Historical Reflections

As a History teacher, I always believed–and told my students–that the study of the past was a “thinking-person’s discipline,” one of a number of skills that could help them make sense of a sometimes confusing world. Unlike the other “pages” I’ve created for this blog, this one could not easily be confined to a single area.  The links below will enable you to explore historical reflections on various events, issues, and people.

1. Teaching in a Prep School with a PhD–this series has become the blog’s most popular feature–Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4.
2. Growing Up With Vietnam–this four-part series also receives frequent visits–Part I; Part II; Part III; Part IV.
3. “Springtime and Vietnam”–April 1, 2011.
4. Editorial, “On Dixie Station”–May 2, 2011.
5. Past Personal: Teaching the Vietnam War as History–May 1, 2012.
6. High School, Now–and Then–September 1, 2012.
7. Assault and Battery on the Mother Tongue–“Business Speak”–September 25, 2012.
8.  Getting Right With Spielberg’s “Lincoln”–December 1, 2012.
9. Race–and History–Matter–April 1, 2013.
10. The Lecture-Discussion Conundrum–December 16, 2013.
11. