c at full while the potatoes and eggs were cooking it got damned warm in the kitchen!
Thunderstorm in the offing -- in the offing all day so far. I could have then gotten to the library to pick up a history of Maryland in first decade of the nation.
Colorful figures in the supermarket today, flotsam and jetsom from Gay Pride, all confused about what to do in the Big Town, now that we're so hungover from a week straight of partying day and night, and it's so hot and it's Monday, and the Monday BEFORE July 4th yet.
Our not-gay downstairs neighbor skank hosted a party that began Thursday night and went non-stop until about 11 PM last night. Why no, the partiers were not gay either. They were however very very drunk and filled with drugs, which it was impossible for me not to notice as loud as they were, and how often I had to trek down there and tell them to shut the fucking music off it is 3:30 in the AM, and they'd say but it's um it's ah, that thing, yeah, pride. That's nice I said. The music is still fucking too loud and it's still 3:30 AM. Why no, they didn't go to the parade either, Their support and solidarity was in the bottle and up their noses. That bitch ain't long for this building. OTOH, we're the activists most affected, and we're leaving at the end of August. But the landlord has already spoken to her -- one of the employees of the office lives three floors above her and he's talked to the bosses. Lucky us, we're right above her.
Over the weekend two more shops on my block have closed. One a vintage clothing stor, one a boutique of kilms and persian-like jewelry. That one was around for such a short time that I never got used to it being there. I suppose these too will become food providers. Though I have noticed that the store front that had been the favorite of these boutiques, a very high end, artistist floral designer, is still empty, so maybe not? They didn't go out of business. They moved to larger digs.
OTOH, the local talky radio is beating the drums that Wall Street is hiring again.
In the peace and quiet of the end of PARTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!, el V and I stayed up last night until after 3 AM, giggling. We're reading a history of President Polk. Probably many would not find much giggle provoking in such a book, but silly as we are, we do. Nope. Can't explain or describe. It's just so completely something that comes out of our shared stuff. But it was fun to read and laugh for three hours.
Even with the a/c at full while the potatoes and eggs were cooking it got damned warm in the kitchen!
Thunderstorm in the offing -- in the offing all day so far. I could have then gotten to the library to pick up a history of Maryland in first decade of the nation.
Colorful figures in the supermarket today, flotsam and jetsom from Gay Pride, all confused about what to do in the Big Town, now that we're so hungover from a week straight of partying day and night, and it's so hot and it's Monday, and the Monday BEFORE July 4th yet.
Our not-gay downstairs neighbor skank hosted a party that began Thursday night and went non-stop until about 11 PM last night. Why no, the partiers were not gay either. They were however very very drunk and filled with drugs, which it was impossible for me not to notice as loud as they were, and how often I had to trek down there and tell them to shut the fucking music off it is 3:30 in the AM, and they'd say but it's um it's ah, that thing, yeah, pride. That's nice I said. The music is still fucking too loud and it's still 3:30 AM. Why no, they didn't go to the parade either, Their support and solidarity was in the bottle and up their noses. That bitch ain't long for this building. OTOH, we're the activists most affected, and we're leaving at the end of August. But the landlord has already spoken to her -- one of the employees of the office lives three floors above her and he's talked to the bosses. Lucky us, we're right above her.
Over the weekend two more shops on my block have closed. One a vintage clothing stor, one a boutique of kilms and persian-like jewelry. That one was around for such a short time that I never got used to it being there. I suppose these too will become food providers. Though I have noticed that the store front that had been the favorite of these boutiques, a very high end, artistist floral designer, is still empty, so maybe not? They didn't go out of business. They moved to larger digs.
OTOH, the local talky radio is beating the drums that Wall Street is hiring again.
In the peace and quiet of the end of PARTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!, el V and I stayed up last night until after 3 AM, giggling. We're reading a history of President Polk. Probably many would not find much giggle provoking in such a book, but silly as we are, we do. Nope. Can't explain or describe. It's just so completely something that comes out of our shared stuff. But it was fun to read and laugh for three hours.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
July Means New Orleans & Haiti
El V's recording an album in New Orleans at Piety Street Studios. Then it's Haiti for 7 - 10 days.
The Haitian essay that was to be the centerpiece of an anthology of Postmamboist writings keeps getting more and more built out. The editor is so impressed with it (the word used and repeated by ye editor to describe it is brilliant) that he asked to pull it out for a separate book. He also wants to rush publication, so it's got to be finished before we move in August. Plus the terms of the Fellowship preclude working on any other book than the Starr project.
A slim book, this on Haiti -- out in January, $18.95 in hc -- but dynamite. Real dynamite.
I admit to having trepidations -- Haiti is awful. Our friend who is there, guarding and caring for her six-year-old daughter until she gets a visa to enter the US, is still waiting for the official notification that they can come in and have the dna testing done. They've finally got the dna testing kits, which must be purchased by yourself, from a short list of laboratories in the U.S. (another racket $et in place by the bu$hie$ for their crony crime $yndicates) -- and then they don't mail them to where they are supposed to go, and they lose them, and etc. etc. etc. People like our friends are coming down with terrible infections which the doctors tell them are probably caused by all the unburied bodies all over the place. It rains and rains, mud and mud, heat and heat, mosquitos and mosquitos, crime and crime, desperation and desperation. Ah well. A footwetting for Angola, which is fall 2011, if all goes well.
Then we must pack for Maryland.
Back to my daily work of building bibilography and reading histories of Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina.
I'm having to learn a great deal about boats and ships. The fundamental for this history is that the local and Caribbean history of their boats and ships and their many varieties -- this is a water culture. And are we not Braudelians in our historical philosophy?
Among what I've finally gotten straight so far, is the history of why Virginia always believed it was its entitled right to rule the United States, whever they were located. Now I know, finally, why it's Old Dominion. Though this out of our era of focus, of course.
It's an amazing region, the Chesapeake itself is a world unto itself.
The Haitian essay that was to be the centerpiece of an anthology of Postmamboist writings keeps getting more and more built out. The editor is so impressed with it (the word used and repeated by ye editor to describe it is brilliant) that he asked to pull it out for a separate book. He also wants to rush publication, so it's got to be finished before we move in August. Plus the terms of the Fellowship preclude working on any other book than the Starr project.
A slim book, this on Haiti -- out in January, $18.95 in hc -- but dynamite. Real dynamite.
I admit to having trepidations -- Haiti is awful. Our friend who is there, guarding and caring for her six-year-old daughter until she gets a visa to enter the US, is still waiting for the official notification that they can come in and have the dna testing done. They've finally got the dna testing kits, which must be purchased by yourself, from a short list of laboratories in the U.S. (another racket $et in place by the bu$hie$ for their crony crime $yndicates) -- and then they don't mail them to where they are supposed to go, and they lose them, and etc. etc. etc. People like our friends are coming down with terrible infections which the doctors tell them are probably caused by all the unburied bodies all over the place. It rains and rains, mud and mud, heat and heat, mosquitos and mosquitos, crime and crime, desperation and desperation. Ah well. A footwetting for Angola, which is fall 2011, if all goes well.
Then we must pack for Maryland.
Back to my daily work of building bibilography and reading histories of Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina.
I'm having to learn a great deal about boats and ships. The fundamental for this history is that the local and Caribbean history of their boats and ships and their many varieties -- this is a water culture. And are we not Braudelians in our historical philosophy?
Among what I've finally gotten straight so far, is the history of why Virginia always believed it was its entitled right to rule the United States, whever they were located. Now I know, finally, why it's Old Dominion. Though this out of our era of focus, of course.
It's an amazing region, the Chesapeake itself is a world unto itself.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
The Intellectual Underpinnings of the Civil War
"... the intellectual underpinnings of the Civil War ..." dere iz any? O! u meenz such as this example provided by the Senate Historical Office?
If anyone could point me in the direction of the intellectual unpinnings for the War of Southern Aggression, I'd be grateful.
This inquiry has been provoked by an example in an article in College and Research Libraries News describing current trends for academic research libraries:
On May 22, 1856, the "world's greatest deliberative body" became a combat zone. In one of the most dramatic and deeply ominous moments in the Senate's entire history, a member of the House of Representatives entered the Senate chamber and savagely beat a senator into unconsciousness.
The inspiration for this clash came three days earlier when Senator Charles Sumner, a Massachusetts antislavery Republican, addressed the Senate on the explosive issue of whether Kansas should be admitted to the Union as a slave state or a free state. In his "Crime Against Kansas" speech, Sumner identified two Democratic senators as the principal culprits in this crime—Stephen Douglas of Illinois and Andrew Butler of South Carolina. He characterized Douglas to his face as a "noise-some, squat, and nameless animal . . . not a proper model for an American senator." Andrew Butler, who was not present, received more elaborate treatment. Mocking the South Carolina senator's stance as a man of chivalry, the Massachusetts senator charged him with taking "a mistress . . . who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him; though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sight—I mean," added Sumner, "the harlot, Slavery."
Representative Preston Brooks was Butler's South Carolina kinsman. If he had believed Sumner to be a gentleman, he might have challenged him to a duel. Instead, he chose a light cane of the type used to discipline unruly dogs. Shortly after the Senate had adjourned for the day, Brooks entered the old chamber, where he found Sumner busily attaching his postal frank to copies of his "Crime Against Kansas" speech.
Moving quickly, Brooks slammed his metal-topped cane onto the unsuspecting Sumner's head. As Brooks struck again and again, Sumner rose and lurched blindly about the chamber, futilely attempting to protect himself. After a very long minute, it ended.
Bleeding profusely, Sumner was carried away. Brooks walked calmly out of the chamber without being detained by the stunned onlookers. Overnight, both men became heroes in their respective regions.
Surviving a House censure resolution, Brooks resigned, was immediately reelected, and soon thereafter died at age 37. Sumner recovered slowly and returned to the Senate, where he remained for another 18 years. The nation, suffering from the breakdown of reasoned discourse that this event symbolized, tumbled onward toward the catastrophe of civil war.
If anyone could point me in the direction of the intellectual unpinnings for the War of Southern Aggression, I'd be grateful.
This inquiry has been provoked by an example in an article in College and Research Libraries News describing current trends for academic research libraries:
Many digital projects have been funded in part by grants from sources such as the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the Mellon Foundation, while others are supported in total by institutional funds. Collaborative digitization opportunities abound: member libraries of the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries are creating a digital shared collection of 5,000 items from their rare and special collections that will help explain the intellectual underpinnings of the American Civil War.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
*Impeached* by David D. Stewart
Highly recommended is Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy (2009) by David O. Stewart to those who want or need to know more about the immediate history of the U.S. after Lee's surrender at Appomatox, Lincoln's assassination and Reconstruction.
The Johnson impeachment is complicated and complex and can't be reduced to a soundbite. That's not the only reason it's not actually taught in American historry classes, whether middle-school, high school or college, though. The real reason it's not taught is because this event has a starring role in the revisionism of the history of the Civil War, Reconstruction and the causes of the entire epic, which began even before the War of Southern Aggression was finished -- which ended only with the assassination of President Lincoln by rabid confederate Booth, and the barely avoided impeachment of Johnson, avoided only because of the massive amounts of cash poured into the effort by the confederates, their sympatizers and the lobbyists -- one vote. This was also revised, via Wilson and others, that rather than a act of veniality, this was as an act of patriotic heroism that saved the nation and the Constitution, an act which outranked Lincoln's efforts by a fair amount, something even JFK bought into 100%,
That the author is a lawyer, who "defended an impeachment trial of a Mississippi judge in the U.S. Senate in 1988," contributes no small amount to his ability to make easily comprehensible -- to an adult, used to thinking, who doesn't suffer ADD, and who has a decent outline of U.S. history -- this hydra-headed, significant event to the general reader. Stewart cogently summarizes all of it in the first 35 pp, succinctly and clearly. While a practicing attorney his briefs must have been a joy for his colleagues to read -- trust me on this, that would not be said of most lawyers's briefs.
