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Today is the anniversary of one of the more controversial battles in US history - one that has been debated over and over for years. On this day in 1876, Genl George A Custer and large share of the US 7th Cavalry were killed in a battle near the Little Bighorn River in Montana. Because many of us on Free Republic enjoy history as well as debating history, I wanted to post this to see what you all have to say about this battle? Who's fault was it? Did Custer have a bad battle plan? Or did Reno and Benteern...

Back in 1784, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had to decide whether to appease or stand up to armed Middle Eastern pirates. Sound familiar? John McCain and Barack Obama are now engaged in a long-distance dispute over whether talking to America’s enemies is integral to America’s security (with neither one wishing to talk to poor Hillary Clinton any longer). McCain has not so subtly assailed Obama as an “appeaser” for his stated willingness to sit down with the Iranian leadership about its nuclear weapons program and sponsorship of jihadism in Iraq — and never mind for now if that leadership...

When Barack Obama talks about avoiding the "money culture" and the lifestyle of suits and big houses, there is nothing per se wrong with such a call to public service. By the same token, he makes many fine points in his frequent recitals of U.S. history in which the Underground Railroad, the freedom riders, women suffragists, and icons of the civil-rights movement figure prominently. The problem is different and twofold: First, in almost every allusion to our collective past there is mention of reform and protest, all of it needed of course. But after a while, whether inadvertently or not,...

Did you know Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican? Every civil rights law, beginning in the 1860s through the 1950s and 1960s, was fought against by Democrats? Or the KKK had links to the Democratic Party? Not only are these questions addressed by the National Black Republicans Association (NBRA), but also more surprising facts. A few months ago, we had the privilege to meet the chairwoman of NBRA, a brave and gusty woman named Frances Rice. "The double standard looms large when Democrats practice racism," says Rice. "Those who search in the Republican Party haystack for the racist needles,...

Empire building isn't for sissies. Just ask the Spanish conquistadors of the 16th century. Before attacking Indian settlements, they were required to read a summons called the Requerimiento, which spelled out the consequences of resistance: "I assure you that, with the help of God, I will attack you mightily. I will make war against you everywhere and in every way ... I will take your wives and children, and I will make them slaves ... I will take their property. I will do all the harm and damage to you that I can ... I declare that the deaths and...

At this moment in time, the issue of academic freedom is probably more far reaching and is as great a threat to our liberty as limited school choice, dumbed-down curriculum, lack of accountability, or unsafe school environments, which typically dominate when the topic of education is in the news. Thanks to Ben Stein, the issue of Intelligent Design, which falls under academic freedom is garnering renewed attention and hopefully people will tune in and learn more about the importance of presenting a balanced curriculum in our schools, but even more than that, allowing for a more balanced coverage of issues,...

A Conservative History of the American Left, by Daniel J. Flynn (Crown Forum, 436 pp., $27.50) In 1969, the Theater for Ideas organized a symposium to discuss whether acting should be “theater or therapy.” The event was prompted in part by the antics of the Living Theater, which had become famous for asking members of the audience to shed their clothes onstage along with the cast. In an emblematic moment, the distinguished critic Robert Brustein, one of the symposium’s panelists, spoke of the importance of “supremely gifted individuals” such as Chekhov to the theater—and was met with shouts of “F--k...

The following editorial was written a few years ago by Wayne Perryman, an inner city minister in Seattle and the author of Unfounded Loyalty. This is the man who brought a reparations lawsuit against the Democratic Party. What, you didn't hear about that in the media? Imagine that!  A Democrat By Design Or A Democrat By Deception By Rev. Wayne Perryman (African American Historian) Most people are either a Democrat by design, or a Democrat by deception. That is they either know the racist history of the Democrat Party and still chose to be Democrat, or they were deceived...

"I don't want to read anymore of this!" My son angrily threw his history book on the ground. When he cooled down a little, I asked him what was wrong, and he told me in tears about The Trail Of Tears. He couldn't take it. He didn't want to face the fact that our blessed Nation could do something so wrong. He couldn't believe that a lot of our Founding Fathers had been slave owners that had written about freedom while benefitting from the fruits of slave ownership. He was shutting down before my very eyes as to the love...

