Yeah, That Happened: Topics in History

[Deleted]

My brother has the Shelby Foote set, I don't know if he actually read them though. He was the one who was big into it when we were young. My mom drove him to a movie theater the next state over so he could see Gettysburg when it came out. And he damn near wore out his copy of Glory on VHS.

I'm not really into the battle minutiae either, I'm more interested in personal stories. For instance I've done a lot of reading about Amos Humiston as well as women who passed as men and fought in the war (on both sides.) And in the course of researching my family tree I discovered that my great-great grandfather died as a result of a disease he caught in Louisiana while serving in the Union Army. He was lucky though because he was able to die at home (in Massachusetts) with his family with him, so many of them didn't have that.

[Carolinian]

I'm an Art History major because I thought that would tie in with my interested in historical clothing and costuming. My husband has done Civil War reenacting, which does not interest me at all.*

Recently I've been reading about the development of the culture of the United States. I read The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America by Russell Shorto and am currently reading American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America by Colin Woodard. My knowledge of early American history is shaped by my grade school recollections from nearly 40 years ago so all this is quite eye-opening. Does any one remember a little humor book called 1066 and All That: a Memorable History of England? It was a British book that claimed to contain all the (English) History you could remember, and two dates. I think my understanding of early American history could be written up like that book.




*When he first got into it he tried to talk me into joining him. I told him that as a Southern woman I should talk a black friend of mine into dressing up and going as my servant. He was horrified. I was all "fuck that, the southern states seceded because they wanted to preserve the institution of slavery. I've read their articles of secession. If you want me to play at being a Reb I'm going all the way." That conversation ended, thank goodness.

[chonies]

How did your husband get into the reenacting, Carolinian? I admire your total and principled commitment to authenticity.

Here's a question: I read Quiverful by Kathryn Joyce, and at one time she discusses talking to a patriarchy-movement man who considers himself a historian. One of the topics they discuss is that the hearth-and-home model of prairieland American culture was heavily influenced by the Germans. Link. But since it's not a history book, they don't really go into some of the other possibilities. Is this too esoteric for this thread? I know it's more ethnohistory, but I was wondering if anyone had read anything else about this and could expand.

[Carolinian]

Aug 16, 2014 9:44:25 GMT -4 chonies said:

How did your husband get into the reenacting, Carolinian?

It was 20+ years ago through some sewing clients of mine, a father and son who did CW reenacting together. The father had done it since he was a teen reenacting the 100th anniversary battles in the '60s and when his son got interested in CW history they did it together as a family activity. Kind of like boy scouts with blackpowder guns.

Woodard talks about the German immigrants coming to the US pre-1700. When William Penn recruited settlers for Pennsylvania he sought immigrants from Germany as well as England, Ireland, and the Netherlands. Whole villages transplanted from the Palantine (SW Germany) to settle to the west of Philadelphia. He offered political and religious liberty which appealed to some sects like the Mennonites. "Pennsylvania Dutch" is actually a corruption of "Pennsylvania Dietsch", a Palatinate dialect of German. So many Germans immigrated that Pennsylvania was the only English-founded colony without an English majority. I'm just up to the Revolution so haven't read about expansion across the Ohio and Mississippi.

[Ripley]

Aug 15, 2014 23:38:49 GMT -4 Carolinian said:

Does any one remember a little humor book called 1066 and All That: a Memorable History of England? It was a British book that claimed to contain all the (English) History you could remember, and two dates.

I bought that book on a trip to England in 1993. I love reading it! Dave Barry (American humorist) wrote "Dave Barry Slept Here: a Sort of History of the United States" and "Dave Barry's History of the Millenium (so far)" and I like both of them too. I think I like "1066" better because it has that dry British wit, but it's a close race.

[tabby]

I own 1066 and All That. The humorist and actual academic Richard Armour also wrote a US history - er, "history" - book called It All Started With Columbus, in the same vein. (For English- and American-lit buffs, Armour wrote some hilarious descriptions of the classics. You'll never see Hamlet the same way again.)

It says something disturbing about me that I love reading about epidemics and plagues. The Black Death, smallpox outbreaks, the great influenza epidemic, Ebola, you name the germ-laden disaster, I want to learn about it.

I have before confessed my long-standing obsession with the Tudors.

[Auroranorth]

I'm a BA in history with a passion for Victorian/Edwardian Europe, WWII spies, Tudors and China.

Alison Weir's Mistress of the Monarchy: The Life of Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancasterwas a recent read. I'm pleasantly surprised at how good it is. After Weir's forays into historical fiction (emphasis on the fiction) I've been hesitant to read her nonfiction.

Here's a question: I read Quiverful by Kathryn Joyce, and at one time she discusses talking to a patriarchy-movement man who considers himself a historian. One of the topics they discuss is that the hearth-and-home model of prairieland American culture was heavily influenced by the Germans. Link. But since it's not a history book, they don't really go into some of the other possibilities. Is this too esoteric for this thread? I know it's more ethnohistory, but I was wondering if anyone had read anything else about this and could expand.

When I think of German hearth and home, I immediately think of Kaiser Wilhelm II and his comment about how women should be focused on the Three K's- "kinder, küche, kirche," which translates to "children, kitchen, church".

[chonies]

Aug 18, 2014 9:12:50 GMT -4 Auroranorth said:

Here's a question: I read Quiverful by Kathryn Joyce, and at one time she discusses talking to a patriarchy-movement man who considers himself a historian. One of the topics they discuss is that the hearth-and-home model of prairieland American culture was heavily influenced by the Germans. Link. But since it's not a history book, they don't really go into some of the other possibilities. Is this too esoteric for this thread? I know it's more ethnohistory, but I was wondering if anyone had read anything else about this and could expand.

When I think of German hearth and home, I immediately think of Kaiser Wilhelm II and his comment about how women should be focused on the Three K's- "kinder, küche, kirche," which translates to "children, kitchen, church".

Me too! I also think of my German-heritage grandma who was raised in NYC and had to tamp down her own ambitions and was a housewife (who went to church and was an amazing cook) although that could be a generational as well as cultural. Women of African heritage had a long cultural history of being business owners, merchants, and traders, but as far as both American heartland stuff is concerned, I really am way out of my depth. I don't know enough about women's history of Anglo and Celtic immigrants, or from other parts of Europe who would have been viable competitors for sorting out the cultural template. Sort of like how English culture (Albion's Seed!) set the general template for American--what other cultural patterns shaped American values?

[kateln]

I love all history, but my favorite era has to be late 19th/early 20th Century. The architecture, the changes in industry/technology/rights, it's fascinating to me.

[Deleted]

I totally get that. The building I work in was built in that era, and it's gorgeous. We get a TON of tourists coming through taking pictures.