The question of why the Dust Bowl happened is not merely an academic one. Far from it. Personally, I regard the Dust Bowl of 1930s America as one of the six worst ecological disasters of all time. Even if one doesn’t go quite as far as I do, no one denies it was a human […]
Category: United States History
Horses and Bison – More On the Columbian Exchange
In previous posts about the Columbian Exchange, I’ve mentioned horses in passing. To see previous posts on my series explaining the Columbian Exchange, perhaps the most important event in modern history, click here: (Introduction to the Columbian Exchange) (The Columbian Exchange and Human Extinction) (Smallpox and the Columbian Exchange). Today I want to blog about […]
The Values of Manifest Destiny, Part 2
In my last post, (click here to read) I laid out the values of Manifest Destiny. Hopefully, I made the case that it was among the most influential doctrines put forward in US history. Today, I’d like to show how the values of Manifest Destiny interacted with some other events in American history. I’ve already […]
The Core Values of Manifest Destiny
I’ve written a bit about Manifest Destiny in previous posts, but today I’d like to write about the core values of Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny is a flexible concept, which helps account for its durability over time. This is a brief overview of the idea and the values driving it. The term first appeared in […]
Prince Edward County & School Desegregation
In my eyes, one of the most tragic and ridiculous events of the entire civil rights movement in the United States took place in Prince Edward County, Virginia, between 1959 and 1964. Probably you’ve not heard this story unless you’re familiar with the civil rights movement. But it says so much about racial hatred and […]
Elizabeth Eckford & the Little Rock Nine
You’ve probably seen the photograph of Elizabeth Eckford, even if you didn’t know that was the woman’s name. In a way, it’s a chilling image. It, and the Little Rock Nine, remain a prominent feature in any history of the civil rights movement in the United States. Elizabeth Eckford, a young African American with large […]