Category Archives: Books

Retro-Post number 5: “Race–and History–Matter” (April 1, 2013)

Posted on September 3, 2022 by georgelamplugh

[Note: Anyone who has followed this blog for a while is surely aware that one of my constant themes is the significance of race in the history of the United States. Here is an early example of that dictum, from … Continue reading →

Posted in Age of Jim Crow, American History, Books, building a classroom persona, Civil Rights Movement, Constitution of 1787, Current Events, Dr. Martin Luther King, Education, Georgia History, Historical Reflection, History, History Curriculum, History Teaching, Interdisciplinary Work, Martin Luther King, Popular Culture, prep school teaching with a PhD, Research, Retirement, Southern (Georgia) History, Southern History, Teaching | 4 Comments

Reflections on Race, Part 2 (Teaching Civil Rights, 15)

Posted on April 2, 2022 by georgelamplugh

[Note: This is the concluding part of a look at how, in retrospect, I came to terms with the question of race in the history of this nation, which I taught for forty years; its present, where I live; and … Continue reading →

Posted in ""state rights", Age of Jim Crow, American History, Books, building a classroom persona, Civil Rights Movement, Current Events, Delaware, Delta Blues, Dr. Martin Luther King, Education, Georgia History, Historical Reflection, History, History Curriculum, History graduate school, History Teaching, Interdisciplinary Work, memoir, Newark (Del.) High School Class of 1962, Popular Culture, Prep School, prep school teaching with a PhD, Research, Retirement, Southern (Georgia) History, Southern History, Taylor Branch, Teaching, The Blues, Uncategorized | 5 Comments

A Post for the Martin Luther King, Jr., Holiday, 2021: “A Prayer for our Country”

Posted on January 15, 2021 by georgelamplugh

[Note:  A year ago, I reflected in this space on the play of “light” and “darkness” in the rhetoric of Dr. King, drawing on remarks by the late Georgia Congressman John Lewis and Republican columnist Michael Gerson.  I ended by confessing … Continue reading →

Posted in American History, Books, Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Martin Luther King, Education, Episcopal Church, Georgia History, Historical Reflection, History, History Teaching, Interdisciplinary Work, Martin Luther King, memoir, Popular Culture, Retirement, Southern (Georgia) History, Southern History, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

The Vietnam War and American Culture(s), Part 3: “Passionate Historians,” and Selected Sources on the Vietnam War

Posted on November 2, 2020 by georgelamplugh

[NOTE:  It’s awfully easy to stereotype historians as calm, objective, even bloodless observers of the past, especially when you read a garden-variety history textbook.  But, when one moves to more specialized works, there is room for a historian to bring … Continue reading →

Posted in American History, Books, Cold War, History, History Teaching, Research, Retirement, Teaching, Uncategorized, Vietnam War, WP Long Read | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Vietnam War and American Culture(s), Part 2

Posted on October 1, 2020 by georgelamplugh

[Note:  This is the second installment of a three-part series examining the impact of the Vietnam War on the United States, by historians writing a generation apart: Loren Baritz, Backfire:  A History of How American Culture Led Us into Vietnam and … Continue reading →

Posted in American History, Books, Education, Historical Reflection, History, History Teaching, prep school teaching with a PhD, Research, Retirement, Southern History, Teaching, Uncategorized, WP Long Read | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

A Review of Loren Baritz, Backfire: A History of How American Culture Led Us into Vietnam and Made Us Fight the Way We Did (1985); and  Christian Appy, American Reckoning:  The Vietnam                  … Continue reading →

Posted on September 1, 2020 by georgelamplugh | 4 Comments

“But You Get What You Need”: One Historian’s “Contingent” Career, Part 2

Posted on April 1, 2020 by georgelamplugh

[Note: When I began teaching at The Westminster Schools in Atlanta in the autumn of 1973, I didn’t anticipate staying for the long term. Surely something better (i.e., a college teaching post) would come along? But no:  instead, I found … Continue reading →

Posted in "Education Courses", American History, Books, Education, Elective History Course for 9th and 10th Graders, family history, Historical Reflection, History, History Curriculum, History graduate school, History Teaching, memoir, Popular Culture, Prep School, prep school teaching with a PhD, Research, Retirement, Southern (Georgia) History, Southern History, Sun Belt, Teaching, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

The “Lost Cause,” and Frederick Douglass’s Response: Teaching Civil Rights, 13

Posted on September 1, 2019 by georgelamplugh

[Note: Here we are near the end of the second decade of the twentieth-first century, and we as a nation are still arguing about statues to Confederate leaders, generic marble remembrances of the “Confederate Soldier,” and other public efforts to … Continue reading →

Posted in ""state rights", Age of Jim Crow, American History, Books, Civil Rights Movement, Current Events, Education, Historical Reflection, History, Popular Culture, Research, Retirement, Southern History, Uncategorized, WP Long Read | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

My Brother the Writer, Act 3: The Prequel

Posted on May 1, 2019 by georgelamplugh

A Review of Rick Lamplugh, The Wilds of Aging: A Journey of Heart and Mind (2018). Available at amazon.com in both paperback and e-book formats. [NOTE: On two previous occasions (see here and here), I have reviewed books written by … Continue reading →

Posted in "In The Temple of Wolves", Books, Delaware, family history, memoir, Popular Culture, Retirement, Rick Lamplugh, Uncategorized, Wolves, WP Long Form, Yellowstone National Park | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Polishing the “Marble Man”: Reflections on Douglas Southall Freeman’s “R.E. Lee” (4 vols., 1934-1935)

Posted on April 1, 2019 by georgelamplugh

[NOTE:  I never intended to read Douglas Southall Freeman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning four-volume biography of Robert E. Lee.  After all, in grad school one of my professors dismissed Freeman’s effort out of hand, remarking that Freeman’s Lee would have been a … Continue reading →

Posted in Age of Jim Crow, Books, Civil War, Current Events, Historical Reflection, History, History Teaching, Research, Retirement, Shelby Foote, Southern (Georgia) History, Southern History, Uncategorized, WP Long Read | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments