History Rhymes

28Dec/090

Video of King George V of Great Britain

In continuing with interesting old videos of European monarchs of the late nineteenth/early twentieth century, I have posted a video of the Duke of York (later King George V of Great Britain). This is a longer video than the last, but nevertheless interesting. The video is from 1901. I find it quite fascinated to watch these old videos knowing that they were filmed over a century ago.

Note: If you cannot view the video above, you need to download a browser which supports the latest HTML 5 standards. Firefox is a good and free choice. You can also download the video here.

Tagged as: England, Great Britain, King George V No Comments

18Dec/090

Video of Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria

This is a very short, but interesting video showing Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria in 1910 or so. It really doesn't show much other than the emperor himself and some of his subjects.

Note: If you cannot view the video above, you need to download a browser which supports the latest HTML 5 standards. Firefox is a good and free choice. You can also download the video here.

Tagged as: Austria, Emperor, Empire, Francis Joseph, Hungary No Comments

13Dec/090

The Making of Europe

The Making of Europe by Robert Bartlett

I've just begun reading a new and so far very interesting book about European conquest, colonization and cultural change in the late medieval/early middle ages period. I will be spending a significant amount of time over my break pouring through this book as it is quite interesting.

It starts off talking about the expansion of Latin Christendom from Rome throughout the rest of Western and Eastern Europe. It also discusses the spread of European aristocracy and the constant conquests and "adventures" which they pursued including the Crusades. I haven't read much further than that, but what I have read has been really fascinating.

Tagged as: Europe, medieval, middle ages No Comments

10Dec/090

Wyoming Territorial Prison Museum

Wyoming Territorial Prison

The semester is finally over for me. I had my last final and had to turn in my last paper yesterday. The paper was an interesting paper, however, because it involved the history of the Wyoming Territorial Prison Museum. It wasn't about this history of the prison itself, but rather of the site as a museum. The research we did was original research. One of the requirements for the paper was to conduct an oral interview with a person who has been involved somehow with the administration of the museum at some point since it became a museum in 1990.

My interviewee was originally supposed to be a lady who has worked there (and still continues to work there) since the early nineties. Unfortunately I was unable to get ahold of her in time, so I ended up interviewing my professor who was involved with evaluating a couple of grants for the Prison Museum, reviewing a script for a movie that was to be made about the prison and is even currently serving on the Master Planning Committee for the Prison Museum.

As the first oral history interview I've ever done, I think it actually went rather well. The interview will be archived at the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming for future reference.

Tagged as: Territorial Prison, Wyoming No Comments

28Nov/090

The Ploughman from Bohemia

Der Ackermann aus Böhmen

One of the research papers I am currently working on for my German literature class is about the ad hominem style of argumentation in the rhetorical dialog Der Ackermann aus Böhmen, or The Ploughman from Bohemia. While I am not going to go into the style of argumentation used in the text on this blog, I do want to discuss its historic significance.

The text was written ca. 1400 by Johannes von Tepl (or sometimes also known as Johannes von Saaz) and was first published in 1460. To sum it up briefly, the work is a Streitgespräch, or rhetorical dialog, between der Ackermann and Death. Der Ackermann is grieving for his wife who Death had just recently stolen from him which leads to an argument between the two. Of course der Ackermann argues that Death murdered his wife and thus should be properly punished, while Death argues that everyone must die otherwise there would be no room for anyone anymore on this earth. This is done between insulting each other. There are necessarily many details that I am choosing to omit here that are quite entertaining, but irrelevant for this post.

What is most fascinating about the dialog is the change of emphasis from religion and God to the direct confrontation between man and Death. It isn't until the end of the text that God finally breaks in between the two and establishes his judgement. Other interpretations place der Ackermann and Death in a court-like environment of which God is the judge, der Ackermann the plaintiff and Death the defendant. Both of these views are valid, however whichever standpoint the reader comes from, he or she must admit that the text breaks new ground in the question of God and religion. Der Ackermann aus Böhmen was written about a century before Luther's reformation, so Catholic doctrine was still the norm at the time.

I've included some links to the full text in both the original High Middle German and an English translation:

Original German
English (titled here as "The Husbandman and Death")

Tagged as: Der Ackermann aus Böhmen, Johannes von Saaz, Johannes von Tepl, Literature, Ploughman from Bohemia No Comments

9Nov/090

Fall of the Wall

The Berlin Wall by the Brandenburger Tor.

Unless you've been living in a cave, you've probably noticed by now that today marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was on this day, November 9th, in 1989 that the Wall was breached and East Germans finally allowed into West Germany.

This was the result of a long, complicated process by which the Soviet Union and other communist states in Eastern Europe slowly collapsed throughout the 1980s. Originally, the East German government only wanted to reform -- like its Soviet counterparts -- by offering its citizens more freedom. Part of this freedom was the ability to move between the two Germanys. Once the Wall was breached, however, the reunification of Germany became possible and even became a part of official policy. After almost a year of negotiations, Germany officially became one country again on October 3, 1990.

Tagged as: Berlin Wall, DDR, East Germany, GDR, Unification, West Germany No Comments

27Oct/090

The First Permanent Photograph

Today I was killing time by browsing Wikipedia and ran across a very interesting photograph. It is a photograph taken by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826 and is considered to be the first permanent photograph ever taken. Although difficult to make out, it is a photograph of buildings taken from a window in his apartment.

One of the more interesting aspects of it in my opinion is that the photograph required an eight hour exposure during daylight which means if you look closely, you can see that the buildings are illuminated from both the east and the west sides. I also find it quite fascinating that this photograph was taken almost 200 years ago and is, in some respects, a quick and simple glance into that time period.

Here is the photo:

View from the Window at Le Gras - The first permanent photograph taken by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826.

Tagged as: First Photograph, Photography No Comments

25Oct/090

The Battle of the Washita

Marker at Battle of the Washita

Last Friday I gave a talk about the Battle of the Washita to a group of undergraduate students and because of that I thought I would create a post here about this particularly interesting battle.

The Battle of the Washita was a battle that took place in the morning of November 27, 1868. The Seventh Division of the US Calvary under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer surrounded a Cheyenne village in the night and at the first sign of day light, attacked the village. Men, women and children were killed in the chaos, however, most of the women and children were taken prisoner to later be used as a bargaining chip to try to convince the Cheyenne to settle their reservations.

Despite losing some of their own officers and other prominent men in the Seventh Division, Custer and his command were successful. In the immediate aftermath of the battle, they had control of the village, they had taken most of the village's women and children prisoner and they had control of the village livestock -- most of which were killed to prevent them from falling into the hands of the enemy again.

The Battle of the Washita

The Battle of the Washita was the first battle of a winter campaign designed by General Sheridan to bring the Cheyenne, Kiowa and Arapaho tribes into their reservations with the intention of stopping the raids performed by these tribes on settlers and frontier towns. Winter was chosen as the time of year because the tribes were at their weakest due to poor grazing for their war ponies who spent most of the winter barely surviving. They also did not expect a military campaign to be directed against them in the heart of winter.

By the end of the winter campaign in the spring of 1869, Custer and his command had successfully convinced the majority of the Kiowa, Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes to settle their reservations in the interest of peace.

Tagged as: Arapaho, Cheyenne, Custer, Kiowa No Comments

23Oct/090

History Translations

German WWI soldier, Dieter Finzen

I've been contacted by the person running the online journal of Dieter Finzen and asked if I would be willing to do translations for the site. The idea behind the site is to post journal entries made by the German World War I solider, Dieter Finzen. Each entry is posted 93 years after it was originally written. The entries were originally written in German of course, but I will be translating them into English. The English translations will be posted at the same time as the original German versions. There will also be French translations for those of you who prefer French.

I find the journal very interesting because it provides a good insight into the life of a German soldier during the First World War. As Americans, we hear about the American, British and French sides of the war, but we rarely get an opportunity to see it from the German perspective. This website gives us a unique view of what life was like for the German solider during this war.

You can find the blog here: http://dieter-finzen.blogspot.com.

Tagged as: Diary, Germany, Journal, Translations, WWI No Comments

16Sep/090

Article by General Sherman on his ‘Grand Strategy’ of the Civil War

Another blog I regularly follow pointed me in the direction of a very interesting article written by General William T. Sherman about his 'Grand Strategy' of the Civil War. It's interesting to read Sherman's take on it about two decades after it actually took place.

I know this post is a bit short, but unfortunately I don't have a whole lot of time to write more at the moment. Future posts will be longer and more informative.

Tagged as: William T. Sherman No Comments

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