American Civil War in 4 minutes

May 23, 2007

Citations get lost on the internet. Not only do people send copies of e-mails to everyone on their list, not only is there spam beyond all measure, but good stuff gets stripped of attribution. Someone sends you a good poem, or a genuinely funny story — and if you want more of the same, you’re completely at sea about where to look. Author? That information got stripped away several forwardings earlier.

“Must be Lincoln, Einstein, or Jefferson,” some wag says, and the piece is misattributed ever after.

A fellow posted this interesting film on YouTube — The Civil War in Four Minutes. One second of the film equals one week of the war. It’s a fascinating pictorial map presentation, with a lot of information packed into 240 seconds.

Who did it? Are there others like it? How do we get the rights for classroom use?

YouTube can be likened to grave robbers who invade Egyptian royal tombs — they bring important material to light, but the context is lost, and perhaps the meaning.

Can you help track down the creator of this film? This film was created for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois. (Now — how can we get legal copies?)

Update, June 15, 2007: Every YouTube version of the video has been pulled — probably a copyright thing. In the interim, I’ve checked with the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum to see if it is available. One person said there is discussion for making it available in the next two years. Ain’t that the way? Why not strike while the iron is hot and sell it now? Somebody, please wake me if it’s ever released.

Update, October 4, 2007: ABLPLM explains the creation of the movie. Nice shot of the screen, still not available for classrooms. Alas.

Update December 20, 2007: If that one doesn’t work, try this one for a while:

Vodpod videos no longer available. from www.idkwtf.com posted with vodpod

5 Comments | Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, History, History museums, History video sources, Juneteenth, Presidents, Technology in the classroom, Texas, War | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Quote of the moment: Lincoln on Labor

May 12, 2007

Abraham Lincoln, president-elect, on Feb. 23, 1861 - History Place

Labor is prior to, and independent of,capital.  Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could not have existed if labor had not first existed.  Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.

Lincoln in the Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1861

The photograph shows Lincoln as president-elect; it is one of a series taken on February 23, 1861; from The History Place.

Leave a Comment » | Abraham Lincoln, Economics, Famous quotes, Free market economics, Good Quotes, History, Labor and unions, Presidents, Quotes | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Christian Seniors push bogus history

March 15, 2007

California Congressman Pete Stark answered a query about his religious beliefs, saying he does not believe in God. This is not unusual, really. Through history the U.S. has had people of many religious beliefs, and disbeliefs, serve in Congress.

A group calling itself the Christian Seniors Association, a division of Traditional Values Coalition, hit the panic button unjustly, issuing a press release noting a “Sad First in the History of Congress.”

“It is sad but not surprising that the current Congress has produced this historic first – one of its members has denied God,” said CSA Executive Director James Lafferty. “The liberals in Congress want to throttle any school child who bows his or her head in prayer, but they want to establish a right for liberals to bash Christians and berate God around the clock.

Would it be too much to ask such a group to actually study history? This is not a first, and probably not all that historic, either. Their claim is bogus history.

In 1846 an Illinois state representative ran for Congress, against a famous Methodist preacher, Read the rest of this entry »

4 Comments | Abraham Lincoln, Bogus history, First Amendment, Religious Freedom | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Historical query: Lincoln and Darwin

February 13, 2007

Celebration was understated here for the dual birthday of Lincoln and Darwin.  While I support greater festivities, other activities filled the calendar here in the Bathtub.*

But I do have a question:  Do we know at approximately what time Lincoln, or Darwin, was born?  I’ve been fascinated for years with the fact that Lincoln and Darwin were born on the exact same day, February 12, 1809; obviously, Darwin was born in England, and Lincoln in the U.S.  But I wonder, how far apart in time were the births?  How great a coincidence is this great coincidence?

My search for birth times hasn’t been exhaustive, but I’m coming up dry on both of them.  Can anyone lend a hand with references or the actual times?

*  Good heavens!  I wanted to link to the little poem, “Ode to the Thing that Keeps the Wolf from the Door” here — I cannot find it on the web!  Odd what the virtual world finds worthy in literature.

3 Comments | Abraham Lincoln, Author query, Charles Darwin, Darwin, History | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Fillmore’s writings on line

January 9, 2007

Manchester Union Democrat, Dec 8, 1852, with news of Fillmore's SOTU address

Manchester, New Hampshire, Union Democrat,
December 8, 1852 (?); with news of Fillmore’s State of the Union Address

Millard Fillmore was a grade school drop out. He took the path to a career that many in his day did — he apprenticed, and worked his way up. Legal education in his day (circa 1815 to 1825) required that one apprentice in a law office, to “read for the law.” In that way, Fillmore, who didn’t graduate elementary school, became a lawyer.

Lawyering requires words, of course, but Fillmore was no great writer than we know, especially compared to Teddy Roosevelt, who was a newspaper reporter, or John Kennedy, in whose name a Pulitzer Prize-winning book was published (controversy for another time; Profiles in Courage, (Perennial Classics Books, 2000). We might hope that some institution will undertake a collection of Fillmore’s legal arguments as they may be spread across New York court archives, much as the Lincoln Library has scoured Illinois for Lincoln’s writings and oral arguments.

We may assume that Fillmore participated heavily in the writing of his state of the union addresses, in a day when ghost writers were not listed in the staff books of the White House. So they would contain genuine Fillmore ideas and phrases. Fillmore’s three state of the union speeches are available at the Gutenberg Project.

I’ll be mining them for accurate quotes, you may rest assured. (Does he mention bathtubs in any of the speeches? No.) Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a Comment » | Abraham Lincoln, Accuracy, Good Quotes, Millard Fillmore, Presidents | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Quirks of history: Customer service circa 1909

November 24, 2006

Interesting correspondence with a railroad regarding a misapprehended hat, in 1909.

1. Can you imagine any common carrier institution taking such care with a customer today?

2. Can you imagine any such chain of correspondence in e-mail, or by telephone?

3. Can you build a lesson plan for a history class around this correspondence?

Further thoughts: This story puts me in mind of two others that turned out quite differently. The first is the (possibly apocryphal) story of Abraham Lincoln’s borrowing a book to read, and stashing it between the logs of the cabin when he put out the candle. After a nighttime rain in which the water ran down the side of the cabin and soaked the book, Lincoln returned the book to its owner and at great personal expense replaced it, the story goes — meriting the the “Honest Abe” moniker. The book was reputed to have been a biography of George Washington.

The second story is that of American businessman William Boyce, lost in a London fog and late for a business appointment in 1909. Out of the fog came a boy in uniform who offered to guide Boyce to his appointment, and did — and then refused a tip because, as he explained, he was a Scout, and Scouts did not take payment for good deeds. The legend is that Boyce later met with the founder of Scouting in Britain, Lord Baden-Powell, and then carried Scouting to the United States, incorporating the Boy Scouts of America on February 8, 1910. The Scout was never identified, but is instead honored in Scout lore as the “unknown Scout.”

Buffalo tribute to unknown Scout at Gilwell ParkStatue of an American Bison, erected at Scouting’s training center in Gilwell Park, England, in honor of the unknown Scout who helped businessman William D. Boyce find his way, and thereby played a key role in the founding of Boy Scouting in the U.S.

1 Comment | Abraham Lincoln, Boy Scouts of America, George Washington, History, Lesson plans, Technology | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

World changing presentations

September 24, 2006

Before the proliferation of video projectors and computers, and the proliferation of Microsoft PowerPoint and similar programs, lectures with visual aids usually meant a few phrases on a chalk board, or a few select phrases on flip charts. Sometimes visual aids meant overhead projector slides, which offer the advantage of the lecturer’s being able to write on the slide as the lecture progresses.

When I did a lot more lecturing for corporations and professional groups, I carried 35-millimeter photo slides, professionally produced. Some of them showed just the cover of a book. I favored black or very dark backgrounds with one word on a slide. With just one word, I could edit the presentation more easily, shuffling the order of the key words I wanted to use literally up to the last moment. Laying out a three-hour presentation using just single-word slides, with a few photos or other illustrations, served to focus me on the outline of the speech, on the pacing and timing of the presentation, and focus especially on just what the message was to be — what I wanted the audience to leave the auditorium humming.

PowerPoint changed all of that, and not necessarily for the better. Oh, I use PowerPoint myself, though I tend to favor single, high-impact historical photographs, rather than the thousand-word essays some people put up on the single slides. I still edit to get pictures that are spare in presentation, but rich in thought, and rich in potential for edifying talk. I have seen a few PowerPoint masters — perhaps you have, too — who can dispense an enormous amount of information and inspiration with a minimum of words and slides. Read the rest of this entry »

2 Comments | Abraham Lincoln, Business, Education, Teaching, Technology | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Misquoting Lincoln to support Bush

August 26, 2006

Carpus at Aspirations of a Post Doc fisks a quote making the rounds that has Abraham Lincoln claiming dissent is close to treason.  Go read his post.  Turns out the quote was manufactured, partly in error, in 2003.  Carpus points to the FactCheck.org report for a source. 

Lincoln never said it.  Lincoln did little to stifle dissent.

In fact, Lincoln’s management style as president was based on bringing people with dissenting views into his cabinet.  Doris Kearns Goodwin’s latest book, Team of Rivals, strongly suggests that forging good policies from great dissent was a particular genius of Lincoln.

George W. could learn a lot from Abe, Carpus concludes — with astounding understatement.

2 Comments | Abraham Lincoln, Accuracy, Bad Quotes, Bogus history, Current History, History Revisionism | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

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