Did you know that Dr. Martin Luther King was a Republican? I sure didn't – till I read Ronald Kessler's arresting column on the Internet just recently. He was liberally quoting Frances Rice, chairman of the National Black Republican Association, in which she was describing the Democrat Party as the "architect of modern day racism." This was just the first of many fascinating and surprising accusations from someone who is certainly in a position to know what she's talking about. She's a retired Army lieutenant colonel and lawyer, and she avers that it was Republicans who pushed through much of...

Study reveals that the price of land was less important than technological innovationWestern Expansion during the nineteenth century was an important determinant of geographic distribution and economic activity in the United States today. However, while explanations abound for why the migration occurred– from the low price of land to a pioneering spirit – little empirical work has been done to determine which specific market forces were the most important drivers. Applying quantitative analysis to historical explanations, a new study by economist Guillaume Vandenbroucke of the University of Southern California finds that the price of land was significantly less important to...

Ôªø Home 2008 Election Results Election Info Weblogs Guestbook Email Forum News Wiki Links Site Info Store The Electoral College Excerpt from an original document located at Jackson County, MO Election Board In order to appreciate the reasons for the Electoral College, it is essential to understand its historical context and the problem that the Founding Fathers were trying to solve. They faced the difficult question of how to elect a president in a nation that: was composed of thirteen large and small States jealous of their own rights and powers and suspicious of any central national government contained only...

Of all the things that make no sense about New Jersey, the state's failure to invest, promote and capitalize on our Revolutionary War history has always led my list. People who ran state tourism said there was no money in it. But 40 years ago, the government leaders of Pennsylvania saw the 1976 Bicentennial coming and funded the Valley Forge Convention and Visitors Bureau. It cost them about a million bucks to promote the historic significance of the area, the natural beauty and the proximity to Philadelphia. In time, hotels and restaurants went up, most with a historic theme. Within...

There is a Christmas story at the birth of this country that very few Americans know. It involves a single act by George Washington -- his refusal to take absolute power -- that affirms our own deepest beliefs about self-government, and still has profound meaning in today's world. To appreciate its significance, however, we must revisit a dark period at the end of America's eight-year struggle for independence. The story begins with Gen. Washington's arrival in Annapolis, Md., on Dec. 19, 1783. The country was finally at peace -- just a few weeks earlier the last British army on American...

This Christmas marks the 350th anniversary of the least-honoured genesis of American freedom, to be celebrated in the New York suburb of Queens. For only the fourth time in its history a fragile piece of paper called the Flushing Remonstrance will go on display. Written in 1657 by the English citizens of the Long Island village of Flushing, it asserted their right to freedom of conscience against the autocracy of Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch governor of their colony of New Netherland. It thus long predated the “self-evident truths” of Jefferson’s 1776 Declaration of Independence. The Flushing Remonstrance protested against Stuyvesant’s...

The REAL Story of Thanksgiving... Dead White Guys - Or - What Your History Books Never Told You RUSH: From my second bestseller, "See, I Told You So, ""Chapter 6, "Dead White guys, or What the History Books Never Told You: The True Story of Thanksgiving." The story of the Pilgrims begins in the early part of the seventeenth century (that's the 1600s for those of you in Rio Linda, California). The Church of England under King James I was persecuting anyone and everyone who did not recognize its absolute civil and spiritual authority. Those who challenged ecclesiastical authority and...

By Christopher CookLet's talk about something fun, for a change: the big alcoholic hit of 1750....Creaming Flip! I first heard of this drink on one of Michael Medved's tapes on American history, and I was so intrigued that I just had to try it. And, as it turned out, we actually had an opportunity not only to make this drink for ourselves, but to showcase it at a drink-making contest being hosted by some friends. My wife and I are not big alcohol aficionados; we enjoy the occasional drink...a glass of port with a cigar, muscat with some sorbet, or...

