A review of PBS’s “The Great San Francisco Earthquake”

The worst natural disaster suffered by a North American city in the twentieth century …

In 1906, San Francisco was hit by one of the worst natural disasters in American history. It was the Great San Francisco Earthquake. It was the largest natural disaster to be suffered by a North American city in the twentieth century. Specifically, at 5:12 a.m. on April 18th (as the PBS webpage puts it), “San Francisco residents were awakened by a 40-second tremor that moved furniture, shattered glass, and toppled chimneys. After a 10-second interval, an even stronger tremor struck, lasting 25 seconds.” (Source: PBS’s webpage on this program) As PBS also notes, “Movement along the San Andreas Fault was to blame. The North American and Pacific tectonic plates had moved past each other by more than 15 feet — compared to an annual average of two inches. The earthquake is estimated to have measured 8.3 on the Richter scale, which had not yet been invented. Survivors saw the ground move in waves as high as three feet. The earthquake ripped open streets, twisted streetcar rails, and split sidewalks.” (Source: Same as above)

A review of PBS’s “Breaking the Maya Code”

Deciphering the Maya glyphs opened up an entire world to historians …

Deciphering the Maya glyphs opened up an entire world to historians. People had long known about Ancient Maya civilization, and it was famous for the monuments that it had left behind. But until recent times, the inscriptions on these monuments had long proved impossible for linguists to decipher. The breaking of the Maya code was one of the greatest accomplishments in the history of linguistics, and allowed scholars to learn much about the early history of the Americas. It opened up a world for future study, and allowed the modern Maya people to have a greater connection with their ancestors and their heritage. Europeans are known for their colonial empires, which did not always treat the native peoples kindly (to put it mildly). Indeed, the Spanish Conquistadors had done their best to destroy many of the written Maya records that were available in their own time. But the European and North American scholars who deciphered Ancient Maya are a prominent exception to this. They did the surviving Maya an invaluable favor, by helping to undo some of the cultural damage caused by the Conquistadors.

A review of PBS’s “Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People”

The “Pulitzer Prize” was named after the great newspaper editor Joseph Pulitzer …

In 1917, six years after the death of Joseph Pulitzer, the “Pulitzer Prize” was established. It came from provisions in his will, as the result of his prior endowments to Columbia University. Many have heard of the “Pulitzer Prize,” but few have heard of Pulitzer himself. Yet he helped to make our world into a media-saturated and media-obsessed place, and the world isn’t necessarily the worse for this overabundance of information.

A review of Thomas Hobbes’ “Leviathan” (audiobook)

In the seventeenth century, Thomas Hobbes gave the most powerful argument ever written for the necessity of some form of government. His opposition to anarchy is what motivated all of his political works, including “Leviathan.” People associate Hobbes with a very dark view of human nature, and it is small wonder that his worldview is unpopular with more starry-eyed romantics. But it is hard to escape the logical force of his anti-anarchical arguments. He believed that life without government is “a time of War, where every man is Enemy to every man.” And without this government, he believed the life of man to be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

Has Hollywood history always been so bad?

“Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.”

– Alfred Hitchcock

Even the worst Hollywood history movies often get people interested in the history …

In 2001, Hollywood released a movie called “Pearl Harbor.” It starred Ben Affleck, and it butchered the history involved. For example, the B-25 bomber planes of the later Doolittle Raids did not fly like fighter planes. The idea that they would be flown by fighter pilots was sheer nonsense. I suppose that many people were misinformed by the movie, but I noticed a very interesting thing happening after the movie came out. People became more interested in the earlier movie “Tora! Tora! Tora!” from 1970, which also depicted the attack on Pearl Harbor. The movie “Tora! Tora! Tora!” has a few goofs of its own, but it is generally quite good on the historical accuracy front. At the very least, it is far more historically accurate than the Ben Affleck disaster. Many Hollywood movies have had a similar effect, making people more curious about what really happened in the history. In my opinion, the movie “Pearl Harbor” still deserves to be called out for its inaccuracies, but people can learn from their mistakes, if they do their own research about what really happened – which is what the learning process is all about.

History movies have the potential to reach a wider audience than history books

Other Hollywood movies are much better, and have done a great service to the history. For example, the Steven Spielberg movies “Lincoln” and “Bridge of Spies” both did fantastic storytelling, which brought the history to life. Their historical accuracy is not perfect, but in my opinion, it is good enough. Many that refuse to read a book will happily watch a history movie. Thus, movies have the potential to reach a wider audience than your average book can reach. Some will be inspired to read the book itself afterwards, and delve further into its story. Either way, they can add much to the audience’s history education. In general, I believe that books still have a higher batting average than movies do for getting the history right. But it would be a mistake to throw out the baby with the bathwater, and dismiss everything that Hollywood has done in this area.

Grover Cleveland: Serving two non-consecutive presidential terms

At the time that I write this, Grover Cleveland is the only president to serve two non-consecutive presidential terms. That is, he was both the 22nd and 24th Presidents of the United States. Because of his rotundity, many have joked that he was also physically large enough to be counted twice for that reason. But there’s more to his story than meets the eye. He was one of only three presidents to win the popular vote in at least three different presidential elections. At that time, this had not happened since Andrew Jackson, and it would not happen again until Franklin Delano Roosevelt – nearly half a century later. Thus, an examination of his story might be in order here. I will show why the two Grover Cleveland presidencies were important, and also take a look at where this unknown guy came from.

Grover Cleveland

A review of “Einstein’s Revolution” (audiobook)

The name of Albert Einstein has become synonymous with genius. More than any other person, he is seen as the quintessential smart guy, and nearly everyone knows his name. There are other candidates for the greatest scientist in history, but nearly everyone would put Einstein on a short list. And why not? The man was brilliant. In particular, he’s associated with the famous equation “E = mc²,” later used to build atomic weapons and bring energy to the masses. There is brief coverage of that topic in this audiobook. But the main focus of this audiobook is on the theory of relativity, which may be the most astonishing breakthrough of the twentieth century.