Category Archives: Vietnam War

The Vietnam War and American Culture(s), Part 1

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 →

Aside | Posted on September 1, 2020 by | 4 Comments

The King Assassination, Fifty-Two Years On

Posted on April 4, 2020 by

[NOTE:  For those of us of a certain age, the year 1968 was a terrible year; pick your horror, and you could find it there.  The Tet Offensive; the decline of public support in the United States for what was … Continue reading →

Posted in American History, Dr. Martin Luther King, Historical Reflection, History, History Teaching, Martin Luther King, memoir, Retirement, Southern History, Teaching, Uncategorized, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

“You Can’t Always Get What You Want”: One Historian’s “Contingent” Career, Part 1

Posted on February 1, 2020 by

[Note: Since I was first introduced to it, I’ve loved the term contingent to describe event(s) in history that suggest there is no single unstoppable, ideological wave moving humanity in some preordained direction (e.g., democracy, Christianity, Marxism, progress, the Enlightenment). … Continue reading →

Posted in "Education Courses", American History, Delaware, Education, family history, Georgia History, Historical Reflection, History, History graduate school, History Teaching, memoir, Newark (Del.) High School Class of 1962, Popular Culture, Prep School, prep school teaching with a PhD, Research, Retirement, Southern History, Teaching, Uncategorized, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Confessions of a Historical Pack Rat: “Retired But Not Shy” at Eight

Posted on June 15, 2018 by

[ Note:  One question any new blogger should—but probably doesn’t—ask is, “Will I be able to find sufficient material to keep this blog alive?”  I know that I didn’t think about this question in May 2010, when I contemplated establishing … Continue reading →

Posted in "Education Courses", "In The Temple of Wolves", 4th of July, Age of Jim Crow, American "republicanism", American History, American Revolution, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Books, Cherokee Indians, Cherokee Removal, Creek Indians, Denying the Holocaust, Dr. Martin Luther King, Education, Elias Boudinot, family history, George R. Gilmer, Georgia History, Historical Problem, Historical Reflection, History, History Curriculum, History graduate school, History Teaching, Interdisciplinary Work, Martin Luther King, memoir, Muddy Waters, Popular Culture, Prep School, prep school teaching with a PhD, Research, Retirement, Rick Lamplugh, Scopes Trial, Skip James, Son House, Southern (Georgia) History, Southern History, Teaching, The Blues, Theology, Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia", Uncategorized, Urban Blues, Vietnam War, Wilson Lumpkin, Wolves, WP Long Read | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

They don’t call me “Dr. Excitement” for nothin’, you know! (Be True to Your School, 5)

Posted on November 15, 2017 by

[Note:  In a previous post in this series, I discussed how certain personal eccentricities helped me construct a “classroom persona,” one “Dr.,” beard, polyester suit, and awful pun at a time.  In this entry, I’d like to offer a few … Continue reading →

Posted in "The Race Beat", Age of Jim Crow, American History, Civil Rights Movement, Civil War, Cold War, Dr. Martin Luther King, Elias Boudinot, Historical Reflection, History, History Curriculum, Interdisciplinary Work, Prep School, prep school teaching with a PhD, Southern (Georgia) History, Southern History, Teaching, The Blues, Uncategorized, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Understanding Recent American History–“Nixonland,” or “The Age of Reagan”?

Posted on April 15, 2015 by

  [NOTE: Historical revisionism occurs when, every generation or so, the scholarly consensus about important events or individuals begins to shift.  Revisionism is not a concept that appeals to neophyte historians, or to “average Americans” trying to understand the past, many … Continue reading →

Posted in American History, Books, Cold War, Dr. Martin Luther King, Historical Reflection, History, Martin Luther King, Research, Retirement, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Teaching, Uncategorized, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

My Vietnam War–and Welcome to It

Posted on February 16, 2015 by

I’ve got a long shelf of books about my generation’s war, but none of them presents it as I experienced it.  I served in the Army from 1966 to 1968, but I never left the U.S., so my war was very different from the one … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Cold War, Historical Reflection, History, Research, Teaching, Uncategorized, Vietnam War, WP Long Read | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Evolution of a Blog: “Retired But Not Shy” at Four

Posted on September 15, 2014 by

[NOTE: If I had not edited my school’s “History Department Newsletter” over the last few years of my teaching career, I might never have become a blogger. Using a template provided by Microsoft, I planned each bi-monthly issue, parceled out … Continue reading →

Posted in "Lincoln"--the movie, "The Race Beat", American History, Blues Women, Books, Civil Rights Movement, Civil War, Current Events, Delta Blues, Dr. Martin Luther King, George R. Gilmer, Georgia History, Historical Reflection, History, History Curriculum, Interdisciplinary Work, James Gunn, Martin Luther King, Popular Culture, prep school teaching with a PhD, Research, Retirement, Southern (Georgia) History, Southern History, Teaching, The Blues, Vietnam War, Wilson Lumpkin | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Reading the Civil War: “Patriotic Gore”–And More

Posted on June 16, 2012 by

In the Fall of 1969, I took a grad school course on the Civil War.  During a discussion of historiography, someone asked our professor his opinion of Shelby Foote’s history of the conflict, the first two volumes of which were then in … Continue reading →

Posted in American History, Civil War, History, Research, Retirement, Shelby Foote, Southern (Georgia) History, Southern History, Teaching, Vietnam War | Tagged | 9 Comments

Past Personal: Teaching the Vietnam War as History

Posted on May 1, 2012 by

[Note:  This piece originated as a talk to a group of history teachers; it explains the genesis of the series, already posted here, “Growing Up With Vietnam.” (Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4] * * * * * When I began … Continue reading →

Posted in American History, Cold War, Current Events, History, Research, Retirement, Teaching, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments