A review of Michael Wood’s “In Search of Shakespeare”

He had more influence upon the English language than any other individual – perhaps even more than the Biblical translator William Tyndale. Shakespeare’s plays are still read and performed today, more than three centuries after their author’s death. Even literary ignoramuses like me can recognize lines like “Brevity is the soul of wit,” or “To be or not to be” – an oft-parodied line, even in comic strips like “Calvin and Hobbes.” Relatively few of us have ever bothered to read a Shakespeare play when it’s not assigned, partly because the original language can seem rather inaccessible to us today. Yet he left an influence upon the way that we speak, which is still felt right down to the present day.

William Shakespeare

The best way to learn about Shakespeare is probably to read his sonnets and plays, or watch some of his plays performed on stage – or in certain good film adaptations. But this documentary approach will still tell you much about his life. It is a biography of the man – a man whose life has long been shrouded in mystery. In the documentary world, this may be the most in-depth biography of Shakespeare that you’re likely to find. To find something more in-depth, you’d probably have to turn to the world of books. I freely admit that I’m no expert on Shakespeare, since I never even bothered to read one of his plays in the original. The closest that I came was to watch the 1953 film adaptation of his play “Julius Caesar,” starring James Mason as Brutus. This, at least, is closer to him than watching “West Side Story” in my youth – an adaptation of his famous play “Romeo and Juliet.” Incidentally, I turned on the Spanish subtitles for that DVD of Julius Caesar. I had an easier time understanding the Spanish than the Shakespearean English, and I’m a native speaker of English (but not of Spanish).

Garlanded statue of William Shakespeare in Lincoln Park, Chicago

What fascism is (and why it stinks)

Warning: This blog post contains a disturbing picture, related to the Holocaust.

It seems that people in most political movements will eventually denounce their political opponents as “Fascists” or “Nazis” (as I will describe later on in this post). At the very least, they sometimes compare their opponents to Nazis – sometimes accurately, sometimes inaccurately. Either way, though, they are right to denounce the Fascists and the Nazis, even if they do not always correctly identify who they are. (More on that later on.)

Hitler addressing the Reichstag, 1933

But what is fascism, and why exactly does it stink (and it definitely does)? What are the biggest problems with this system of government, and why should it be left on the “ash-heap of history” (to paraphrase a characterization of communism by someone else)?. That is what I will be discussing in this particular post. I will here give a brief overview of both the history and philosophy of fascism. In so doing, I will show why it cannot possibly bear the honest scrutiny of history. This will only be an introduction to this complex topic, which will touch on some of its major themes. Indeed, I have covered other aspects of this topic in some other blog posts (which I link to here). But I may nonetheless succeed in showing why fascism is an utter travesty, and why it should be discarded. I will also give my own take on it, with my own unique perspective.

Nazi book-burning in Berlin, May 1933 (which included some Jewish authors)

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.

A review of “In Search of History: The Aztec Empire” (History Channel)

Before the Spanish Conquest, they ruled the southern part of what is today Mexico …

Before the Spanish Conquest, there were several native peoples in the Americas. They extended from the Arctic coasts of Canada to the lower tip of South America, and included many cultures and languages. All of them would eventually make contact with white colonists from a variety of European nations. Of those that made contact with Spain, there are a number of great civilizations, including the Maya and the Incas. But in North America, the most famous of these may be the Aztec. The reason for this is because the Aztecs were much closer to home for us. They controlled the southern part of what is today Mexico, at the time that the Conquistadors first arrived on this continent. I live in the United States – and more specifically, in Arizona, a state which shares a border with Mexico. This may explain why we hear somewhat more about them here. Their empire once stretched even further into what is today Central America, and had the beginnings of its own writing system.

A review of “St. Thomas Aquinas” (audiobook)

The Italian philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas is appreciated by more than just Catholics. He is also venerated by some Protestant groups, such as Lutherans and Anglicans. Thomas Aquinas wrote before the Protestant religion had come to be. This may help to explain why a number of later Protestants felt comfortable with quoting him. And, of course, he is lionized by Catholics, who give him the coveted title of “St. Thomas Aquinas.”

Why are certain European languages so often spoken in Africa? (Answer: History)

“A Declaration introducing into international relations certain uniform rules with reference to future occupations on the coast of the African Continent. And deeming it expedient that all these several documents should be combined in one single instrument, they (the Signatory Powers) have collected them into one General Act, composed of the following Articles …”

– “General Act of the Berlin Conference on West Africa” (26 February 1885) – an agreement among some of the European powers

Many of the contemporary languages of Africa came to the continent from elsewhere …

Many of the contemporary languages of Africa came to the continent from elsewhere. Even the Arabic language arrived from the Middle East, although this was fairly early in (North) African history. Arabic is the dominant language of Muslim North Africa today, as you may know. But many other languages on the African continent arrived from Europe, during the “Scramble for Africa” – which was mostly during the nineteenth century. Thus, the languages of English, French, and Portuguese are among the most spoken languages on this continent. To a lesser degree, Spanish is also spoken in certain parts of Africa, and has a presence there. This would surprise many, because we expect Africans to speak various languages that are native to the continent (such as Swahili – or “Kiswahili,” as it is sometimes called). And, very often, they do speak native African languages. But the European languages also have a strong presence in Africa, which is a legacy of the past colonization there. How did all of this happen, you might be wondering? That is what this post will be undertaking to explain. I have discussed other African colonies from Germany and Italy in another post, and their various effects on the World Wars (more about that here). Thus, I will not attempt to duplicate much of that coverage here. Rather, I will instead focus this post on the bigger colonization by Britain, France, Belgium, Spain, and Portugal – some of which were very influential, as I will show later on. I will also throw in a number of country names – and, at times, dates. But it is not expected that the reader will remember any of these details. Rather, I just hope that I will convey the feeling of how complicated these geopolitics were, and answer a possible reader’s question about how these European languages came to be in Africa. This came in the context of European colonization elsewhere in the world.

Front view of fort São João Baptista – Portuguese Benin, 1917

Forgotten battlegrounds of the World Wars: Africa, the Middle East, and Italy

“♪ We’re the D-Day Dodgers, out in Italy,

Always on the vino, always on the spree.

Eighth Army skivers and their tanks,

We go to war in ties like swanks.

For we’re the D-Day Dodgers,

In sunny Italy. ♪

♪ We landed at Salerno, a holiday with pay.

Jerry brought his bands out to cheer us on the way,

Showed us the sights and gave us tea,

We all sang songs, the beer was free.

For we’re the D-Day Dodgers,

The lads that D-Day dodged. ♪

♪ Palermo and Cassino were taken in our stride,

We didn’t go to fight there, we just went for the ride.

Anzio and Sangro are just names,

We only went to look for dames,

For we’re the D-Day Dodgers,

In sunny Italy. ♪”

– “D-Day Dodgers” (1944), to the tune of “Lili Marleen” (written in 1915, but not published until 1937) – a tongue-in-cheek Canadian song about the forgotten (and then-ongoing) campaigns in Italy

How the war against Nazi Germany began long before the 1944 invasion of France …

The war against Nazi Germany began long before the 1944 invasion of France. Listening to some popular histories of World War II, you might be tempted to suppose that the war began when the Allies launched their invasion of Normandy on June 6th, 1944. But, in fact, the war began long before the famous battles fought on this great “D-Day.” This post will focus on some of the other aspects of the war against Nazi Germany, giving details on times and places that are often ignored elsewhere. To some degree, I myself have ignored them elsewhere on this blog, because I review various documentaries with more traditional focuses. Thus, I will try to address these deficiencies in this blog post, and tell a story that has sometimes been neglected – including, to some degree, by myself.

British artillery in Kamerun, Africa, 1915 (during the First World War)

Reflections on the proper role of self-education

“Never let your schooling interfere with your education.”

– Possibly a paraphrase of author Grant Allen, although it is often misattributed to Mark Twain

Not all learning is done in a classroom …

One of the saddest things I’ve seen is when people have no curiosity. They may suppose that they’ve learned everything that they need to know, and that they don’t need to learn any more. I don’t think that everyone needs to keep reading textbooks (although I like to do this myself), but I think that people should continue to learn long after they leave school. Fortunately, not all learning is done in a classroom – many life experiences can be educational in some way. You can learn some things in the real world that you would never learn in a classroom. And you can keep reading and keep thinking, and be open to what life has to teach you.

Me when I graduated from Yavapai College, which is now my employer

Some thoughts on Thomas More’s “Utopia”

Note: By writing the work “Utopia,” Thomas More created a new literary genre: utopian and dystopian fiction. This genre is still popular today.

During the Renaissance, Sir Thomas More wrote a satirical book called “Utopia”

In the year 1516, Sir Thomas More published a book in Latin which has since become famous. He titled his book “Utopia,” and this word is now used as a popular word for idyllic and perfect places. But people have long debated about the extent to which More believed that this kind of society could actually exist. That is to say, people debate about whether the work is satirical or not. It is one of the most influential “utopias” ever to appear in fiction, and some attempts at real-life utopias have been modeled on the state that he presents therein. Some would argue that this is the first utopia ever to appear in a work presented as “fiction,” although Plato’s “Republic” offers the first utopia in a work presented as “non-fiction.” Interestingly, there are explicit mentions of Plato’s “Republic” in Thomas More’s “Utopia” – more than one of them, in fact.

Sir Thomas More, the author of “Utopia”

“Utopia” has two possible meanings in Ancient Greek: “happy place” and “no place”

But did Sir Thomas More really believe that this “ideal state” could exist in reality? There are a number of arguments on both sides of this issue. On the one side, for example, a website referenced by Wikipedia quotes More as saying that “Wherfore not Utopie, but rather rightely my name is Eutopie, a place of felicitie.” (see source) “Eutopie” is an interesting spelling to me, because it turns out that the Ancient Greek word εὐτόπος (rendered as “eutopos” or “eutopia”) literally translates to “good place.” But some have wondered whether More actually intended a second meaning for this word, possibly in addition to the other meaning that I have already mentioned. This is because an alternative origin of the word in Ancient Greek would be οὐτόπος (rendered as “outopos” or “outopia”), a word that literally translates to “no place” – possibly implying that this kind of “good place” could not exist in reality.

Illustration for the 1516 first edition of “Utopia”

A review of “Auschwitz: The Nazis and the ‘Final Solution’” (BBC)

Warning: This blog post contains some disturbing pictures, which I simply cannot omit.

By far the most infamous episode of the twentieth century …

The Holocaust is, by far, the most infamous episode of the twentieth century. It was a crucible for Jewish history, claiming the lives of six million Jews in all. But when you add in the other victims of the Holocaust, the death toll goes up even further to ten million. The other victims include Poles, homosexuals, the Romani people, and anyone else that the Nazis disliked. Both numbers are so large as to seem incomprehensible, but they come from the figures of the Nazis themselves. Indeed, the Nazis seemed almost to be proud of the enormity of these numbers. Anti-Semitism, of course, has roots going back far before the twentieth century, and so do pogroms and other violence against Jews. But the Nazi manifestation of it is the most infamous example of this phenomenon, and it is the most widely-known (and widely-condemned) genocide in history. Sadly, there have been other genocides as well, but it would be beyond the scope of this blog post to attempt to list them here. Suffice it to say that the Holocaust is still an important topic, and that the BBC was right to cover it in this series.

An aerial reconnaissance photograph of the Auschwitz concentration camp, 1944

There were several Nazi concentration camps, of which Auschwitz was the biggest

The series is usually called “Auschwitz: The Nazis and the ‘Final Solution.’” This is because the Nazis chillingly referred to this genocide as the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question.” But this documentary has also been titled “Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State.” It is six episodes long, and may be the most in-depth documentary on this tragic episode. You might already know that there were many Nazi concentration camps, of which Auschwitz was the biggest. This series is focused specifically on Auschwitz, mentioning other camps (such as Treblinka) only as context for what happened at Auschwitz. Nonetheless, one could see Auschwitz as the Holocaust in microcosm, even though it was a disproportionately large number of the deaths. In the Nuremberg trials, the longest-reigning commandant of Auschwitz (Rudolf Höss) was accused of murdering three and a half million people. He replied: “No. Only two and one half million—the rest died from disease and starvation.” This confession, along with the callous (and flippant) way in which it was delivered, led to his later execution in 1947 – one of the healing positives of the Nuremberg verdicts. But that’s a subject for another post. Here, let me dive into the story of the Holocaust itself, and how this disturbing episode began.

Blackstone condemned the execution of Algernon Sidney for high treason

“Treason, proditio, in its very name (which is borrowed from the French) imports a betraying, treachery, or breach of faith. It therefore happens only between allies, faith the mirror [footnote] : for treason is indeed a general appellation, made use of by the law, to denote not only offences against the king and government, but also that accumulation of guilt which arises whenever a superior reposes a confidence in a subject or inferior, between whom and himself there subsists a natural, a civil, or even a spiritual relation ; and inferior so abuses that confidence, so forgets the obligations of duty, subjection, and allegiance, as to destroy the life of any such his superior or lord.”

– Sir William Blackstone’s “Commentaries on the Laws of England” (1769), Book 4, Chapter 6

Algernon Sidney

Algernon Sidney was executed some four decades before Sir William Blackstone was born

Algernon Sidney was executed some four decades before Sir William Blackstone was born. Specifically, our subject Algernon Sidney was executed in 1683, and Sir William Blackstone would not be born until 1723. (But I’m getting ahead of myself here.) Blackstone was in his forties when he wrote his “Commentaries on the Laws of England.” This was a four-volume work, which gave a general overview of its chosen subject. Its fourth and final volume was published in the year 1769. This is the volume that I will be quoting from here. (Incidentally, all quotations from Blackstone’s “Commentaries” in this particular blog post will be from Book 4, Chapter 6 – a chapter entitled “Of High Treason.”)

Statue of Sir William Blackstone

Algernon Sidney influenced the U. S. Declaration of Independence

“This book contains all the malice, and revenge, and treason, that mankind can be guilty of: It fixes the sole power in the parliament and the people … The king, it says, is responsible to them, the king is but their trustee; that he had betrayed his trust, he had misgoverned, and now he is to give it up, that they may be all kings themselves. Gentlemen, I must tell you, I think I ought more than ordinarily to press this upon you, because I know, the misfortune of the late unhappy rebellion, and the bringing the late blessed king to the scaffold, was first begun by such kind of principles …”

– Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys, in the trial of Algernon Sidney (1683) – explaining the reasons for his decision to have Sidney executed for high treason at that time

Algernon Sidney

Algernon Sidney was executed by the English government in 1683 for writing a book

Algernon Sidney was executed by the English government in 1683 for writing a book. Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys convicted him of high treason for writing these “Discourses Concerning Government.” (See the quotation at the beginning of this blog post, to hear Justice Jeffreys’ account of why he did so.) But others would later sing the praises of this book. One writer would call it “the textbook of the American Revolution.” Some referred to Algernon Sidney as “Sidney the Martyr,” because he paid for that book with his life. And, most prominently, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were both fans of this book. Thomas Jefferson said that it was “probably the best elementary book of the principles of government, as founded in natural right, which has ever been published in any language.” (See the citation for this praise later on in this post.) I have not yet read this book, but I might like to do so at some point, after hearing the praise from these two men. In this post, I will examine Sidney’s influence upon John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. I will also try to show Sidney’s influence upon the Declaration of Independence.

Lord Chief Justice George Jeffreys, who had Algernon Sidney executed for treason