A review of “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” (1939 film)

"Your friend Mr. Lincoln had his Taylors and Paines. So did every other man who ever tried to lift his thought up off the ground. Odds against them didn't stop those men - they were fools that way. All the good that ever came into this world came from fools with faith like that. You know that, Jeff. You can't quit now - not you! They aren't all Taylors and Paines in Washington. That kind just throw big shadows, that's all. You didn't just have faith in Paine or any other living man. You had faith in something bigger than that. You had plain, decent, everyday, common rightness; and this country could use some of that. Yeah, so could the whole cockeyed world - a lot of it!"

- Clarissa Saunders, a character in the movie

So I was recently watching the movie "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" with my family. This is my second-favorite Hollywood movie, after the Christian classic "Ben-Hur." I love the patriotism of this movie, because patriotism is like a religion for me.

The Founding Fathers and the History Channel

The History Channel has made a few documentaries about the lives of the Founding Fathers. There is one in particular that I would like to talk about here, which is their three-hour program simply entitled "Founding Fathers."

My interest in modern languages

I was actually interested in foreign languages from a very early age. I thought: "How cool would it be to speak another language?" I suppose that many monolingual kids fantasize about being able to speak another language, usually without the slightest clue of how hard it is to do so. But for me, the interest never waned, and the only thing limiting me was the opportunity.

How I learned to play piano (the way I play it)

"I never had much interest in the piano until I realized that every time I played, a girl would appear on the piano bench to my left and another to my right."

- Duke Ellington, jazz pianist and composer

I have often been asked how I learned to play piano the way I play it, so I wrote this explanation of how I acquired my style. I also talk a little bit about my piano influences.

Me in my youth with my piano teacher

Some thoughts on separation of church and state

It has recently struck me how many liberals have spoken in favor of getting rid of laws with a religious basis. In the name of separation of church and state, many liberals try to get rid of laws against gay marriage by pointing to the religious basis of many arguments supporting them.

This seems to me a fundamentally flawed interpretation of separation of church and state, for the following reason: Many laws supported by atheists and agnostics are, for many people, grounded in religious belief. The Ten Commandments say "Thou shalt not kill" (the basis of laws against murder), "Thou shalt not steal" (the basis for laws against theft), and "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor" (the basis for laws against perjury). If we were to discard any law with a religious basis, we would have to do away with laws against theft, perjury, and murder, which are supported largely on the basis of religion. The harm to society of doing such is self-evident, and so clearly, discarding laws with a religious basis is unwise.

My passion for history

"History is about high achievement, glorious works of art, music, architecture, literature, philosophy, science and medicine - not just politics and the military - as the best of politicians and generals have readily attested. History is about leadership, and the power of ideas. History is about change, because the world has never not been changing, indeed because life itself is change ... History is the course of human events. And it must therefore be, if truthful, about failure, injustice, struggle, suffering, disappointment, and the humdrum. History demonstrates often in brutal fashion the evils of enforced ignorance and demagoguery. History is a source of strength, a constant reminder of the courage of others in times more trying and painful than our own."

- David McCullough's "The Course of Human Events" (2003)

Most of my Facebook and Blogger friends have seen my posts about history. Whether it's talking about the latest historical book or documentary that I've watched, or noting the anniversary of an important historical event, or even posting about a major historical individual on their birthday, I love posting about history. A few people have given me positive feedback on these historical posts.

But I have never, as yet, talked publicly about how I got interested in history. At the risk of boring my readers, I will now share some of the story about how I acquired my passion for history.

My favorite history documentaries

Disclosure: I am an Amazon affiliate marketer, and can sometimes make money when you buy the product using the link(s) below.

Ancient history

Egypt's Golden Empire (PBS Empires) - 2 ½ hours

Michael Wood's In Search of the Trojan War (BBC) - 6 hours

The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization (PBS Empires) - 2 ½ hours

Bettany Hughes' The Spartans (shown on PBS) - 3 hours

Bettany Hughes' Athens: The Dawn of Democracy (shown on PBS) - 2 hours

Michael Wood's In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great (BBC) - 4 hours

Rome: Rise and Fall of an Empire (History Channel) - 10 hours

Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire (BBC, requires code-free DVD player) - 6 hours

The Roman Empire in the First Century (PBS Empires) - 3 ½ hours

The Germanic Tribes (German-made) - 4 hours

Art history

Great Epochs of European Art: Art of the Ancient Greeks & Romans (German-made) - 2 hours

The Dark Ages: An Age of Light (BBC) - 4 hours

Kenneth Clark's Civilisation (BBC) - 11 hours

The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance (PBS Empires) - 4 hours

Michael Wood's Art of the Western World - 9 hours

Civilizations (BBC, shown on PBS) - 9 hours


Religious history

The Buddha: The Story of Siddhartha (PBS) - 2 hours

Kingdom of David: The Saga of the Israelites (PBS Empires) - 4 hours

Simon Schama's The Story of the Jews (shown on PBS) - 5 hours

Jerusalem: Center of the World (PBS) - 2 hours

How the Celts Saved Britain (BBC) - 2 hours

Ancient Roads from Christ to Constantine (shown on PBS) - 5 ½ hours

The Life of Muhammad (BBC, shown on PBS) - 3 hours

Islam: Empire of Faith (PBS Empires) - 3 hours

Martin Luther (PBS Empires) - 2 hours

David Starkey's Henry VIII: Mind of a Tyrant (requires code-free DVD player) - 3 hours

David Starkey's The Six Wives of Henry VIII - 3 hours


The Middle Ages

Byzantium: The Lost Empire (The Learning Channel) - 3 ½ hours

The Dark Ages (History Channel) - 1 ½ hours

Michael Wood's In Search of the Dark Ages (BBC, requires code-free DVD player) - 6 hours

Vikings: The Real Warriors (BBC) - 3 hours

The Normans (BBC, requires code-free DVD player) - 3 hours

The Normans: The Complete Epic Saga (privately made) - 3 hours

The Crusades (BBC) - 3 hours

The Crusades: Crescent and the Cross (History Channel) - 3 hours

The Plague (History Channel) - 1 ½ hours (often available as bonus feature for The Dark Ages)

The Plantagenets (BBC, requires code-free DVD player) - 3 hours

Britain's Bloodiest Dynasty: The Plantagenets (British-made) - 4 hours

Britain's Bloody Crown (British-made) - 3 hours

The Wars of the Roses: A Bloody Crown (British-made) - 2 hours

The Stuarts & The Stuarts in Exile (BBC, this part is technically post-Middle-Ages, requires code-free DVD player) - 5 hours


History of the British Isles generally

Simon Schama's A History of Britain (BBC, with American financing) - 15 hours

David Starkey's Monarchy (U. K.) (British-made) - 17 hours

Michael Wood's Story of England (BBC) - 6 hours

Frank Delaney's The Celts (BBC) - 6 hours

Neil Oliver's A History of Scotland (BBC Scotland) - 10 hours

Huw Edwards' The Story of Wales (BBC Wales) - 6 hours

Fergal Keane's The Story of Ireland (BBC Northern Ireland) - 5 hours

Andrew Marr's Modern Britain 1901-2007 (BBC - requires code-free DVD player) - 10 hours


World history

Alistair Cooke's America: A Personal History of the United States (BBC, requires code-free DVD player) - 10 hours

Canada: A People's History (CBC and Société de Radio-Canada) - 32 hours

Australia: The Story of Us (Australian-made - requires code-free DVD player) - 6 hours

Africa's Great Civilizations (PBS) - 6 hours

Michael Wood's The Story of India (BBC) - 6 hours

Michael Wood's The Story of China (BBC) - 6 hours

Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire (PBS Empires) - 2 ½ hours


History of the English language

Melvyn Bragg's The Adventure of English (British-made) - 6 hours


Famous reigning queens

David Starkey's Elizabeth (Elizabeth the First, British-made) - 3 hours

Catherine the Great (PBS) - 2 hours

Queen Victoria's Empire (PBS Empires) - 3 ½ hours


Early Latin America

In Search of History: The Aztec Empire (History Channel) - 1 hour

Breaking the Maya Code (PBS) - 2 hours

Michael Wood's Conquistadors (BBC, shown on PBS) - 4 hours


Colonial America

Secrets of the Dead: Jamestown's Dark Winter (PBS) - 1 hour

The Pilgrims (PBS) - 2 hours

The Seven Years' War

The War That Made America (PBS) - 4 hours


The American Revolution (my main posts and my other posts)

Overviews of the war

Liberty! The American Revolution (PBS) - 6 hours

History Channel's "The Revolution" - 10 hours

Rebels & Redcoats: How Britain Lost America - 4 hours

American Revolution biographies

Muffie Meyer's Benjamin Franklin (PBS) - 3 hours

Ken Burns' Benjamin Franklin (PBS) - 4 hours

George Washington the Warrior (History Channel) - 1 ½ hours

Marquis de Lafayette: The Lost Hero (PBS) - 1 hour

Alexander Hamilton (PBS) - 2 hours

Founding Fathers (History Channel) - 3 hours

Founding Brothers (History Channel) - 3 hours

John and Abigail Adams (PBS) - 2 hours

Ken Burns' Thomas Jefferson (PBS) - 3 hours


Frontier exploration

Ken Burns' Lewis and Clark (PBS) - 4 hours


The French Revolution/Napoleonic Era

Versailles (French documentary, with episode about King Louis XVI - requires code-free DVD player) - 9 hours

David Grubin's Marie Antoinette (PBS) - 2 hours

The French Revolution (History Channel) - 1 ½ hours

David Grubin's Napoleon (PBS Empires) - 4 hours


The War of 1812 (North America)

The War of 1812 (PBS) - 2 hours - available online

Dolley Madison (PBS) - 1 ½ hours

Andrew Jackson: Good, Evil, and the Presidency (PBS) - 2 hours - available on YouTube


The Mexican-American War

The U.S.-Mexican War 1846-1848 - 4 hours - available on YouTube - link to first half

The Gold Rush - 2 hours


The American Civil War (my main posts and my other posts)

The Abolitionists (PBS) - 3 hours

Ken Burns' The Civil War (overview by PBS) - 11 hours

Reconstruction: The Second Civil War (PBS) - 3 hours

Civil War biographies

Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided (PBS) - 6 hours

The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (PBS) - 1 ½ hours

Jefferson Davis (privately made) - 3 ½ hours

Ulysses S. Grant (PBS) - 3 ½ hours


Various other topics

Michael Wood's In Search of Myths and Heroes - 4 hours

Ken Burns' The Congress (PBS) - 1 ½ hours

Modern Marvels: The Suez Canal (History Channel) - 1 hour

Transcontinental Railroad (PBS) - 2 hours

Ken Burns' Not for Ourselves Alone; Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony (PBS) - 3 hours

Murder of a President: James A. Garfield (PBS) - 2 hours

Ken Burns' Mark Twain (PBS) - 3 ½ hours

New York Underground (PBS) - 1 hour

Ric Burns' New York: A Documentary History (PBS) - 17 hours

Crucible of Empire: the Spanish-American War (PBS) - 2 hours

The Boer War (British-made - requires code-free DVD player) - 1 ½ hours

TR: The Story of Theodore Roosevelt (PBS) - 3 ½ hours

Ken Burns' Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip (PBS) - 2 hours

Panama Canal (PBS) - 1 ½ hours

The Great San Francisco Earthquake (PBS) - 1 hour

War of the Worlds (PBS) - 1 hour

Ken Burns' Hemingway (PBS) - 6 hours


History of American business

The Men Who Built America (History Channel) - 6 hours

The Gilded Age (PBS) - 2 hours

The Circus (PBS) - 4 hours

Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People (PBS) - 1 ½ hours

Edison: The Father of Invention (PBS) - 2 hours

Tesla: Master of Lightning (PBS) - 1 ½ hours

Citizen Hearst (PBS) - 3 ½ hours

Ken Burns' Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio (PBS) - 2 hours

Henry Ford (PBS) - 2 hours - available online

Walt Disney (PBS) - 4 hours

Silicon Valley (PBS) - 1 ½ hours


World War One

BBC's The Great War (interviews veterans) - 17 hours

CBS's World War One (the complete story) - 10 hours

PBS's The Great War (American Experience) - 6 hours

Biographies of major figures

Woodrow Wilson (PBS) - 3 hours

Coverage of particular portions of the war

The Storm That Swept Mexico (PBS) - 2 hours - available on YouTube

The Irish Rebellion 1916 (PBS) - 3 hours

Lawrence of Arabia: The Battle for the Arab World (PBS) - 2 hours

Influenza 1918 (PBS, American Experience) - 1 hour

Paris 1919: Inside the Peace Talks That Changed the World (Canadian-made) - 1 ½ hours


World War Two (my main posts and my other posts)

The Road to War (BBC) - 3 hours

War of the Century: When Hitler Fought Stalin (BBC) - 3 ½ hours

Allied powers

ANZAC: Australians at War in World War Two (Australian-made) - 10 hours

Canada at War (Canadian-made, World War Two) - 6 hours

Ken Burns' The War (PBS) - 15 hours (focuses on United States in World War Two)

BBC History of World War II - 30 hours (technically a collection of different World War II documentaries)

The World at War (British-made, World War Two) - 23 hours (an actual unified history, which talks about the major powers on both sides)

Axis powers

The Nazis: A Warning from History (BBC) - 5 hours

Horror in the East: Japan and the Atrocities of World War II (BBC) - 1 ½ hours

Auschwitz: The Nazis and the "Final Solution" (BBC) - 5 hours

Biographies of Allied leaders

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (PBS) - 4 hours - available online

Eleanor Roosevelt (PBS) - 2 ½ hours

The Roosevelts: An Intimate History (PBS, Ken Burns) - 14 hours

Winston Churchill (British-made) - 3 hours

Harry Truman (PBS) - 4 hours - available online

Dwight D. Eisenhower (PBS) - 2 ½ hours


The Cold War (my main posts and my other posts)

The Cold War (CNN) - 18 hours

Korea: The Forgotten War (Timeless Media Group) - 5 hours

Ken Burns' The Vietnam War (PBS) - 18 ½ hours

Cold War political biographies (other)

John F. Kennedy (PBS) - 3 ½ hours

Robert F. Kennedy (PBS) - 2 hours

Lyndon B. Johnson (PBS) - 3 ½ hours - available online

Richard Nixon (PBS) - 2 ½ hours - available online


Ethnic history

Black in Latin America (PBS) - 4 hours

Native America (PBS) - 3 ½ hours

Asian Americans (PBS) - 5 hours

The Jewish Americans (PBS) - 6 hours

The Latino Americans (PBS) - 6 hours

The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross (PBS) - 6 hours

Ken Burns' Jackie Robinson (PBS) - 4 hours

Ken Burns' Muhammad Ali (PBS) - 8 hours

The Long Walk of Nelson Mandela (PBS Frontline) - 2 hours

General American history in the 20th century

Ken Burns' Baseball (PBS miniseries) - 19 hours

Ken Burns' Jazz (PBS miniseries) - 19 hours