The rest of the book goes into chronology and detail of the players, characters, the historical context and events. For those of us who see General Grant as an authentic hero, he does not let us down during this crisis either. One of the most enjoyable aspects of this work is seeing Grant's military abilities deployed upon the political battleground of the executive and legislative branches of the Capitol. His close relationship with his other generals like Sheridan and Sherman plays a role as well. The portrait of Thadeus Stevens, the arch villain of Birth of a Nation, is invaluable.
What is hard reading is the portrait of what happens to the freedmen and women in the defeated confederacy after Lincoln's assassination, during the years of Johnson's regime. You may think you know, but you likely don 't, not in this detail, and at that Stewart is restrained in his description and detail of the horrors and the scope of the horrors committed against and upon them.
President Grant put a stop to that. The real Reconstruction then began.
We briefly met David O. Stewart at the Starr Center during our visit there earlier this month. It just so happened that this book was in my bag but neither of us made the connection at that moment between the man in the office and the book in the bag. Our encounter was more than pleasant -- it was interesting, leaving both sides wanting more. So we'll probably meet here in August before our move to Chestertown, while he's visiting Yankee Stadium with his son (though they won't cheer the Yankees!), and working in some of the Aaron Burr archives and collections for his current project, which is Burr's fantasy of carving out his own kingdom in the Louisiana Territory and his treason trial.
The Johnson impeachment is complicated and complex and can't be reduced to a soundbite. That's not the only reason it's not actually taught in American historry classes, whether middle-school, high school or college, though. The real reason it's not taught is because this event has a starring role in the revisionism of the history of the Civil War, Reconstruction and the causes of the entire epic, which began even before the War of Southern Aggression was finished -- which ended only with the assassination of President Lincoln by rabid confederate Booth, and the barely avoided impeachment of Johnson, avoided only because of the massive amounts of cash poured into the effort by the confederates, their sympatizers and the lobbyists -- one vote. This was also revised, via Wilson and others, that rather than a act of veniality, this was as an act of patriotic heroism that saved the nation and the Constitution, an act which outranked Lincoln's efforts by a fair amount, something even JFK bought into 100%,
That the author is a lawyer, who "defended an impeachment trial of a Mississippi judge in the U.S. Senate in 1988," contributes no small amount to his ability to make easily comprehensible -- to an adult, used to thinking, who doesn't suffer ADD, and who has a decent outline of U.S. history -- this hydra-headed, significant event to the general reader. Stewart cogently summarizes all of it in the first 35 pp, succinctly and clearly. While a practicing attorney his briefs must have been a joy for his colleagues to read -- trust me on this, that would not be said of most lawyers's briefs.
The rest of the book goes into chronology and detail of the players, characters, the historical context and events. For those of us who see General Grant as an authentic hero, he does not let us down during this crisis either. One of the most enjoyable aspects of this work is seeing Grant's military abilities deployed upon the political battleground of the executive and legislative branches of the Capitol. His close relationship with his other generals like Sheridan and Sherman plays a role as well. The portrait of Thadeus Stevens, the arch villain of Birth of a Nation, is invaluable.
What is hard reading is the portrait of what happens to the freedmen and women in the defeated confederacy after Lincoln's assassination, during the years of Johnson's regime. You may think you know, but you likely don 't, not in this detail, and at that Stewart is restrained in his description and detail of the horrors and the scope of the horrors committed against and upon them.
President Grant put a stop to that. The real Reconstruction then began.
We briefly met David O. Stewart at the Starr Center during our visit there earlier this month. It just so happened that this book was in my bag but neither of us made the connection at that moment between the man in the office and the book in the bag. Our encounter was more than pleasant -- it was interesting, leaving both sides wanting more. So we'll probably meet here in August before our move to Chestertown, while he's visiting Yankee Stadium with his son (though they won't cheer the Yankees!), and working in some of the Aaron Burr archives and collections for his current project, which is Burr's fantasy of carving out his own kingdom in the Louisiana Territory and his treason trial.
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