The Other Half of History Daily Blog
Thoughts on modern politics from a historical perspective.
Thoughts on modern politics from a historical perspective.
Dear readers,
It’s been over three years since I posted any new content on this website, because I’ve been researching and writing a book on American history which is now available for sale on Amazon.
During this hiatus I’ve been gratified to see that the number of people visiting the website has continued to grow month by month despite the absence of any new posts. I’d like to think that the reason for this ever-increasing audience size is that the content of the site is of interest to readers, who are kind enough to recommend the site to their friends, or post links to it in various places. At any rate the comments and emails I get from visitors to the site have been a great encouragement to me as I toiled away on A Self-Made Nation: The People and Principles that Built America.
Herb Romerstein, a true hero of the Cold War’s intellectual battlegrounds, passed away last week. Among other things Romerstein was the primary author of the indispensable book The Venona Secrets, which describes in painstaking detail the Soviet Union’s penetration of the US government during the 1930’s and 40’s.
Paul Kengor of Grove City College wrote a fitting tribute to Mr. Romerstein for the American Spectator, which is reprinted below with Dr. Kengor’s permission.
This is the twenty-fourth in my series of posts about the five businessmen the History Channel profiled in a terribly inaccurate and un-historical TV miniseries titled The Men Who Built America. I’m writing these posts in response to several comments and e-mails from TV viewers who have expressed interest in a more accurate version of the story. (Click here to see all Al’s columns on the program and its subjects.)
Post #24: The Homestead Steel Mill Strike
In late June of 1892 a labor strike at Andrew Carnegie’s Homestead Steel Works turned deadly when a gunfight erupted between striking workers and the security guards the company had brought in to protect the plant. The History Channel’s portrayal of this event was probably the low point of the entire eight hour The Men Who Built America miniseries. It was pure fiction.
This is the twenty-third in my series of posts about the five businessmen the History Channel profiled in a terribly inaccurate and un-historical TV miniseries titled The Men Who Built America. I’m writing these posts in response to several comments and e-mails from TV viewers who have expressed interest in a more accurate version of the story. (Click here to see all Al’s columns on the program and its subjects.)
Post #23: JP Morgan and the Electric Light
Late in 1878 JP Morgan wrote a letter to his brother-in-law about an investment opportunity that he considered “most important.” “Secrecy at the moment is so essential that that I do not dare put it on paper,” said Morgan. “Subject is Edison’s electric light.”
This is the twenty-second in my series of posts about the five businessmen the History Channel profiled in a terribly inaccurate and un-historical TV miniseries titled The Men Who Built America. I’m writing these posts in response to several comments and e-mails from TV viewers who have expressed interest in a more accurate version of the story. (Click here to see all Al’s columns on the program and its subjects.)
Post #22: Morgan and Vanderbilt vs Carnegie and Rockefeller in 1885
American history is railroad history, at least as far as the late nineteenth century is concerned. The ability to transport goods over land in a cost-effective way was so essential to the development of the nation that virtually everything that happened in the nation’s economy in those years was railroad connected in some way.
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