Thomas Nast and Santa Claus go together. More on their relationship shortly. But first, who was Thomas Nast? Thanks largely to Thomas Nast, the political cartoon is an art form. Even if you don’t look at them regularly, you know the style. Most feature recognizable caricatures of public figures along with short text. The actions […]
Tag: Civil War
Thaddeus Stevens, the Man Who Should be an Icon
It’s unlikely you know much about Thaddeus Stevens. Unless you enjoyed his portrayal by Tommy Lee Jones in the 2012 movie Lincoln, you may not recognize his name at all. This is unfortunate and deserves to be rectified. Thaddeus Stevens is, in fact, one of the great American statesman of the mid-19th century. Before the […]
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 […]
The 1964 Civil Rights Act & Two Court Cases
If you have even a perfunctory knowledge of what happened during the Civil Rights Movement in the US, you remember the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The purpose of the act was to end segregation in public places because segregation discriminated so heavily against African Americans living in the South. It also banned segregation in employment […]