tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4130421352415377273.post3838895961110433854..comments2024-03-28T16:31:23.093-07:00Comments on Books in Northport: Let’s Think Carefully, Then Talk to Each OtherP. J. Grathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12693462910472164289noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4130421352415377273.post-51114273641687413752017-07-05T08:40:55.173-07:002017-07-05T08:40:55.173-07:00Thanks for all comments and suggestions. Helen, I ...Thanks for all comments and suggestions. Helen, I would be honored to have you share my post on your timeline. Glad to have that 13-lined ground squirrel positively ID'd, too! The description in the Baker's big MICHIGAN MAMMALS book gave a handy clue: this particular ground squirrel's stripes do not continue onto the head, as do the stripes of Eastern chipmunks. <br /><br />Peter, I know what you mean by our world reputation. All our lives, we have been accustomed to having our country looked up to, and it hurts to lose that source of pride. <br /><br />I continue with the AMBIGUITY reading. Last night I read an excerpt from a very flowery 19th-century patriot account, that of George Bankcroft, whose history of the United States eventually ran to 10 volumes and who saw our country's founding as the inevitable result of moral evolution in the world. "The spirit of the age moved the young nation to own justice as antecedent and superior to the state, and to found the rights of the citizen on the rights of man. And yet ... [i]ts form of government grew naturally out of its traditions by the simple rejection of all personal hereditary authority...."<br /><br />The following chapter presents "The Case for the British," from a review by Herbert Levi Osgood of Moses Coit Tyler's THE LITERARY HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1763-1783. By "literature" Tyler and Osgood have in mind all written documents, and Osgood points out that precious few historians before Tyler bothered to undertake the laborious job of researching written records in England that had never before been gathered into a book. Tyler's argument, with which Osgood seems to agree, is that the Declaration's language against King George and his usurpations and settled design of despotism were greatly overblown and that Parliament should have borne "at least an equal share of the blame." The trouble was that the colonists "had no effective legal guaranties against Parliament" in their charters. Also, the need for military defense of the colonies made sense. <br /><br />It's fascinating to read so many different views of our American Revolution. P. J. Grathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12693462910472164289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4130421352415377273.post-43000133806917577082017-07-05T07:47:19.052-07:002017-07-05T07:47:19.052-07:00So torn about this 4th of July because I honor and...So torn about this 4th of July because I honor and apreciate the genuine patriotic feelings most of us have. Yet I am disturbed by the undercutting of so many programs which supported the American people by the Trump administration and the blatant ignoring of the truth in so many Presidential statements. Most of all, I cringe at the America first feelings when America is no longer considered a paragon of freedom by most of the world.<br />Ozwolcotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05170896710901993816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4130421352415377273.post-11615667117730089442017-07-05T06:13:25.060-07:002017-07-05T06:13:25.060-07:00Very thought-provoking, Pamela.
Very thought-provoking, Pamela. <br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10535265828736447712noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4130421352415377273.post-77542796970090621082017-07-05T03:11:57.100-07:002017-07-05T03:11:57.100-07:00Thanks for these thoughts and references, Pamela. ...Thanks for these thoughts and references, Pamela. Paul Moyer is one of our heroes, too. And, yes, it's hard to reflect clearly on where we are, where we came from, and where we are going. One of the more disturbing, and helpful, books I've been promoting lately is Timothy Snyder's short, clear, compact On Tyranny: 20 Lessons from from the 20th Century.Porterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15815858880454073481noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4130421352415377273.post-18881217199096851932017-07-04T17:29:42.658-07:002017-07-04T17:29:42.658-07:00We moved to Washington when I was in high school. ...We moved to Washington when I was in high school. I was not happy about it, but there were compensations, especially for someone who loves history. I remember going to see the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution displayed under bulletproof glass in a case that was lowered into a deep vault each night. (That's what I remember. I do not know if the memory is accurate.) What I know is true is that looking at those documents, right there under my nose, made their promise more real to me. I was young. I've learned that the promise was real, but it takes more work than I would ever have realized to make sure that it is kept for all of us, all the time. Maybe one day. Maybe not in my lifetime. But the work is worth doing. <br /><br />Also worth doing - paying attention to the wildlife. I looked up that stripy little rodent in my beloved Stan Tekiela, and his photo of the "Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel" (<i>Spermophilus tridecemlineatus</i>) looks just like yours.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4130421352415377273.post-80117627747782821052017-07-04T15:58:46.501-07:002017-07-04T15:58:46.501-07:00Loved this. May I post it on my timeline?Loved this. May I post it on my timeline?Farshaw@FineOldBooks.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05663199582891083995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4130421352415377273.post-81634455834547978802017-07-04T12:00:55.746-07:002017-07-04T12:00:55.746-07:00Well said. It's all very confusing, contrary,...Well said. It's all very confusing, contrary, and heartbreaking. Dawnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00824027366993286152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4130421352415377273.post-72224558726152716302017-07-04T11:56:13.174-07:002017-07-04T11:56:13.174-07:00Thanks for the Kennedy quote, Ty. A piece in yeste...Thanks for the Kennedy quote, Ty. A piece in yesterday's New York Times also inspired me: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/02/business/media/independent-press-is-under-siege-as-freedom-rings.html<br />as well as a boxed row of quotes from presidents all the way through George W. Bush, stressing the importance of a free press. <br /><br />On a completely different subject, do you think that last photo shows a thirteen-lined ground squirrel? It certainly had a lot of stripes, much stripier than our ordinary chipmunks closer to the house.P. J. Grathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12693462910472164289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4130421352415377273.post-2889813574847867312017-07-04T10:09:24.113-07:002017-07-04T10:09:24.113-07:00Pamela, a great 4th of July message. Thank you. I...Pamela, a great 4th of July message. Thank you. In his Inaugural Address, President Kennedy said, 'So let us begin anew -- remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness ...' twessellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02249644358113755147noreply@blogger.com