Category Archives: History

What should history say about Shermans March to the Sea and war tactics used during the U.S. Civil War? Was William Tecumseh Sherman really the destroyer that American lore has made him out to be? For over a century, Shermans name has been shorthand for the destruction wrought by total war against civilian property and infrastructure, a grim harbinger of the brutal campaigns of the 20th century.

He has even been referenced concerning Russias slow-motion offensive in Eastern Ukraine. Ukrainians, among others, have accused the Russians of using Sherman-esque tactics to loot Eastern Ukraine of food and industry and destroy existing infrastructure, rendering the region economically fallow. Given the near-universality of this view, careful consideration of his actual record is warranted.

Historical Legacy

A graduate of West Point, Sherman was eight years retired from service when he commissioned into the US Army as a colonel in May 1861. After fighting at Bull Run, Sherman served in administrative positions in the West. In March 1862, he was assigned a field command beneath Major General Ulysses S. Grant in what came to be known as the Army of the Tennessee. Sherman served with distinction at the Battle of Shiloh during the Vicksburg campaign and eventually as commander of the Army of the Tennessee at the Battle of Chattanooga. In May 1864, he led US Army forces in the Atlanta Campaign, capturing the Confederate-held city in early September.

At this point, Shermans military legacy was assured. However, Shermans most enduring fame has come from his March to the Sea, which followed the capture of Atlanta. At the head of the Army of the Tennessee and parts of the Army of the Cumberland, Sherman set out to wage economic war against Confederate infrastructure and the property of the Confederate elite while marching his forces to Savannah. Sherman broke from his supply lines, meaning his army needed to draw food and other resources from the land. The economic war involved the seizure of vast amounts of food, animals, and fodder, as well as the destruction of whatever industry Shermans army could find. After reaching Savannah, Sherman turned north, wreaking damage on the Carolinas before the final surrender of Confederate forces in the spring of 1865.

In the post-war Southern imagination, Sherman became the barbarian who had savagely destroyed the economic heart of the Confederacy. At the same time, U.S. Grant became the brute who battered his way to victory over Robert E. Lee without either art or honor. Painting Sherman as the Destroyer served many political ends in postbellum America. To Southerners, it helped explain why the North had won the war; Sherman and others had violated norms of honorable conduct. In the North, Sherman became synonymous with savage vengeance, the terrible swift sword of retribution for slavery and secession.

The Revisionists

For some time, revisionists have been altering this picture of Sherman, just as theyve altered the understanding of the nature of Grants campaigns. As Anne Bailey has argued, the available evidence suggests that the damage inflicted on Georgia was less catastrophic than reported. As a general rule, the persons of civilians (although not their property) were spared from attack, in stark distinction to the anti-civilian campaigns of World War I and especially World War II. It is also worth noting that the capacity of a pre-industrial army (of which the US Army of the Civil War still mostly counts) is simply an order of magnitude different than the industrial colossi of the twentieth century.

Time has not been kind to the legacy of Shermans victims, many of whom were wealthy slaveholders who held the bulk of their wealth in slaves rather than land. Shermans March necessarily led to the liberation of much of this wealth in the form of Black Americans, who freed themselves from bondage to follow Shermans armies. As Sherman and others pointed out, large slaveholders formed the core of the Confederacys military and political elite and thus bore considerable direct responsibility for the war.

At Parameters, the journal of the US Army War College, Mitchell Klingenberg has argued that Shermans legacy is as much a literary embellishment as anything else. Rather than the destructive butcher, Klingenberg paints a picture of Sherman as a careful and astute observer of military affairs who exerted a strong influence on the culture and institutional nature of the US Army. Sherman wrote extensively on both the campaigns of the Civil War and on the war in general and did not consider his actions to have been in any way indiscriminate.

Shermans Later Career

Shermans later career involved operations against Native American nations that often undertook an extraordinarily destructive nature. Indeed, it is during the Indian Wars that Sherman can perhaps truly be said to have earned the label Destroyer, facilitating brutal punitive raids that absolutely were not discriminate in their effect. Sherman also supported economic war against the Native Americans, including the destruction of remaining bison herds. But in this Sherman was not particularly distinguished from other US Army commanders, or indeed from the generals who led European armies in the final waves of nineteenth-century colonization. This is not to excuse Shermans actions (tension even developed between Sherman and President Grant over the brutality of US Army activity), but rather to acknowledge that there was nothing special about an American general engaging in genocidal policies in the American West.

Relevance

William Tecumseh Sherman was an extraordinarily gifted military leader who acted as one of the two most important US military figures of the Civil War. His action in Georgia did not set the tone or the terms of what would come to be called total war in the 20th century. Analogies are always inexact, but we should take care before taking responsibility for the reality that war is cruelty on a nineteenth-century American commander.

A 19FortyFive Contributing Editor,Dr. Robert Farley has taught security and diplomacy courses at the Patterson School since 2005. He received his BS from the University of Oregon in 1997, and his Ph. D. from the University of Washington in 2004. Dr. Farley is the author of Grounded: The Case for Abolishing the United States Air Force (University Press of Kentucky, 2014), the Battleship Book (Wildside, 2016), and Patents for Power: Intellectual Property Law and the Diffusion of Military Technology (University of Chicago, 2020). He has contributed extensively to a number of journals and magazines, including the National Interest, the Diplomat: APAC, World Politics Review, and the American Prospect. Dr. Farley is also a founder and senior editor of Lawyers, Guns and Money.

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Sherman's 'March to the Sea': How Should History Judge It? - 19FortyFive

In 2007, The Plain Dealer asked a group of professional and amateur historians to name the people or families most influential in shaping Cleveland into the city we know today. Those chosen as the 25 most important (26, actually, since there was a tie for 25th place) are listed in ranked order below; others with notable influence follow in an alphabetical list. This list, edited and prepared for publication by then-Plain Dealer editorial writer Joe Frolik, was originally published in The Plain Dealer on Jan. 28, 2007.

1. John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937): The Bill Gates of his day got started here and made Cleveland an early center of the oil and chemical industries. His centennial gift: 300 acres for the East Side park that bears his name.

2. Tom L. Johnson (1854-1911): Made a fortune operating streetcars, then did a political turnaround. As a three-term mayor, he advocated public ownership of utilities and made Cleveland a model of good government.

3. Samuel Mather (1851-1931) and Flora Stone Mather (1852-1909): Clevelands original power couple. They not only expanded their inherited wealth, they gave lavishly to churches, schools and hospitals and challenged their peers to do the same. To encourage even broader giving, Samuel started the nations first Community Chest (now United Way) drive.

4. Mantis J. Van Sweringen (1881-1935) and Oris P. Van Sweringen (1879-1936): These bashful bachelor brothers developed Shaker Square and Shaker Heights, built the Shaker rapid and the complex of buildings with the Terminal Tower at its core.

5. George W. Crile Sr. (1864-1943): After service as a surgeon on the battlefields of the Spanish-American War and World War I, he returned to start the Cleveland Clinic.

6. Newton D. Baker (1871-1937): As mayor, this Tom L. Johnson lieutenant helped write the home-rule section of the Ohio Constitution and started the Baker Hostetler law firm. He was secretary of war during World War I.

7. Carl B. Stokes (1927-1996): Equally at home in a boardroom or a pool hall, he rose from public housing to become a legislator, judge, ambassador and, in 1967, the first Black mayor of a major American city.

8. Jeptha Wade (1811-1890): Banker, telegraph entrepreneur and industrialist, he donated land along Doan Creek for Western Reserve University, a city park and an art museum, thus planting the seeds for University Circle.

9. Adella Prentiss Hughes (1869-1950): A talented musician who in1915 founded the Cleveland Orchestra, still the citys premier cultural asset.

10. Frederick H. Goff (1858-1923): Built Cleveland Trust into the regions dominant bank and started the Cleveland Foundation, a national model of community philanthropy.

11. Alfred Kelley (1789-1859): Banker and politician, he spearheaded construction of the Ohio and Erie Canal.

12. Marcus A. Hanna (1837-1904): Leveraged his shipping and railroad fortune into political power. Ran the presidential campaigns of Cantons William McKinley and served in the U.S. Senate.

13. Leonard Case Jr. (1820-1880): His donations started the university that now bears his name. Early backer of the Cleveland Library Association, a forerunner of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and the Western Reserve Historical Society.

14. William Stinchcomb (1878-1959): Visionary county engineer, not only proposed the Emerald Necklace, he lobbied for a Metroparks levy to buy land, then used Civilian Conservation Corps labor during the Depression to build its infrastructure.

15. Henry Chisholm (1822-1881): Scottish immigrant who used technology and managment to make Cleveland a national center of steel-making.

16. Charles F. Brush (1849-1929): His arc light illuminated Public Square in 1879, and within a few years was in use throughout the world. Brush Electric Light & Power Co. later merged with Thomas Edisons firm to form General Electric.

17. Frank J. Lausche (1895-1990): Son of Slovenian immigrants, he became Clevelands first mayor of Eastern European descent and paved the way for politicians with names like Perk, Voinovich and Kucinich. Also served as governor and U.S. senator.

18. Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver (1893-1963): Internationally known Zionist, helped found Israel. Led Temple-Tifereth Israel, the countrys largest Reform congregation, and was active in both Jewish philanthropy and economic reform movements.

19. Louis B. Seltzer (1897-1980): As editor of The Cleveland Press for 38 years, he set the citys political and civic agenda. Nothing happened at City Hall without a nod from this pocket-sized man with oversized clout.

20. Alexander Winton (1860-1932): Successful bicycle-maker with a flair for promotion, he helped popularize the automobile. His 1898 Winton was the first American-made gasoline-powered car. Sold his company to General Motors in 1930.

21. Russell Jeliffe (1891-1980) and Rowena Jeliffe: Oberlin-educated social workers founded Karamu, a biracial settlement house that won national acclaim for its arts programs. Also helped start the Urban League of Greater Cleveland and the Cleveland Community Relations Board.

22. Frederick Crawford (1891-1994): Founder of what became TRW Inc., a collector of vintage automobiles and founder of the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum. Was instrumental in bringing the NASA Lewis (now Glenn) Research Center to Cleveland.

23. Frances Payne Bolton (1885-1977): Philanthropist and prominent member of Congress for 29 years, Bolton lobbied to create the Army School of Nursing and endowed the nursing school at Western Reserve University.

24. Belle Sherwin (1868-1955): Suffragette daughter of a Sherwin-Williams Co. founder, she devoted herself to social and political reform. Founded the Womens City Club and led National League of Women Voters.

25. (tie) Rebecca Rouse (1799-1887): Was already a zealous religious and social reformer when she organized the Ladies Aid Society in 1861 to serve northern Ohio soldiers and their families during the Civil War. It laid the groundwork for the Red Cross.

25. (tie) George Gund (1888-1966): Turned Cleveland Trust into a giant banking company and started the George Gund Foundation. In 1983, his sons Gordon and George rescued the Cavaliers basketball team from the edge of disaster.

Others, in alphabetical order:

Florence Ellinwood Allen: Prominent suffragette; first woman on Cuyahoga Common Pleas and Ohio Supreme courts.

Ernest Bohn: His efforts on housing for the poor earned him the reputation as the father of U.S. public housing.

Paul Brown: Led Cleveland to seven pro football championships,1946-55.

Daniel Burnham: A century later, his Mall Plan still impacts almost everything downtown.

Lorenzo Carter: Clevelands first permanent settler; until 1800, the Carters were Clevelands only white family.

Moses Cleaveland: Founded the city that bears his name; returned to Connecticut.

Linda Eastman: Made the Cleveland Public Library one of the nations best.

George Forbes: One of the most powerful politicians in Cleveland history; as council president, he dominated government under three mayors.

Dorothy Fuldheim: Broadcast pioneer; started with WEWS Channel 5 in 1947 and stayed until 1984, when she was 91.

Rabbi Moses Gries: One of the countrys most influential rabbis, he also started the Citizens League.

Leonard Hanna Jr.: Heir to a shipping fortune and Marcus nephew; put his energy and checkbook behind a long list of civic and cultural activities.

Max Hayes: Union printer; launched the Cleveland Citizen newspaper in 1891; became a national voice of labor and socialist movements.

Liberty Holden: Made The Plain Dealer the citys dominant morning paper. Family wealth later created one of the largest U.S. arboretums.

Richard Jacobs: Under this developers ownership, the Cleveland Indians (now Guardians) made the World Series twice in the 1990s and woke a sleeping fan base.

Martin A. Marks: Businessman; started forerunner of the Jewish Community Federation.

Sam Miller: Confidant of mayors and prime ministers; Forest City co-chairman masterminded the companys explosive growth in suburban home-building.

Jesse Owens: Sprinter from East Tech; dashed Hitlers myth of Aryan supremacy at the 1936 Olympics.

Bishop Louis Amadeus Rappe: Clevelands first Catholic bishop; recruited priests and nuns from Europe and built churches, schools, orphanages and hospitals.

Ratner family: Leonard, Max, Charles, Fannye and Dora arrived from Poland and entered the lumber business. Then came construction, development and philanthropy, a heritage their descendants, notably Albert, Chuck and James, continue.

Jacob Sapirstein: Polish immigrant; started American Greetings with $50 in 1905.

Bishop Joseph Schrembs: Clevelands fifth Catholic bishop; expanded charity work; used radio to evangelize.

Amasa Stone: Rail mogul; gave money to Western Reserve University to start Adelbert College in memory of his late son.

George Szell: In 34 years as musical director, this stern taskmaster from Vienna cemented the Cleveland Orchestras international reputation.

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The Plain Dealers 2007 list of the most influential Clevelanders in history - cleveland.com

WINDSOR At 99, Joyce Benner is the oldest resident of Windsor and has lived in the town her whole life. At almost 1 month old, Charles Haiss is the towns youngest life-long resident.

The pair were given plaques with those recognitions Saturday during the Windsor Bicentennial event. Elwin Hussey, who turns 99 next month, was a close second for being the oldest, so he also was awarded a plaque.

Nancy Seakers, who at 87 said she is the young one of the bunch, asked her friend Hussey if he was born in Windsor. He said he was born at the hospital down the street, but has remained in the town his whole life. His family started Husseys General Store, a staple of the town, the same year Elwin was born.

It just came automatically, I dont have a feeling about it, Hussey said as being nearly the oldest person in town.

The history of the town was celebrated in full at the event, with members of the towns historical society dressed up to celebrate the year Windsor became a town in 1822.

Before it was called Windsor, the town had a number of different names. It was first called Pinhook, because of a hook in the Sheepscot River, located where Cooper Mills is. Then, it was called Malta, for the Malta War, and for a short amount of time, it was even called Gerry. In 1822, it became Windsor.

Lori Spaulding, dressed up in a floor length skirt and bonnet on her head, made chickens noodle soup, cornbread and pie with the stove of the house that was built in 1803 in town. The house was originally built across the street, Spaulding said, but was moved to the current fairgrounds.

Spaulding said with the Windsor Historical Society, she dresses up and reenacts 1800s living every year for the Windsor Fair, held over Labor Day weekend. She sets up in a house on site and nearby is a one-room schoolhouse, another house, a saw mill and a blacksmith shop, all in their original early 1800s conditions.

I love that people come and learn about the house, they come all through it and then the younger kids will ask where the bathroom is, said Spaulding, who explained they use the questions as a learning opportunity to discuss outhouses and what it was like to live back then. The house she sets up in is not insulated and not currently lived in.

Saturdays event also featured games all morning and afternoon, though Haskell said she wanted the games to have an old-time feel to them.

Set up across the fair grounds were three-legged races, the pan toss and an egg walk. Children could also try their luck searching for coins in a sawdust patch and exchange them for prizes. There was a horse-drawn carriage for people to ride, too.

Haskell said the town plans to bury a time capsule on Sept. 3 during this years Windsor Fair. Haskell said different groups representing the Windsor Volunteer Fire Department, Windsor Elementary School, the local church and others can all contribute something to bury.

By noon, Haskell guessed more than 150 people had already come to the event, with more likely to filter in and out throughout the day. Later in the day there would be bingo games using lima beans for counters that Haskell hand sorted for the games.

The event is scheduled to conclude at 9 p.m. with fireworks, but first will offer a movie for children and a dance in the street for the adults.

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Windsor celebrates its bicentennial with games, music, and history - Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel

West Chester University student Adam MacMillan has been studying U.S. military history intensely since eighth grade.

It started when he learned his three great uncles had fought in World War II, and his passion grew as he met more veterans, heard their stories, and happily accepted their military uniforms and items they carried on battlefields. The rising sophomore has amassed a collection with hundreds of pieces in his Cranbury Township, N.J., basement, worthy of a museum.

Then last month that history came to life in a new way as he sat beside 98-year-old D-Day veteran Bob Gibson at a cemetery in Normandy, France, for American soldiers who died during WWII.

The 19-year-old put his hand on Gibsons back and began to cry.

I could just see myself in Bob, MacMillan said, recounting the experience last week.

READ MORE: Why West Chester at 150 years old has emerged as the state system's best

And with good reason. Gibson was about the same age as MacMillan when he mounted the beach in Normandy and took part in the invasion that would lead to Germanys defeat. He was about the same height and weight as MacMillan, too. They even wear the same size shoe. He struggled to imagine himself, being 19 and fighting in WWII.

The two were part of a group that went on an eight-day trip set up by the Best Defense Foundation, a California-based nonprofit founded by former NFL football player Donnie Edwards that takes WWII veterans back to the battlefields where they served. The veterans are accompanied by young volunteers, like MacMillan, who serve as personal caretakers. This years trip, covered by donations, coincided with the 78th anniversary of D-Day on June 6. Gibson, a resident of Hunterdon County, N.J., who was interviewed by NBC Nightly News while there, was among 28 veterans who went, seven of whom had participated in D-Day.

I was just so happy that I was able to be a part of this experience for him, MacMillan said.

Its critical, the teen said, for his generation to take pride in the history, learn from it, and remember sacrifices military members made.

If not, it will all be lost, he said.

Michael Malone, 42, a Wall Township, N.J., police officer and volunteer with the Best Defense Foundation, said such intense interest and appreciation from a person as young as MacMillan is extraordinary.

Adam knows more about WWII than anybody I know, he said. When I have a question, hes the person I call.

MacMillan said his interest began when his class was studying the Holocaust and he asked his father about their relatives war involvement. His father hauled out a bag of German war medals taken from soldiers who died or were captured. They were brought back by one of the teens great uncles, his father told him.

He would learn two great uncles, Raymond and Richard, had served in the Army during WWII, while another, Elmer, was a cook on a landing ship in the Pacific. His grandfather was a private in the Army Air Corps post WWII, and another great uncle, a marine, served in Vietnam. That uncle gave him a collection of 300 photographs he had taken while there.

He began searching for military memorabilia online and attending flea markets, where he discovered a few Purple Hearts that had been given away or lost by family. One belonged to a WWII soldier from Arkansas, another from Pennsylvania.

He met a veteran who served in Iraq and was burned over 70% of his body after his tank ran over an explosive device. That veteran gave him three footlockers of his military items. He also received the uniform of a friends grandfather who was a field surgeon in Vietnam whom he interviewed. And the wife of the former commander of a Purple Heart association chapter in New Jersey, whose meetings MacMillan began attending, gave him her husbands Vietnam service uniform and medals.

His collection also includes a rack of military jackets, spanning WWII to present. He has everything a soldier would have carried on D-Day, including 80 rounds of ammunition, a bayonet, a life preserver, a canteen, wire cutters, a first aid pouch. He has dog tags, WWII ammunition boxes, a rifle cleaner, language guides, helmets, books, and magazine articles dating back more than a half century.

Last year, his father, Doug MacMillan, spotted a man wearing a WWII cap while shopping at a local Target. He called his son, excitedly.

I said, Dad, stick with him. I want to meet him, the younger MacMillan recalled.

His dad complied. Turns out the veteran, a Purple Heart recipient, lives five minutes away. That led to a five hour-meeting.

He told me all these stories and showed me all this memorabilia, MacMillan said.

They have remained good friends. The MacMillans recently had the veteran over to celebrate his 96th birthday. MacMillan and his mom made a cake and frosted it to resemble the unit patch he wore during WWII.

MacMillan, a member of West Chesters golf team, also has struck a friendship with former team coach Edwin Cottrell, a WWII fighter pilot.

He and Adam have had great discussions about WWII and history, said current coach Harry Hammond. Hes just a great kid.

MacMillan has shared his interest with teammates, too. During the NCAA tournament this year, MacMillan gave his golf team captain a military captains bars to wear for good luck.

A marketing major with a minor in history, MacMillan said he hopes to parlay his military interest into a career, possibly working in marketing for a veterans organization or the U.S. Army.

His connection to the Best Defense Foundation began during the pandemic. Then a student at Princeton High School, he started watching the foundations online interviews with WWII veterans. Thats how he got connected to Malone, the police officer who recommended his participation in the Normandy trip.

In preparation, MacMillan researched the names of more than 30 men and women from West Chester who were killed in WWII. He wanted to know if any were buried in Normandy and found one, David J. Gerrits, who also had been a West Chester student.

Gerrits was shot down over the English Channel and his body wasnt recovered, but his name appears on a wall of the missing at Brittany American Cemetery. MacMillan found the wall and took a photo.

Along with Malone and Gibson, MacMillan rode in a WWII jeep to the very beach Gibson landed on in 1944.

The trio also searched out the grave of New Jersey soldier Carl B. Westerberg, who was killed in WWII and received a Purple Heart. That Purple Heart found its way to MacMillan, and he was asked to place it on Westerbergs grave. MacMillan taped it to the top of the headstone, took a photo, and returned it.

Gibson said he was grateful for his young companion. MacMillan pushed him in a wheelchair, laid his clothes out, and helped him with daily tasks.

Theres no better boy than Adam, Gibson said.

MacMillan said hes the one in awe.

Bob deserves the world, MacMillan said. All the guys and women that we took back, ... because of what they did for us. I wouldnt have what I have now if it wasnt for them.

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A West Chester students passion for WWII history led him to accompany a 98-year-old D-Day veteran to Normandy - The Philadelphia Inquirer

In March 2008, I was 13 when my dad and I watched the TV miniseries Roots, which follows the fictional story of a man born in 18th century Gambia who is sold as a slave in America, and the many generations who come after him.

It inspired me to ask questions about my own familys past. Suddenly I startedsearching online, interviewing older relatives, and exploring libraries and archives. Surprisingly,more than halfof Americans cant name all four of their own grandparents, andover 20%of black Americans have never looked into their family tree. But, as a result of my research, not only can I name all of mine, I can trace my family tree straight back to the 1790s.

I also discovered something crucial that contrasts sharply with what many African Americans are taught about our history. As students, black people are repeatedly told that we all descend from slavery, and that we all were (and only were) slaves. Most people assume that every black American who lived in the US before 1870 was a slave.

That is simply not true.

In 1860, three years before the Emancipation Proclamation, The United States Federal Census Schedule reported 488,070 free black Americans. True, many might say quasi-free, since these African Americans could not vote. But free they still were almost half a million of them roughly 12.5% of the entire African-American population at that time.

Huldah Peck, my great-great-great-great-grandmother on my fathers side was born free in Greenwich, Conn., in 1836. Her parents, George Peck, a stonemason and Nancy Felmetta, were also free; as were Nancys parents, York and Tamar, the latter born in 1773, three years before the US Revolution. Its striking to think that my fathers ancestors were free for nearly a century before the Civil War.

While most of my mothers family were enslaved on South Carolina plantations at this time, learning about this other side this free side made me realize that slavery does not fully define my past.

Huldahs children also illustrate the importance of self-reliance and entrepreneurship in my family. Her son Edward B. Merritt, born in 1871, worked in real estate at a time when the majority of blacks in much of the nation labored as farmers or domestics. His son, John Sherman Merritt, was a homeowner in Greenwich, Conn., who worked four jobs to support his young family. Johns daughter, Adele Matilda Merritt, enjoyed a privileged Greenwich childhood complete with charm school, a penchant for photography, and later- international travel. And Adeles daughter my grandmother, Joyce Marie Watkins was a smallbusiness ownerwho settled inYonkers, NY.

Black children grow up believing that their only history is a history of slavery.Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Timess 1619 Project, arguedthat Americas entire history is founded on slavery.The truth is more complicated, interesting, and nuanced than that.

Researching my familys past has given me a sense of belonging to this nation. I am part of the large story of striving and success that has built the American dream. All this has empowered me to walk with my head held high, and I hope it inspires others to look beyond the stock narratives of the present and find their own lessons from the past.

For me, Huldahs 100-year-old headstone in Rye Brook, NY, will forever serve as a reminder of her unique status and history a history I am proud to call my own.

Dennis Richmond Jr. is a journalist and the author ofHe Spoke at My School: An Educational Journey. He is the founder of The New York-New Jersey HBCU Initiative. Follow him on social media@NewYorkStakz.

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My family history shows Ive been lied to about slavery in America - New York Post

The Flavian Amphitheater, better known as the Colosseum, stands as one of the most spectacular architectural monuments of the ancient world. Built in the first century A.D., its largely remembered as the site of blood-sport entertainment involving gladiators, wild animals and more. But as one of ancient Romes best surviving and most iconic structures, it remains an enduring monument to one of the most influential dynasties of the Roman Empireand a marvel of architecture and engineering.

After Vespasian became Roman Emperor in 69 A.D., his Flavian Dynasty which included his sons, Titus and Domitianlaunched a vast building program to restore Rome, which had been ravaged by fire, plague and civil war. During the Flavian Dynastys 27-year reign, it renovated buildings, statues and monuments throughout the city. In 70 A.D., Vespasian ordered the construction of the new amphitheater in the city center, funded with the spoils from the Roman siege of Jerusalem during the First Jewish-Roman War. The Colosseum, dedicated 10 years later, served as a dramatic political symbol of the citys resurgence.

It was also an innovative architectural and engineering wonder, the largest and most complex permanent amphitheater of the ancient world. Made primarily of concrete, 3.5 million cubic feet of travertine, and similar amounts of marble, stone and timber, the Colosseum rose to 157 feet (roughly the height of a 15-story building), with capacity for an estimated 50,000 to 80,000 people.

The Colosseumwas part of an entire complex of buildings that Vespasian and his sons were building throughout Rome as part of a bigger program to erase [their predecessor] Neros mark on the cityand to champion their own achievements, says Nathan Elkins, deputy director of the American Numismatic Society and author of Monument to Dynasty and Death: The Story of Romes Colosseum and the Emperors Who Built It.At its dedication, Titus presided over 100 days of games, which included gladiatorial combat and animal entertainments.

WATCH: The HISTORY Channel series Colosseum premieres Sunday, July 17 at 9/8c. Watch a preview now.

Builders situated the Colosseum on the site of Neros estate, Domus Aurea, which featured an artificial lake and a 98-foot bronze statue of himself, the Colossus of Nero. They filled in the lake to build the Colosseum, which took its name from its proximity to the statue. When Nero committed suicide in 68 A.D., Vespasian, one of his generals, rose to power after a civil war.

Building the Colosseum offered a clever way for the Flavian Dynasty to satisfy the dictates of Roman societys rigid social hierarchy, says Elkins. Nero had made his estate accessible to all, but the senators didnt like the access he was allowing for common people in the center of the city. But by building this massive amphitheater, [Vespasian and his sons] keep this area a place for public enjoyment with games and also use it to reinforce Roman social order with hierarchical seating, Elkins says.

In the Colosseum, social status, wealth and gender determined where people sat. The best seats, closest to the arena, were reserved for the Emperor and senatorial nobility. Above them sat the Equestrian order, former cavalry members who had become established merchants, artisans and bureaucrats. Above them, in the nosebleed seats, sat the other 95 percent of Romes population: women, foreigners, and poor and enslaved Romans.

To facilitate the orderly flow of people throughout the structure, builders gave the Colosseum four entrances for the political and religious leaders and 76 for the ordinary citizens. Corridors separated social groups from one another, barring spectators from moving freely within the structure. But while seating wasnt equal for all Roman citizens, the Colosseums elliptical architecture gave everyone visibility to the action on the arena floor.

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Gladiators, animals and soldiers, who engaged in all types of combat within the Colosseum, were transported from the understructure of the arena via a complex system of lifts, trap doors and pulleys. The amphitheater could even be flooded to allow naval reenactments to take place.

Douglas Pearson/Corbis

Throughout ancient Rome, most amphitheaters were built as temporary structures made of wood for gladiatorial games and other amusements. The earliest known permanent amphitheatera stone structure built for some 20,000 spectatorsdates to 80 B.C.E. in Pompeii.

The architect of the Colosseum remains unknown. The Colosseums form is deeply connected with earlier structures used to entertain crowds, such as Greek theaters, wrote art historian Peter Louis Bonfitto in his book World Architecture and Society: From Stonehenge to One World Trade Center. Its grand design employs an impressive series of columns, arches and barrel vaults.

The Colosseums greatest innovation, says Elkins, was its use of concrete. The concrete construction is really what allows the Colosseum to be built, he said. It was probably the most widespread use of engineering and construction with concrete in that period of time.

According to contemporary engineers, the Colosseum remains standing after 2,000 years because of its solid concrete foundation. Building in a wetland area near the Tiber River, with poor soil conditions, forced builders to dig a deep and strong foundation to stabilize the structure, according to Engineering Rome, a University of Washington program that explores Roman and Italian engineering.

It featured other innovations as well, including a sophisticated drainage system used to siphon off water used to stage mock sea battles in the arena. Sailors were employed to operate an overhead retractable awning, which could be rolled out to protect spectators from rain or Romes blistering heat. The complex network of chambers and tunnels beneath the arena floor, called the hypogeum, housed props, scenery and participants when not in action. And the amphitheaters ingenious system of trap doors, pulleys and lifts facilitated dramatic entrances for scenery and combatants alike, allowing even elephants to appear as if from nowhere.

WATCH: Gladiators: Blood Sport on HISTORY Vault.

While its unknown what it cost to build the Colosseum in antiquity, many scholars believe the Colosseum was partly financed with the booty taken by Roman soldiers during the empires raid of the Jerusalem Temple during the First Roman-Jewish War that ended in 70 A.D. An inscription at the Colosseum reads: The Emperor Titus Caesar Vespasian Augustus ordered the new amphitheater to be made from the (proceeds from the sale of the) booty.

For generations, the conventional wisdom has been that the labor to build the Colosseum was carried out by 100,000 Jewish slaves captured during the Siege of Jerusalem, but Elkins isnt entirely convinced. Its the kind of thing Romans might do to add insult to injury, Elkins said. You not only sell them into slavery, but then you make them build something that is financed by the destruction of their temple.

But the assertion, he says, is unsupported by an ancient source. It came from a 20th-century archaeologist, and it has been repeated over and over again. A significant amount of slaves would have been used, but we dont know 100 percent where those slaves came from.

READ MORE about Ancient Rome

Beyond functioning as a window into ancient Rome and its social structure, the Colosseum is also the father of all modern outdoor sports stadiums. The Colosseums use of arches to support the structure, the elliptical shape and the organizational system used to control the entry and exit of fans based on the location of their seats are staples of most modern stadiums.

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How the Colosseum Was Builtand Why It Was an Architectural Marvel - History

When Baltimore took Ben McDonald with the top choice in the 1989 draft, it was just one small part of a thrilling season for the Orioles.

They had the No. 1 pick because the previous year had been terrible, but by the time they actually made the selection, the Orioles were in first place in the AL East, on their way to becoming one of baseball's classic underdog stories. In fact, McDonald was drafted on June 5, 1989 -- the same day Baltimore won a season-high eighth game in a row.

Sound familiar?

This year's Orioles are suddenly drawing comparisons to that '89 team. After entering the season in the midst of a difficult rebuild -- Baltimore will pick first in the draft Sunday for the second time in four years -- the Orioles have become one of the game's biggest surprises over the past few weeks. A 10-game winning streak put Baltimore briefly above .500. As the All-Star break approaches, the Orioles have almost as many victories (46) as they did all of last year (52).

2 Related

A playoff spot still seems unlikely, but at this point, Baltimore is only 2 games behind the final wild card in the American League.

"It's been fun to watch this team, man," said McDonald, a right-hander who pitched nine seasons in the majors and is now part of Orioles TV broadcasts. "It reminds me a lot of that '89 team in some ways, where they got some confidence and then took off."

The 1989 team occupies a special place in the hearts of Baltimore fans. The 1988 Orioles lost 107 games, and that didn't do justice to what a laughingstock they were after an 0-21 start. There wasn't much reason to expect a quick turnaround in '89, but shockingly, Baltimore led the AL East by 7 games in the middle of July.

The division ultimately came down to the final series of the season in Toronto. The Orioles lost the first two games, allowing the Blue Jays to clinch the title. Baltimore did win the finale, with McDonald -- who was already in the majors the same year he was drafted -- earning his first career victory.

The current Orioles rose from similar depths as that '89 team. Baltimore dropped 110 games last year, including a 19-game skid that nearly tied the 1988 team's mark for the longest losing streak in American League history. Even before this July surge, the Orioles looked more competitive, thanks in part to an improved-but-still-fairly-anonymous bullpen.

Then Baltimore began its winning streak with a victory at Minnesota before sweeping series against the Rangers, Angels and Cubs. It's been a pleasant surprise for Orioles fans, who figured to spend much of the season monitoring the progress of minor league prospects and looking to the draft and trade deadline as opportunities to add more of them.

"I think that we're in store for a lot of good stuff here for the next few years," general manager Mike Elias said. "I'm very happy that it's kind of reflected right now during this stretch of play so plainly for our fans."

This run by the Orioles might actually complicate the rest of the month for Elias. Baltimore figured to be a seller at the deadline -- 30-year-old Trey Mancini could have some value, and Rougned Odor and Jordan Lyles are on one-year contracts -- but in the midst of the team's first really successful stretch in a while, there could obviously be a temptation to ride it out and chase the postseason.

With the expanded playoffs, it's not unheard of for a team to pick No. 1 in the draft and then make the postseason in the same year. Minnesota did it in 2017.

"Everything that I do, or that we do, has tradeoffs," Elias said. "All I can say is, we do everything from a very global, very thoughtful perspective, about what is the right thing to do for the health of the Orioles franchise. And all that's being taken into consideration for the draft, but also for the trade deadline."

For all the excitement of 1989, it was basically an outlier. The Orioles sank back under .500 the next year and lost 95 games in 1991. Baltimore traded Pete Harnisch, Steve Finley and Curt Schilling -- all of whom were part of the '89 team -- for slugger Glenn Davis in a move that backfired badly.

The lesson is that, while Baltimore's long winning streak was a fun story for fans to rally around, the Orioles still need to make smart roster moves if they're going to build on it.

Elias hasn't said too much to tip Baltimore's hand heading into the draft, but he did say there's a general feeling in the industry that the first player taken will be a position player, not a pitcher.

Whatever happens over these next few weeks, the good news for Baltimore is that there seems to be more help on the way. In right-hander Grayson Rodriguez and infielder Gunnar Henderson, the Orioles have two of the game's top five prospects, according to MLB Pipeline. Rodriguez has been sidelined with a lat injury, but Henderson has hit well at Triple-A.

Catcher Adley Rutschman, the top pick in the 2019 draft, made his big league debut with Baltimore earlier this year.

"I think this organization is in a very healthy spot, and a lot of that is the players, and the way that they're playing up here at the major league level right now," Elias said. "Then obviously having an excellent group of minor league prospects behind them."

Continued here:

Baltimore Orioles reliving history with season surge and top pick in draft - ESPN

The invasion of Ukraine caught many analysts of Russia off guard. Russian President Vladimir Putin had long been thought of as rough, tough, and brutalbut also calculating and cautious. The wild and reckless Ukrainian adventure seemed out of character.

Some observers believe Putin has changed as a result of his deep isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic or that he has some secret illness that renders him irrational. Both U.S. President Joe Bidens former press secretary, Jen Psaki, and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio have observed that Putin seems different since the pandemic, and rumors about a hidden illness are circulating in Russia and among Russian migrs. But Putins personal history reveals that his decision to go to war is entirely in characterand that he is very likely to continue it indefinitely.

Putin has justified his invasion by citing a long list of grievances against the West, especially NATOs expansion into the former Soviet sphere of influence in Eastern Europe, and against Ukraine itself. Pandemic isolation may have warped his thinking. But the roots of Putins recklessness go back to a tendency he has shown since childhood to lash out when he has felt wronged or betrayed. Later passages of his life are more than stages he has lived through; they are layers that have built on one another, turning a boy who brawled his way through adolescence into a man who has directed his wrath against a U.S.-led West that he once tried and failed to get along with and that he now blames for betraying him.

LAYER ONE

Putins family barely survived the siege of Leningrad during World War II, and although his father was a factory worker and Communist Party member, they were stuck after the war in a large, run-down apartment complex framing a central courtyard frequented by neighborhood toughs. Little Volodyaa diminutive of Vladimir used by friends and familyfound a way to defend himself. If anyone ever insulted him in any way, a friend of his recalled, Volodya would immediately jump on the guy, scratch him, bite him, rip his hair out by the clumpdo anything at all never to allow anyone to humiliate him in any way. Putins wrath became even more dangerous when, at age 11 or 12, he discovered judo and the Soviet-developed martial art of sambo. He was standing at a tram stop in the eighth grade, another friend remembered, when two huge drunken men got off and started trying to pick a fight with somebody. They were cursing and pushing people around. Vovka calmly handed his bag over to me and sent one of the men flying into a snowbank, face-first. The second man started screaming, What was that? A few seconds later, he was lying there next to his buddy. If there is anything I can say about Vovka, his friend continued, its that he never let bastards and rascals who insult people and bug them get away with it.

Putins grade-school teacher, Vera Gurevich, noticed a similar pattern: Volodya never forgives people who betray him or are mean to him.

LAYER TWO

The KGB, which Putin joined in 1975, codified the pattern that Gurevich described. The KGB and its predecessors (the Cheka, the NKVD, and others) had defended the infant Soviet republic in a bloody civil war, carried out massive purges that killed millions of people under Joseph Stalin, and persecuted post-Stalinist dissidents. Externally, they targeted foreign intelligence services in a bitter, decades-long struggle. But internally, the secret police was plagued by intense competition for advancement and other bitter internecine squabbles.

The result was a pervasive cynicism. The only former KGB chief who rose to become supreme Soviet leader, Yuri Andropov, was theoretically open to the liberalization of the regime he headed. In 15 to 20 years well be able to allow ourselves what the West allows itself now, Andropov once told a Soviet diplomat, freedom of opinion and information, diversity in society and in art. But only in 15 to 20 years, after were able to raise the populations living standards. But Andropov, a veteran party apparatchik who took over the KGB in 1967, wasnt a KGB-lifer. Much more representative was Stalins longtime secret police chief Lavrenty Beria, who was so entirely cynical that the hyper-suspicious Stalin was quite right to fear that Beria was plotting against him. Berias predecessors Genrikh Yagoda and Nikolai Yezhov were executed under Stalins orders: Beria would meet the same fate in the power struggle after Stalins death.

By the time Putin joined, the KGB was less murderous, but its office politics were both brutal and cynical. The KGB expanded Putins childhood instincts into the world of adulthood: Politics, whether international or domestic, is a dog-eat-dog struggle. Everybody lies, cheats, and steals. Everyone is suspect. One must always be on guard, ready to fight fire with fire. That is the way of the world. When U.S. leaders portray themselves as holier than thou, they are hypocrites.

Putin didnt distinguish himself in the KGB. Beginning as a lowly spy-chaser in Leningrad, he was then assigned to Germanynot to West Germany, a prime target of Soviet espionage, but East Germany, where he ran agents operating in the West and kept his eye on the Stasi, the dreaded East German intelligence service, which KGB agents didnt trust any more than they trusted each other. But he worked hard, played by the rules, and found a way to please his bosses rather than trying to outshine them. Ironically, these habits and skills equipped him to adapt to post-communism when what was left of the Soviet Union collapsed at the end of the 1991.

LAYER THREE

As East Germany collapsed and moved toward reunification with West Germany, Putin returned from Dresden to Leningrad. He rose rapidly to become deputy mayor of post-Soviet St. Petersburg and then, astoundingly, to become post-Soviet Russias second president. The skills he had cultivated in the KGB turned out to be needed in the turbulent decade that followed the Soviet collapse. St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak needed hard-working, efficient, disciplined aides, and he chose Putin, who was not only competent, resourceful, and loyal but admirably unprepossessing. He struck Sobchak as someone who does not like to stand out, as a person devoid of vanity, of any external ambition, but inside he is a leader.

Putin dealt with politicians and foreigners of all sorts in St. Petersburg. But he trusted most his old Leningrad friends, many of them from the KGB, such as Nikolai Patrushev and Aleksandr Bortnikov, who are still his closest associates today. He distrusted almost everyone else, his biographer Steven Lee Myers concluded. He always remembered acts of loyalty just as he never forgave betrayals.

These same qualities impressed President Boris Yeltsin in Moscow. Yeltsin was charismatic, bombastic, and anti-communist but an erratic administrator who needed competent aides, especially those inconspicuous enough not to pose any threat to his own power, image, and authority. He also needed a successor who would protect him after he retired from charges of corruption while in office. So he continued to promote Putin, who became head of the KGBs successor, the Federal Security Service; then prime minister; and, finally, acting president of Russia, when Yeltsin himself, ailing and depressed, stepped down.

In 2005, Putin famously labeled the Soviet collapse a major geopolitical disaster of the 20th century. He didnt miss communism itself, but his preference for a strong Russian state was already obvious. Russia needs strong state power and must have it, he wrote in December 1999 in a 5,000-word manifesto published just days before he became acting president. But Putin also sounded open in the long run to democracy: I am not calling for totalitarianism, he wrote. History proves all dictatorships, all authoritarian forms of government, are transient. Only democratic systems are lasting.

Putin also seemed to welcome a kind of alliance with the West. He was the first foreign leader to phone U.S. President George W. Bush after the 9/11 attacks. He helped Washington get men and supplies to Afghanistan. Russia knows firsthand what terrorism is, he declared on Russian TV. I would like to say that we are with you. We entirely and fully share and experience your pain. He even suggested that one day Russia might join NATO. That helps to explain, if not excuse, Bushs infamous appraisal: I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy. We had a very good dialogue. I was able to get sense of his soul.

LAYER FOUR

Its tempting, in retrospect, to see Putins openness to democracy and to the West as pure dissimulation at a period of relative Russian weakness. But if they were real, although partial, attempts to adapt to post-communism, they eventually brought a bitter disillusionment between 2002 and 2007and with it a deep sense that he had been betrayed by the West.

At the core of this was the steady expansion of NATO. Putin has contended that Western leaders had promised Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990 that NATO would not expand one inch to the east. This isnt true. U.S. Secretary of State James Baker did orally promise not one inch but never in writing, and he later claimed he was referring to East Germany, not barring a more general eastward expansion; West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher declared more broadly that NATO would not expand to the east. But U.S. President George H.W. Bush shut down such talk, telling Kohl, To hell with that. We prevailed, and they didnt. We cant let the Soviets clutch victory from the jaws of defeat.

So NATO incorporated Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic in 1999 and added Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, plus three former Soviet republics, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, in 2004. Worse still would be George W. Bushs insistence in 2008 that NATO remain open to Ukraine and Georgia, too.

But Putins list of grievances went much further: the NATO bombing of Belgrade; the U.S.-led war in Iraq; and two critical color revolutions in other post-Soviet statesthe Rose Revolution in Georgia, leading to the 2004 election of pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili, followed by the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, which prompted an election redo and brought to power pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko over his pro-Russian opponent Viktor Yanukovych. Putin saw these upheavals as having been created and manipulated by Washington, with the Georgians and Ukrainians playing an essentially passive rolepart of his pattern of detecting the U.S. hand behind everything, a view that gives the CIA too much credit but is a natural product of his KGB background.

By 2007, Putin had had enough. At the annual Munich Conference on Security Policy that February, he issued a blazing indictment of the United States, citing unilateral and frequently illegitimate actions, almost uncontained hyper use of force, overstepping its national borders in every way, military operations that are killing peoplehundreds and thousands of civilians, and substituting NATO or the EU for the U.N., which is the only mechanism that can make decisions about using military force as a last resort.

LAYER FIVE

Putin could have followed these bitter complaints with a burst of actions against the United States. But 2008-2012 marked a lull in the growing tension, resulting from changes in both Russian and U.S. leadership.

The Russian Constitution barred Putin from serving a third consecutive term as president. He wasnt prepared to ignore that restriction (although he later arranged to eliminate it and thus clear the way for him to serve as president until 2036), so he chose his prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, to replace him for the next four years. Although Medvedev was effectively his puppet, Putin allowed him to set a more liberal tone and gave him one more chance to improve U.S.-Russian relations. The new U.S. president, Barack Obama, set out to do likewise.

In response to Obamas attempt to reset relations, Medvedev agreed on a new nuclear arms control treaty, New START, that extended limitations on intercontinental missiles for another 10 years. He refrained from vetoing a U.N. resolution authorizing the use of force to prevent Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi from obliterating opponents in the city of Benghazi.

Obama spokesperson Robert Gibbs summarized the presidents view of Medvedev this way: He genuinely feels like they can sit down or call each other and work through a series of issues in a very frank and honest way, that each side is always negotiating in good faith, and that theres a level of confidence and trust also thats built up in the two sides working together. In contrast, Obama regarded Putin, whom he saw slouching behind Medvedev in Moscow, as looking like the bored kid in the back of the classroom, a taunt that apparently infuriated Putin. Perhaps it reminded him of his childhood struggles.

Putin remarked later that he found the U.N. resolution on Libya, which Medvedev failed to veto, flawed and inadequate, allowing the United States and its allies not just to protect Benghazi but to pursue and destroy Qaddafi. As for Saakashvili, Putin told French President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008, Im going to hang him by the balls. Why not? The Americans hanged Saddam Hussein.

LAYER SIX

In 2011, Medvedev and Putin announced that Putin would stand for the presidency in the 2012 election. The fact that the two men alone dared to decide such an important matter (although voters later reelected Putin), along with grievances over 2011 Russian legislative election results, sparked mammoth protests in Moscow. Putin blamed U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She set the tone for some of the actors in our country and gave them a signal, he said three days after the 2012 vote. They heard the signal and with the support of the State Department began active work.

The term active work, used by the KGB to describe ongoing intelligence operations, underlined Putins charge that the protests were the result of CIA meddling. In response, he cracked down on dissent at home and stepped up military assistance to Bashar al-Assad as the Syrian dictator attempted to crush his own opposition. Obama warned that any use of chemical weapons by Assad would cross a red line and trigger strong U.S. counteraction. But when Assad did just that, Obama retreated. Putin apparently took that as a sign that he could increase pressure on Ukraine, where Yanukovych, who was elected president in 2010, had been ousted by massive protests in 2014 and replaced by a pro-Western government.

In an echo of Cold War thinking, Putin saw the world as a chess game in which Washington and Moscow were the real players. He regarded the Ukrainian upheaval in 2014, too, as inspired and directed by Washington. His response thenseizing Crimea and grabbing more territory for Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukrainewas harsher and more daring, as if his growing thirst for vengeance had prompted him to take greater risks. The fact that he got away with it makes his moves seem less risky in retrospect than they were. The West did respond with sanctions against close Putin associates. But oligarch Vladimir Yakunin explained at the time that Putin would reject any effort by them to resist him as yet another betrayal: He will not forget thator forgive that.

Putin lashed out more angrily than ever against the United States in 2014. The U.S. policy of containment had supposedly been devised after World War II to restrain the Soviet Union, but in fact, he charged in a presidential address that December, for many years, always, for decades, if not centuries, its real target was Russia itself. Putins recollection of how he had tried to befriend the United States in the 1990s, only to be betrayed, blended self-pity and rage. He continued: Despite our unprecedented openness back then and our willingness to cooperate in all, even the most sensitive issues, despite the fact that we considered our former adversaries as close friends and even allies, the support for separatism in Russia from across the pond was absolutely obvious and left no doubt that they would gladly let Russia follow the Yugoslav scenario of disintegration and dismemberment. With all the tragic fallout for the people of Russia. It didnt work. We didnt allow that to happen. Just as it did not work for [Adolf] Hitler.

LAYER SEVEN

Yet shortly after he lashed out so strongly, Putin found himself facing a new U.S. president who seemed so well disposed to Russia as to spark suspicions that Donald Trump was actually in Putins employ.

According to Fiona Hill, the Putin biographer who became a Trump expert while working as his lead Russia specialist on the National Security Council staff, Trump was not intentionally doing something for Putin or for anyone else. Trump was only ever concerned with himself. But Trump helped Putin by fomenting poisonous divisions in the United States that Putin himself had been seeking to widen with Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

In March 2017, Putin broached a broad normalization of U.S.-Russian relations, beginning with the restoration of diplomatic, military, and intelligence channels that had been cut off after Russian incursions in Ukraine and Syria; continuing with talks on information security and on Ukraine, Iran, Afghanistan, and the Korean Peninsula; and then, after meetings between the CIA, FBI, National Security Council, and the Defense Department with their Russian counterparts, a Trump-Putin summit. But the main thing that came out of this initiative was the infamous Helsinki summit, during which Trump declared that he trusted Putins word (that he had not interfered in the 2016 election) more than the conclusions of the United States own intelligence agencies.

Whether because Trump didnt follow through or because harder-line U.S. officials resisted his efforts to appease Putin or because Putin himself soured on Trump, this latest attempt to reset relations with Washington, or at least to pretend to do so, led nowhere. Putin held his fire as long as Trump was in office, but he had had enough and was about to boil over.

LAYER EIGHT

Ukraine, as we now know, was the target. In Putins mind, it had no independent history of its own. It had long been part of the Russian Empire, Putin declared in a speech three days before the invasion began, and it must become that again. It had never been a real nation or state, and now the allegedly sovereign Ukraine had allowed neo-Nazis to gain power and commit genocide. Moreover, he charged, Ukraine had been placed under external control of the West, was being pumped with arms, was determined to join NATO, and intends to create its own nuclear weaponsafter which it would serve as an advanced bridgehead for a strike against the missile systems of its main adversary, Russia. Americans just do not need a big and independent country like Russia around, Putin continued, and NATOs one and only goal is to hold back the development of Russia.

And if Ukraine wasnt truly a country, it also couldnt be in control of its own actions. Once again, Putin compared the United States to Hitler: The Soviet Union had tried to appease Hitler ahead of World War II, he said in a speech on Feb. 24 just before Russian troops moved into Ukraine, but we will not make this mistake the second time. For our country, it is a matter of life and death, a matter of our historical future as a nation.

So it is for Putin himself. He sees his own standing, his own reputation, his own future on the line. He had been patient too long. The bastards who insulted him and humiliated him and betrayed him again and again would now get what they deserved. Whoever tries to stand in our way, he warned in his Feb. 24 speech, must know that Russia will respond immediately, and the consequences will be such as you have never seen in your entire history.

Putins many grievances against the West, his revivified nationalist ideology and dream of resurrecting the Russian Empire, his recent isolation during the pandemic, and perhaps a hidden illness, too, if he really has one, all help explain his bloody war against Ukraine. But all are baked into the layers of a man whose main theme of life is a fierce determination to avoid defeat by lashing out against those who humiliate and betray him.

LAYER NINE

How will the Russia-Ukraine war endif it ever does? One scenario assumes continuing Russian setbacks so severe as to lead Putin to be overthrown or to concede defeat before he can be ousted. But as a biographer of Nikita Khrushchev and Gorbachev, I can testify that Putins power exceeds even that of those Communist leaders. The Communist Politburo dethroned Khrushchev not once but twice. The first time, in 1957, he managed to turn the tables on his opponents; the second time, in 1964, they ousted him.

In August 1991, top party, government, military and secret police officials mounted the abortive coup that paved the way to Gorbachevs eventual ouster in December. So far there has been no such constraint on Putin, nor does one appear likely. There exists no body like the Communist Politburo or Central Committee with at least the theoretical authority to depose him, and there is no enduring precedent in Russian or Soviet tradition of military coups against supreme leaders, let alone free and fair elections.

As for Putin himself conceding defeat, his whole life testifies to his determination not to do so.

A second scenario imagines Russia defeating Ukraine. This, obviously, is what Putin expected. But it hasnt happened so far, and if massive Western support continues to flow to Kyiv, this scenario, too, seems highly unlikely.

A third scenario is the kind of compromise that former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has suggested and that Western European leaders such as French President Emmanuel Macron seem to favorthat is, a settlement based on the status quo ante with a return to front lines existing on Feb. 23. Would this be acceptable to Putin? Probably not, unless, using his huge propaganda apparatus, he can portray it as a victory. But even if he could, would Ukraine, having been brutalized so savagely, be willing or able to agree?

A fourth scenario is that the war continues indefinitely. This is, alas, the most likely scenario because it fits Putins personality. It also appears to be what most Russians expect. Whether it continues at the present level or becomes a frozen conflict, as has happened in Georgia and between Armenia and Azerbaijan, isnt clear. But after all the savage bloodletting in Ukraine, and the bitter enmity it has created there and in Russia, its hard to see the fighting fading away entirely.

Unless, in a fifth scenario, Putin opts to break a stalemate, or ward off a seeming defeat, by going nuclear. In the past, few observers would have expected him to do so. But then again few (including this writer) expected him to invade Ukraine, even after he massed nearly 200,000 troops on its border. The reason is that his decision to launch such a war seemed so out of character. But if, as I have argued, it was in fact so squarely in character, then who is to say that going nuclear would not be? Whether Putin does so depends on many factors. Will he actually apply the much-disputed idea in Russian military doctrine of escalating to de-escalate? Will he be sufficiently certain that exploding a small tactical weapon wont trigger an all-out nuclear exchange? Will he break the taboo that has prevented any use of nuclear weapons since 1945? Let us hope not. But if he decides that such a move is the only way to avoid a humiliating defeat, then the once unimaginable will be all too likely.

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Vladimir's Putin's History of Vengeance Against The West - Foreign Policy

At the entrance to Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv, a bronze relief of the face of Mykhailo Hrushevsky stares out towards the red-painted portico. A historian by training, and a key figure in Ukraines national revival in the early 20th century, Hrushevsky served briefly as the head of Ukraines revolutionary rada or parliament in 1918.

Taras Pshenychnyi, deputy dean of the history department, pauses to examine the image of his distinguished forebear, and to reflect on the extraordinary times the university is seeing since the Russian invasion.

The dean of history and five other professors from his department are serving in the military, he says, along with 15 students, one of whom has been killed in the fighting.

But for people like Pshenychnyi, another, subtler, battle is being fought away from the artillery exchanges on the frontlines. It is a bitter war of memory between two versions of Ukraines past and its relationship to Russia, of which Ukraine was a part for centuries until it gained independence in 1991 as the Soviet Union collapsed.

On one side, as Mark Galeotti writes in his recent book A Short History of Russia, is a crude cut-and-stitched version of history promoted by Vladimir Putin. Galeotti describes the Russian president as unwisely considering himself an amateur historian of note who has used history both to justify his war against Ukraine and to make his own battle plans on the basis of his misunderstanding of it.

Putin has argued that Ukraine has no experience of genuine statehood outside the USSR and that, by seeking to abandon its Soviet legacy, it has delegitimised itself.

You wanted to decommunise, Putin threatened Ukraine before the war. Well show you what decommunisation really means.

Echoing and amplifying a view of history held by Russian elites going back to the Bolsheviks and before, the Putin version views Ukraine as not a proper country and Ukrainian as not a real language; rather, it is a place to be fought over, dominated and periodically plundered.

All of this has required Ukrainians to follow Hrushevsky and promote their own history. Russia uses history as a weapon, says Pshenychnyi, who wrote his doctoral thesis on the devastating famine the Holodomor that Stalin created in Ukraine in the early 1930s, which claimed the lives of more than 3 million people and was itself suppressed from Soviet history.

It has done it before. This is why the conflict is happening now: because Russia has stolen and misinterpreted the history of Ukraine.

And it is a history that, in the last century at least, is full of grim echoes. Pshenychnyi points to the Russian grain thefts of today as repeats of the Bolshevik and then Stalinist monopolisation of Ukraines grain that twice led to famine. He points to the suppression of Ukrainian culture. And to deadly persecutions for using the Ukrainian language and symbols.

[Putins] manipulation of history has created a fake space in Russia to allow the perception of Ukraine as something like a Nazi state, he says. He is referring to one of the Kremlins main talking points: that its special military operation is required to denazify Ukraine.

And in the midst of a brutal conflict and oppressive occupation, Ukraines war of memory is not just academic. Several museums, including one in Kharkiv that celebrated 18th-century philosopher Hryhorii Skovoroda, have been destroyed, and Russian history books are being imposed in occupied regions.

Our main task is the fight against Russian pseudo-historic narrative, says Pshenychnyi. But a second task is to create a new historical space cleared from Russian narratives, because since 24 February [when Russia launched its invasion], there has been a wholesale change of national perception.

Now my students want to know about the Soviet Unions history, about totalitarianism. One of the courses I teach is about protecting Ukraines cultural heritage.

For some, however, the desire to recast history is more populist and trenchant: in a trend that has been apparent since independence in 1991, they see reclaiming Ukrainian history in more explicitly nationalist terms.

In his Cossack-themed restaurant, Valery Galan, founder of the Museum of the Establishment of Ukrainian State, has signs insisting to customers and staff: We speak Ukrainian. Language matters.

An amateur historian who admits to admiring Stepan Bandera head of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists, which collaborated with the Nazis during the second world war, who was assassinated by KGB agents in Germany in 1959 he sees the instrumentalisation of history in more brutal terms.

My hope is that after this horrifying aggression, people will open their eyes. Museums are weapons against fake history. History is not like a rifle that you fire only once. It is a weapon that lasts for decades.

Theres still a certain part of our society ethnic Russians or those who supported Russia who should have been educated sooner.

Galan, who served as an officer in the Soviet Armed Forces, has a new project: a series of museums and exhibitions commemorating the current war. He takes me to a back room where he is collecting artefacts for this new venture, including a spent Javelin anti-tank missile.

Our language was forbidden. Our Cossacks were sent to Siberia. We need to show people our achievements. How, since the Golden Horde [the period of Mongol rule until 1502], we have stood as a buffer for Europe.

For Yaroslav Hrytsak, a historian at the Catholic University in Lviv, the practice of history during a war of national survival is less demagogic: I would say that the main function of the historian now is to provide stability, and assurance that Ukraine has legitimate claims and is bound to win.

History serves a therapeutic function. The main aim of Putin is to create chaos and confusion. He uses history. To counterattack is to restore real history. The thing is, Putin knows he is lying. But he thinks that everyone is lying, and there is no truth. But there is such a thing as historical truth. I spent half of my life under the Soviet Union. What is important to remember is the extent of historical amnesia imposed on Ukraine.

I had no idea about the Holodomor because it was erased. The Holocaust was played down to suggest that Soviet Jews were killed not because they were Jews, but because they were Soviet citizens. And while history was treated differently in different Soviet republics, the suppression of history was extreme in Ukraine.

Ukraine and Russia have two entirely different strategies to the past. For Russia, its about making Russia big again, and its doing that by turning to history. I have a friend who is a Russian liberal intellectual. He says Russia is like an SUV driving on dirt roads. The windscreen is covered in mud, so all it can see is whats in the rear view.

Ukraines view of history is different. It wants to leave the past where theres nothing but great suffering and war and revolution behind. For Ukraine, history is about never needing to go back again.

Excerpt from:

Russia stole our history: Ukraines bitter struggle to keep the truth alive - The Guardian

Bruce Two Dogs Bozsum, left, sings a traditional Mohegan song while he and Phil Yellow Hawk Russell lead a boat tour Saturday, July 16, 2022, about the history of the Mohegan Tribe along the Thames River. The event was hosted by the Thames River Heritage Park. (Dana Jensen/The Day)

Al Grant of Uncasville, daughter Kady of Queens, N.Y., and his wife, Judi, blocked from view, and others listen to Bruce Two Dogs Bozsum on Saturday, July 16, 2022, during a boat tour about the history of the Mohegan Tribe along the Thames River. The event was hosted by the Thames River Heritage Park. (Dana Jensen/The Day)

Bruce Two Dogs Bozsum, left, speaks while he and Phil Yellow Hawk Russell, second from right, lead a boat tour Saturday, July 16, 2022, about the history of the Mohegan Tribe along the Thames River. The event was hosted by the Thames River Heritage Park. (Dana Jensen/The Day)

Vinnie Cusano, right, runs the water taxi along the Thames River Saturday, July 16, 2022, during a boat tour led by Bruce Two Dogs Bozsum and Phil Yellow Hawk Russell about the history of the Mohegan Tribe. The event was hosted by the Thames River Heritage Park. (Dana Jensen/The Day)

New London Bruce Two Dogs Bozsum, former chairman of the Mohegan Tribal Council and Mohegan Sun casino, opened the Saturday afternoon boat tour on the Thames River by piping the Gilligans Island theme song into the sound system hed carried with him onto the water taxi.

But this was not a three-hour tour like the one in the famous 1960s sitcom, nor did it end in a shipwreck. Instead, the excursion on the Thames River Heritage Park boat took just over an hour from New Londons City Pier toward the casino and back again on a mild summer day. And while Bozsum did his best to keep things light, there was seriousness that could not be avoided as he told roughly a dozen passengers about the Mohegan Tribes centurieslong fight for its life along the Thames.

Bozsum and fellow Mohegan Tribal Council of Elders member Phil Yellow Hawk Russell introduced themselves as cousins, both descendants of Uncas a revered chief, statesman and warrior who led the tribe at the time of its inception more than 400 years ago.

Were 13 generations of that man, Bozsum said.

Uncas tribe became the Mohegans, or Wolf People, after a split from the Pequot Tribe due to what the Mohegans describe as different ideas about how to deal with European conflicts. Ultimately, the Mohegans helped the British defeat the Pequots.

The Pequots went to the east side of the river and the Mohegans went to the west. Thats how their respective casinos Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun are situated now.

Thats where our family split, Bozsum said. And we remain that way forever.

The boat turned around in the vicinity of the Yale boathouse and Horton Point, where Uncas used to sit on rocks now known as Uncas Chair. The spot, overlooking the rivers narrow turn toward the present-day Mohegan Sun casino, was where the chief is said to have watched closely for enemies attempting to broach the Mohegans side of the river.

In describing Uncas as the tribes first sachem, or chief for life, Bozsum also invoked the name of its newest sachem: Many Hearts Marilynn "Lynn" Malerba in June was named the 45th treasurer of the United States, the first Native American to hold the position. She also heads the Treasury Departments newly established Office of Tribal and Native Affairs.

Bozsum marveled that a Mohegan signature is going to be on all the money in the United States.

The other night she gave a speech and said I will carry you all in my hearts, he recalled. And I said, were going to carry you in our wallets.

Bozsum spent nine years as the Tribal Council chairman, a tenure that included an audience with the queen of England and a starring role in an episode of the reality television show "Undercover Boss.

The boat tour was part of a full summer calendar of events through the Thames River Heritage Park, which its coalition of organizers describe as a park without boundaries. The group uses water taxis repurposed surplus Navy utility boats to link almost 20 historical and culturally significant sites in New London and Groton.

In its sixth full summer season, the park has grown from offering hop-on, hop-off boat rides to also offering themed tours. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the tours in their first year regularly sold out on topics related to the regions important military history from pre-Revolutionary War days through the advent of nuclear submarines. Offerings were soon expanded to include forays into womens history, whaling history, native history and the importance of sailors of color to the regions maritime heritage.

The park last year forged a partnership with the Mohegan Tribe, resulting in numerous popular tours in which tribal members in native dress sang, displayed native objects and told stories highlighting their heritage.

Russell, who has served as an environmental services supervisor for the tribe, talked about the shellfish and shad that sustained his ancestors and his own generations efforts to restore such a source of livelihood.

We stocked the whole river again with oysters and clams, Russell said. They came back pretty well.

Bozsums contributions included singing, flute playing and the recitation of a blessing. The undulating, syncopated melody of his song was part of a mens thunder dance to get everyone going for war, he said. The blessing thanked the Creator for the beautiful day and good things that have come.

Earlier, as the boat started off amid the industrial sprawl of the Groton-New London riverfront, he asked: Can you imagine how beautiful it was with none of this here years ago?

Now, the member of the Tribal Council of Elders remains committed to preserving history through the spoken word. He started the tribes language restoration program in 1998; now his daughter runs it.

According to the tribes website, Fidelia Fielding was the last fluent speaker of the Mohegan language when she died in 1908. Mohegans stopped teaching the language to their children for fear of retribution by teachers in public schools, the tribe said.

The modern Mohegan language has evolved through fragments found in written documents owned by various tribal members, including Fielding and anthropologist Frank Speck from over a century ago, the tribe said. Members also work with neighboring tribes that have similar dialects.

We have a beautiful language, Bozsum said after reciting the blessing in its original tongue. I love speaking it all the time.

Other boat tours include White Sails, Black Hands: The African American Experience on Connecticut Waters; Submarines, Battlefields, and Betrayers: Military Stories on the Thames; and Well-Heeled and Wannabes: The Gilded Age on the Thames. They run on weekends through mid-September.

More information is available at thamesriverheritagepark.org.

e.regan@theday.com

Read more here:

Floating through 400 years of Mohegan history - theday.com