The original targets of the Ku Klux Klan were Republicans, both black and white, according to a new television program and book, which describe how the Democrats started the KKK and for decades harassed the GOP with lynchings and threats. An estimated 3,446 blacks and 1,297 whites died at the end of KKK ropes from 1882 to 1964. The documentation has been assembled by David Barton of Wallbuilders and published in his book "Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White," which reveals that not only did the Democrats work hand-in-glove with the Ku Klux Klan for generations,...

AMERICANA, Brazil Now well past 90, Judith MacKnight Jones is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, the illness that robbed her of all of her memory, her most precious asset. She has been lying here for the past 11 years, covered by a patchwork blanket, made from pieces her great-grandmother brought from the United States between 1865 and 1885, after the Confederacy lost the Civil War. Unable to speak or remember now, her book "Soldado Descanso" ("Rest Soldier") is written in Portuguese, but soon will be translated into English, as the publisher thinks Americans should know about the proud history of Confederate...

As early preparations for the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 get underway in Canada and the United States, organizers in Canada have run into an unexpected hitch: Their American counterparts seem to think they won. The historical disconnect between American and Canadian interpretations of the war, during which tens of thousands of American troops invaded Canada - then still a British colony - and were repulsed by the outnumbered defenders, has left Canadian organizers of the bicentennial events shaking their heads in bemusement at their American colleagues' staunch insistence that the war was a victory for the then-young...

Few opinions I've expressed on air have produced a more indignant, outraged reaction than my repeated insistence that the word "genocide" in no way fits as a description of the treatment of Native Americans by British colonists or, later, American settlers. I've never denied that the 400 year history of American contact with the Indians includes many examples of white cruelty and viciousness --- just as the Native Americans frequently (indeed, regularly) dealt with the European newcomers with monstrous brutality and, indeed, savagery. In fact, reading the history of the relationship between British settlers and Native Americans its obvious that...

The creation of the United States Constitution—John Adams described the Constitutional Convention as "the greatest single effort of national deliberation that the world has ever seen"—was a seminal event in the history of human liberty. The story of that creation in the summer of 1787 is itself a significant aspect in determining the meaning of the document.In June 1776, amid growing sentiment for American independence and after hostilities with the British army had commenced at Lexington, Massachusetts, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced a resolution in the Second Continental Congress for the colonies to collectively dissolve political connections with Great...

h A revolt in an undeveloped colony on the fringe of civilization, led by a big landowner and slaveholder with little education or military experience, brought to success by help from France in its feud with the British colonizers. That's how a cynical European might have described the American Revolution. Jay Winik's new account of the period takes a different view in American Revolution presented as source of worldwide political changes ever since "The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World, 1788-1800" (Harper Collins, 659 pages, $29.95). He feels that history may never have seen a group...

Ruthless, unconventional foes are not new to the United States of America. More than two hundred years ago the newly established United States made its first attempt to fight an overseas battle to protect its private citizens by building an international coalition against an unconventional enemy. Then the enemies were pirates and piracy. The focus of the United States and a proposed international coalition was the Barbary Pirates of North Africa. Pirate ships and crews from the North African states of Tripoli, Tunis, Morocco, and Algiers (the Barbary Coast) were the scourge of the Mediterranean. Capturing merchant ships and holding...

The foundation marked Gormley’s achievement with a donation of books — seven volumes of the journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition — to the Tomlinson Library at Mesa State College. The journals of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark... were edited by Gary Moulton and published by the University of Nebraska Press. They are known among today’s historians as the best and most current version of the duo’s journey through the American West. Mesa State College Library Director Elizabeth Brodak said the fact that the books are forms of primary source material... “Anyone who wishes to get that flavor for...

A review of 33 Questions About American History You're Not Supposed To Ask By Thomas E. Woods Jr. Crown Forum, New York, 2007 "History has many cunning passages..." T.S. Eliot, Gerontion, (1920). History is a supremely complex discipline. Take, for example, the following "philosophically pregnant" description of the historical process provided by the erudite, Dr. Eric Voegelin: "The process of history, and such order as can be discerned in it, is not the story to be told from beginning to its happy, or unhappy, end; it is a mystery in process of revelation." Another truth about history is that it's...

Before Mayor Bloomberg starts shelling out money to high school juniors for passing their New York State Regents exams, he would do well to bring as much scrutiny to the content of these tests as he does to the quantity of trans fats in restaurant food. People who took their Regents exams 30 years ago assume that the current version of the tests is essentially the same. They would be stunned to learn how dumbed-down the tests have become. You might say that the American history Regents gives new meaning to the term “E-Z Pass.” The test has three components:...

Who was the man that some consider to be the first president of the United States? Samuel Huntington was born into a family of ten children. Three of his brothers were sent to study theology at Yale, but Samuel’s parents decided that his education would be of a different kind. They apprenticed Samuel to become a cooper and enlisted his help in running the family farm. However, a farmer was not what Samuel wanted to be. At age twenty-two, he left the family farm in pursuit of bigger dreams. Intent on becoming a lawyer, Samuel decided to teach himself all...

Sunlight is the best disenfectant.~ Justice Louis Brandeis There's always a conflict of interest when people who don't really like America are called upon to teach about its history.~ Ellis Washington (a paraphrase of Ann Coulter) How did the eight so-called "Ivy League" schools – Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Brown, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell and Dartmouth – go from being training grounds for Christian missionaries and ministers and respected citadels of higher education to what they are now – propaganda factories for every leftist, perverted, radical, tyrannical, failed ideology known to mankind? – Marxism, Darwinism, Freudianism, Higher Criticism, communism, multiculturalism,...

<p>ROANOKE ISLAND, N.C. - Researchers believe they may be able to use DNA to uncover the fate of the Lost Colony, which vanished shortly after more than 100 people settled on Roanoke Island in 1587.</p> <p>Using genealogy, deeds and historical narratives, researchers have compiled 168 surnames that could be connected to settlers in what is considered the first attempt by the English to colonize the New World. The team will try to trace the roots of individuals related to the colonists, to the area's 16th century American Indians or to both.</p>

Every weekday morning, two students ring chimes over the public address system of Jamaica High School in Queens and begin the day’s announcements. But before they report varsity teams’ results, the weather, and assorted items of school interest, they ask that everyone rise and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Shortly after September 11, the New York City Board of Education issued a directive requiring the daily recitation of the Pledge in schools. It needn’t have bothered. As Diane Ravitch pointed out in an op-ed not long after the attacks, a longstanding state law already mandated the practice. As the current...

The much-anticipated book by three senior LDS historians about the Mountain Meadows Massacre is a detailed, thorough exploration of the horrific crime told in a compelling narrative, but it still omits crucial contextual elements of the story and certainly won't end all debate. That was the conclusion of three historians who have read a version of Massacre at Mountain Meadows by Ronald Walker, Richard Turley and Glen Leonard, due out later this year by Oxford University Press. The critics presented their views before a packed audience Friday at a session of the Mormon History Association's annual meeting in Salt Lake...

The Teaching American History podcast will provide subscribers with a weekly seminar from a leading history scholar from our extensive audio archive. These seminars are designed to encourage teachers to seriously examine significant events in American history in light of the principles of the American founding, and also to encourage the use of primary source materials in the classroom. Frequently Asked Questions about Podcasts: What is a podcast? Podcasts are audio files that are automatically delivered directly to your computer and can be transferred to your iPod or other portable MP3 player. If you are familiar with RSS, simply think...

The Prince of Wales was a "most likeable person", President Gaddafi a "mad clown" and Michael Jackson was "surprisingly shy". The private diaries of Ronald Reagan, which are about to be published for the first time, reveal a US president who was worried about imminent Armageddon but who also fretted about how he would handle chopsticks in front of the Chinese. The man who was credited with ending the Cold War reveals that he was "lonesome" when his wife, Nancy, was away and refused to talk to their son, Ron Junior, after he hung up on him. His carefully handwritten...

