“Life imitates art far more than art imitates life,” penned Oscar Wilde in an 1889 essay, “The Decay of Lying.” Yet “The Gettysburg Cyclorama: The Turning Point of the Civil War on Canvas” is one exception. The book’s writers, Chris Brenneman and Sue Boardman, who have worked as licensed guides at the Gettysburg National Military…
Book Recommender: ‘The Gettysburg Cyclorama,’ Discover the Story Behind the Most Iconic Painting of the Civil War Battle
Adventures of a 13-Year-Old American Kid in World War II Italy
Joseph Moraglia was born in Brooklyn on July 4, 1931. He was the youngest of nine children born to Domenico and Rosa Moraglia. Fittingly for being born on the Fourth of July, he was the only child of the Italian family born in the United States. Joseph turned 91 this year. He’s the poster child…
How Government ‘Helped Advance’ One of Greatest Inventions of the 19th Century: The Telegraph
No mortal being knows tomorrow as well as he knows yesterday, but that doesn’t stop very many from predicting the future anyway—sometimes suggesting a measure of scientific precision by offering excruciating detail. Nobody knows what 2023’s GDP growth will be, nor what the temperature will be on Christmas Day in Chicago, but you can bet…
McCullough’s History Never Boring
Commentary I hated college history. The textbooks were mostly about dead white men, Abigail Adams excepted. The lectures were boring. I didn’t see how any of it related to my young life and future plans. Historian David McCullough, who died this week at age 89, helped change my attitude toward history and its contemporary relevance. At…
The Untold Story Behind a Costly Mistake that Led to America’s Deadliest Natural Disaster in History
sam“The whole story will never be told, because it cannot be told.” This was the dispatch sent to the Associated Press office in Chicago from the manager of the Galveston News on September 12, 1900, four days after a catastrophic hurricane dealt death, desolation, and destruction to the thriving sand-barrier island located about 2 miles…
Remembering Samuel Chapman, the Civil War General Who Became an Educator for Freed Slaves
August 12, 2022
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African AmericansAmerican EssenceArts & CultureBrightCivil WareducationHampton InstituteHistorySamuel Chapman Armstrong
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Samuel Chapman Armstrong was the founder of Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (now Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia). A native of Hawaii, he fought with the Union Army during the Civil War and was eventually awarded the brevet rank of brigadier general of volunteers. After working for the Freedmen’s Bureau in Virginia, he recognized that…
From Car Parts to Machine Guns: An American Company’s Ingenuity Propelled the Allied Forces Toward Victory
We laud as heroes men and women who fight for a cause, or speak moving words, or stand up for timeless ideals—and rightly so. Yet some of the greatest heroes of World War II were the men and women on the home front, who applied their cleverness, tenacity, and famous American entrepreneurial innovation to equip…
Training the Virginia Regiment: How Colonel George Washington’s Military Prowess Primed Him for Success in the Revolutionary War
August 12, 2022
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American EssenceAmerican RevolutionArts & CultureBrightFrench and Indian WarGeorge WashingtonHistoryVirginia Regiment
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The unparalleled events of George Washington’s life could fill half a dozen biographies of men with standard accomplishments. It is natural that his exploits as a revolutionary general and president would overshadow his early experiences in the French and Indian War. But without these initial achievements, the later ones would not have been possible. During…
How Mark Twain Discovered His Wit and Style as a Reporter Working in America’s Rough and Tumble West
Twentieth-century American author William Faulkner called him “the father of American literature.” But few of his compatriots today know of his raucous literary upbringing in a silver-mining boomtown. Unaccomplished and undecided as to his future, he first took up writing as a career in Nevada, and there he adopted a pen name and attracted a…
The 2 Monsters of the French Revolution Who Were Consumed by Power—and Lost Their Heads on the Same Day
“Most arts have produced miracles, while the art of government has produced nothing but monsters.” The man who spoke those words was one of history’s premiere authorities on the subject. He was a monster himself, made so by the toxin we call “power.” On July 28, 1794, he and a famous cohort departed this earth…
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