Category Archives: History

Luckiest Man

22 August 2024 By in History Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

When Lou Gehrig delivered his retirement speech to his fans at Yankee Stadium in 1939, he proved, not that he was the greatest baseball player ever, that went without saying, but that he was one of most humble humans to ever walk on this planet. A characteristic sorely missing from our society in the 21st century.

Forced to retire from the game he loved because of ALS, which would take his life two short years later, he told the world that ‘I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth.’

His full speech is listed below (will only take a minute to read).

“Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.

“Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I’m lucky. Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I’m lucky.

“When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift – that’s something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies – that’s something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter – that’s something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body – it’s a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed – that’s the finest I know.

“So I close in saying that I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for.”

Source: Lou Gehrig’s Farewell Speech, lougehrig.com. Graphic: Lou Gehrig with the New York Yankees, 1923. Pacific and Atlantic Photos. Public Domain.

The Divine Comedy:

21 July 2024 By in Art, History, Philosophy, Poetry Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

William Blake (1757-1827), in the final years of his life created 102 watercolors and 7 copper plates, most unfinished, for Dante’s ‘The Divine Comedy’. One of the more profound and captivating of these paintings is ‘Antaeus Setting Virgil and Dante into the Ninth Circle of Hell’.

The giant Antaeus, son of Neptune and Gaia, was invincible as long as he remained attached to his mother. Hercules, for his 11th task, had to defeat Antaeus but couldn’t if he touched the Earth, so he lifted him off the ground and strangled him to death.

The Ninth Circle is reserved for the treacherous and is subdivided into 4 rings. The first part is reserved for familial traitors and is named Caina as in Cain and Abel. The second ring, Antenora for Antenora of Troy is for national traitors. Ptolomaea for Ptolemy is the third ring for those who betray their guests. Finally, the inner ring is called Judecca for Judas Iscariot betrayer of Christ and is for the worst traitors: those who turn on their masters. At the center of the Ninth Circle resides Satan.

Finally, as an aside, Dante’s ‘The Divine Comedy’ shouldn’t be interpreted as The Divine Humor, but as The Divine Outcome. The author meant that comedy was the opposite of tragedy. Tragedies begin well and end badly, but Dante’s Comedy begins badly, in Hell, and ends well with Dante reaching his desired destination: Heaven.

Source: Will Blake, The Divine Comedy by David Bindman, 2000. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, circa 1321. Bulfinch’s Mythology, 1867. Graphic: Antaeus Setting Down Dante and Virgil in the Last Circle of Hell, Blake, 1827, Public Domain.

A Riddle

19 July 2024 By in Biography, History Tags: , Leave a comment

Homer is said to have died of grief or maybe shame when he was unable to solve the riddle posed below by some small children:

‘What do you leave behind if you know you have it and what do you take with you if don’t know you have it?’

Lice.

Almost nothing is known about Homer, including his existance, making everything said about him to be either myth, allegorical, or just made up out of whole cloth.

Source: Bulfinch’s Mythology, 1991 – 1st published 1855. Graphic: Bust of Homer, British Museum, Public Domain

Mesopotamian Life After Death

12 July 2024 By in History, History, Philosophy Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Five thousand years ago, Sumerians and Akkadians, occupying what is now southern and central Iraq, respectively, believed souls or spirits after death occupied a subterranean world called Kur or Irkalla.

All those who entered this underworld could not leave but it was not hell or heaven but more of a place to exist after death; as a ghost of your past.

There is no record that Mesopotamians in 3000 BC believed in reincarnation, resurrection, or any form or transmigration of the soul.

With many exceptions, the spirit or ghost that existed in the netherworld maintained the social status that they had when alive. Thus, kings were still kings, slaves were still slaves.

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, he and his friend Enkidu ventured into this underworld to retrieve their lost magical objects and to seek immortality. They did not find the magical objects, but they did find the Plant of Immortality but promptly lost it to a serpent, learning one of the earliest lessons for humanity: never entrust your life to a snake.

Source: Epic of Gilgamesh. Mesopotamian Beliefs by Chaksi, 2014, World History. The Afterlife by Enlightenment Journey. Graphic: Ziggurat of Ur, 21st century BC, dedicated to the Moon god Nanna.

The Noble Lie

5 July 2024 By in History, Philosophy, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

In Plato’s Republic, a “Noble Lie” is a myth, or a falsehood knowingly propagated by the elites to maintain social harmony, or stated succinctly, to keep the plebs in their place and make sure they love it.

Plato believed that society required a class system led by philosophers who needed to create a lie that unites and binds the lower classes to the state. Without this binding myth the classes will turn on each other, and the government will fail.

The Noble Lie myth promoted by Plato, via Socrates, was that the populace was born with hierarchical souls with the upper classes having better souls. Another myth was Karl Marx stating, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs,” formulating a classless society where goods and services were free.

Source: Plato’s Republic. A Noble Lie by Plato Intelligence. Introduction to Plato: The Noble Lie by Paul Krause, 2019, Minerva Wisdom. Graphic: Socrates’ Address by Lebrun, 1867, public domain.

Journalism – Michael Straight

15 June 2024 By in History, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Michael Straight, New Republic publisher, editor, and writer from 1948 to 1956, was a KGB spy associated with the notorious UK Cambridge Five that passed thousands of classified documents and secrets to the KGB from the 1930s through at least the early 1950s.

He worked as a speech writer for Frankin D. Roosevelt and in that administration’s Department of State beginning in 1937. In 1940 he was employed at the Department of State covering the Near East. In 1942 he joined the Air Force and was a pilot of B-17s. After the war he left government service to help run his family’s journalism business: the New Republic. In 1963 he admitted to being a communist spy and outed Anthony Blunt, the recruiter for the Cambridge Five for which he was given immunity from prosecution and a job as Deputy Chairman of the Coordinating Committee for Cuban Affairs in the Kennedy Administration.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War it was revealed that Straight was a much more significant KGB asset than he led the US government to believe.

Source: Historica.fandom.com. History.com. Graphic: Michael Straight at Cambridge, 1936, Public Domain.

The Roman Jewish Wars

1 June 2024 By in History, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

During the first and second centuries AD there were 3 major Jewish revolts against Roman rule in Judea: The first war from 66-73 AD, the Kitos War from 115-117 AD, and the Bar Kokhba Revolt from 132-135 AD. Roman taxation, financial exploitation, religious persecution, oppression, extrajudicial executions, and the plundering of the Second Jewish Temple all contributed to the conflicts.

Roman punishment increased with each successive war eventually leading to wholesale depopulation of Jewish communities by enslavement, death, and exile. It is believed that upwards of 1.3-1.4 million Jews were killed during these revolts, which would have been about one-third of the total worldwide Jewish population. After the Bar Kokhba Revolt the Romans renamed the area Palestina after the Philistines who populated the general area before the 6th century BC.

Source: Josephus. Wikipedia, Heritage-History, WorldHistory, Alchetron, Britannica. Graphic: Roman Triumphal panel from Beth Hatefutsoth showing spoils from the Jewish Temple. Max Morris 2016.

The Antiquities of the Jews

19 May 2024 By in Biography, History, Religion Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Josephus’s 20 volume history of the Jews titled: The Antiquities of the Jews was written to provide an account of the Jewish people for his Roman patrons and protectors.

Below is a synopsis of the 20 volumes:

  • Biblical creation to the death of Abraham’s son Isaac
  • History of Isaac’s sons to the Exodus of Jews from Biblical Egypt
  • Exodus from Egypt to the first 2 years of the 40 years in the wilderness
  • The remaining 38 years in the wilderness to the death of Moses upon reaching Canaan
  • Joshua’s replacement of Moses as leader to the death of the priest Eli
  • The capture of the Ark by the Philistines to the death of King Saul
  • David’s ascension to the throne of the Kingdom of Israel to the death of King David
  • Solomon’s ascension as King of Israel to the death of King Ahab
  • Reign of King Jehoshaphat to the fall of Samaria
  • Babylonian captivity of the Jews and the destruction of the Neo-Assyrian Empire
  • Start of the Persian Empire of Cyrus the Great to the death of Alexander the Great
  • Death of Alexander the Great to the Maccabean Revolt
  • Origins of the Hasmonean dynasty to the death of Queen Alexandra
  • The death of Queen Alexandra to the death of Antigonus II Mattathias
  • Herod the Great’s taking of Jerusalem to the completion of King Herod’s temple
  • Completion of King Herod’s temple to the death of Herod’s sons
  • Death of Herod’s sons to the banishment of King Archelaus

Josephus history covers major portions of the Old Testament including Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel 1&2, 1&2 Kings, 1&2 Chronicles, and Prophets. Josephus’s accounts provide for additional material and commentary not found in other texts including the bible.

Source: Josephus: The Complete Works, 2003. Jewish Virtual Library. World History Encyclopedia. Graphic Joseph, Son of Gorian, by Thomas Emmet, 1880, public domain.

Jewish, Roman, Historian

12 May 2024 By in Biography, Books Nonfiction, History, Philosophy, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Flavius Josephus, a first century Jewish scholar and historian wrote four extant works:

  1. The Jewish War. (Jewish Revolt) 75 AD – The first revolt against the Romans from 66-73 AD
  2. The Antiquities of the Jews. 95 AD – From Adam to the death of Herod’s sons
  3. Against Apion. 97 AD – A defense of Judaism
  4. Vita or The Life of Flavius. 99 AD – Biography

These works provide significant source material and insight into first-century Judaism and Christianity.

Josephus was born into the Jewish priesthood on his father’s side and of Hasmonean royal descent maternally. He served in the Jewish military during the Jewish War but surrendered to the Romans and he was considered a traitor to Jews ever after. While waiting to be executed by the Romans he predicted that Vespasian would eventually be crowned emperor of Rome. Vespasian, because of the prophecy, spared his life and made him a consultant, but still a slave, to the Roman army. Josephus gained his freedom when Vespasian became emperor in 69 AD, at which time he changed his name to Flavius Josephus. Flavius was the family name of the emperor Vespasian.

Source: Josephus: The Complete Works, 2003. Jewish Virtual Library. World History Encyclopedia.

Paul Revere Rides

18 April 2024 By in History, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

On the evening of the 18th of April 1775 Paul Revere galloped through the countryside of Massachusetts to warn the populace that British were coming by water: one if by land, two if by water.

The next day the British, after crossing the Charles River from the Boston side, marched on Concord to try and capture colonial military supplies that had been stored there. The patriots knew of the British plans and moved most of their military equipment elsewhere.

The British had to pass through Lexington as they marched their way to Concord. The first shots between the British and Americans were fired at sunrise at Lexington, signaling the beginning of the Revolutionary War. After a minor skirmish in Lexington the British continued on their way to Concord.

The British marched to Concord with 700 troops and the Americans were eventually able to muster about 3500 militiamen although they only had about 77 at Lexington. During the Battles of Lexington and Concord on that day the British suffered 273 losses and the Americans 95.

Source: History.com and “The Many Rides of Paul Revere” by James Giblin published 2007. Photo of a painting showing Paul Rever’s Midnight Ride by Office of War Information http://www.archives.gov.