America’s first confrontation with the Islamic world helped forge a new nation’s character. When I first began to plan my short biography of Thomas Jefferson, I found it difficult to research the chapter concerning the so-called Barbary Wars: an event or series of events that had seemingly receded over the lost horizon of American history. Henry Adams, in his discussion of our third president, had some boyhood reminiscences of the widespread hero-worship of naval officer Stephen Decatur, and other fragments and shards showed up in other quarries, but a sound general history of the subject was hard to come by....

The quadricentennial of the Jamestown settlement will be noted this spring. Whether it will be celebrated is a freighted question. Virginia has gone to some expense and effort remembering the founding settlers of 1607. Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is serving as honorary chair of what is being called “America's 400th Birthday.” There will be musical performances, lectures and seminars. The Queen of England will visit on May 4 and 5. But emblematic of our troubled understanding of our past and our present discomfort with our national identity, the powers that be in Virginia have decided not to...

Circle of Six: The True Story of New York's Most Notorious Cop-Killer and The Cop Who Risked Everything to Catch Him. http://www.amazon.com/Circle-Six-Notorious-Cop-Killer-Everything/dp/1932857397CIRCLE OF SIX The True Story of New York's Most Notorious Cop-Killer and the Cop Who Risked Everything to Catch Him In 1972, New York City was plagued with protests, riots, and general unrest. It was during this defining year that one of the Police Department's most scandalous cases occurred: the murder of Police Officer Phillip Cardillo. On Friday, April 14, 1972, the police were summoned to Mosque Number 7 in Harlem, led at the time by the Nation...

'Celebration' banned for Jamestown's 400thEvents marking settlement's anniversary condemn its 'holocaust' Posted: March 8, 20071:00 a.m. Eastern By Bob Unruh© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com This year is the 400th anniversary of the arrival of settlers in Jamestown, 13 years before the Plymouth Pilgrims appeared on America's shores. And there will be discussions on the environmental impact of the settlement and its impact on African-Americans and Native Americans. But there will be no celebration. "You can't celebrate an invasion," Mary Wade, a member of Jamestown 2007 organizing committee, has stated. After all, Indian tribes "were pushed back off of their land, even killed. Whole tribes...

Is Keith Ellison actually the first Muslim to serve in the U. S. Congress? According to the national media, the answer is a resounding “Yes!” [5] That may well be true; however, John Randolph of Virginia, who served in Congress from 1799-1834, expressed that in his early years in Congress, he held a position "in favor of Mahomedanism" [6] and "rejoiced in all its triumphs over the cross [Christianity]." [7] Randolph was not a Muslim in the same sense as Ellison, but he certainly cultivated what he described as a position of "natural repugnance to Christianity." [8] Francis Scott Key,...

For World War II veteran Sam Stia, a legislative proposal that would cease requiring New Jersey schools to teach about Veterans Day and Memorial Day can be summed up in two words. "That's wrong," Mr. Stia, 83, said from his Hamilton home, where he flies an American flag at half-staff to honor fallen soldiers. "We're just giving our flag away and our patriotism away." Mr. Stia and other veterans are steamed about the proposal, which state lawmakers unanimously passed last month. It now awaits action by the governor. It was included as part of a larger measure designed to help...

EULESS — A metal object found at a business parking lot last week has been identified as a 140-year-old artillery shell from the Civil War era, authorities said Friday.The live round was scheduled to be defused in a few days by the members of the Northeast Explosive Response Team, who retrieved the shell on Jan. 5 from property at Simtek Inc.Authorities believe the shell could still contain black powder.“It still had a fuse cap at the end of it,” said Euless fire investigator Vernon Gilmore.A military official identified the shell this week after being shown photographs of it.The shell was...

Richard Ryerson thanks those in attendance at the David Library of the American Revolution for helping him celebrate the publishing of the five-volume encyclopedia on the American Revolutionary War, which he co-edited. (Photo by Matthew Fleishman) The David Library of the American Revolution can add a new book to its shelves. Well, five books to be exact, as the Encyclopedia of the American Revolutionary War edited by Richard Ryerson, the academic director at the library, and Gregory Fremont-Barnes was published. The David Library celebrated the release with a cocktail party in Ryerson's honor on Friday, October 13. A five-volume...

The Revolutionary War-era musket was found hanging on a wall in a South Street shop that deals in masks and other African art. Since then, the mystery of who made it - and used it - has consumed Scott Musser, a general contractor from New Jersey and addict of TV's History Channel. He bought the musket in July from the Pearl of Africa Shop on South near 6th, paying $125, plus tax. The gun had been spotted high up on the wall by Musser's wife, Lisa. The five-foot-long weapon has a fitting for a bayonet, which is missing, and a...

Every so often, one hears the argument that "Left and Right" are outdated terms, or that there really aren't enormous differences in the ways the Left and Right view America, the world, men and women, and just about every other important aspect of life. I wish this were true. But the gaps between the Left and Right on almost every issue that matters -- including and especially issues of good and evil -- are in fact unbridgeable. That is why, for many years, I have invited leading representatives of the intellectual Left onto my radio show. Not in order to...

The American Revolution’s Continental Army was fighting hard in late 1777. General George Washington faced serious need of soldiers to serve through more than the usual 90-day enlistment. General James Varnum gave him the idea to raise a regiment of volunteer “Blacks, Mulattoes, and Indians” from Northern colonies, and in January 1778 Washington ordered Rhode Island governor Nicholas Cooke to organize the new force. While Northern slave-owners received 120 English pounds for each volunteer, the volunteers themselves were promised more than pay---full freedom in exchange for loyal service through the war. By June 10, about 138 Northerïn slaves from several...

The history of the United States is a tale of constant oppression— a story of a checkered past where political leaders and economic moguls continually acted in their own self-interest… or so many left-leaning history authors would prefer modern Americans to believe. American history has been hijacked by the left wing, where the mistakes of America’s past such as slavery, disenfranchisement, and class warfare are overemphasized, while Franklin D. Roosevelt is simultaneously glorified as the savior of the twentieth century with his New Deal policies. While most textbooks of that nature may cast American history in a bad light and...

American history has been under attack since the 1920's when Communist and American historian, Charles Beard, made himself famous by pushing the claim that the Constitution was merely a document of hate and greed as opposed to one based on any sort of high principle. Needless to say, an ever-left leaning Academia loved him for it. Now, what passes for "History" in our schools is repeated waves of fad history focusing on what is considered the latest minority who had been given short-shrift in our eeevil and racist past, crashing upon the eroding shoes of our schools decade after decade....

A national group is asking Arizona's public universities to require at least one United States history course of every student before graduation. American History currently isn't a required course at any of the state's major public universities. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni has written letters to Gov. Janet Napolitano and 20 state lawmakers, asking them to pressure college regents and administrators to make the change. "The flag doesn't mean all that much if you don't know how it got there," trustees member Charles Mitchell said. "What use is the Constitution if you don't know how it was written?"...

The nature of theocracy in the New England colonies is widely misunderstood. Few recognize that the New England town meeting, the prototype of American institutions of democratic self-government, was nothing more than the governing process of each Congregational (Puritan) church community. Theocracy is a broad term encompassing many different degrees of religious influence in civil government. Critics of New England Puritanism focus on two aspects: exclusion of non-church members from civil government, and reprobation of moral laxity. Looking back at Puritanism only through the lens of present-day cultural standards leads most people to conclude that Puritans were repressive and anti-democratic....

WILLIAMSBURG—If one becomes a British knight by rendering extraordinary service to the crown, it's hard to imagine anyone more deserving of a knighthood than Capt. John Smith. Yet Smith, a soldier, explorer and diplomat of the first order, a man some consider largely responsible for the success of the first permanent English settlement in the New World, was never knighted. That's because the importance of Smith's accomplishments was not recognized until after his death. But a group of local residents doesn't think little things like death or 400 years should keep Britain from recognizing the man who opened the New...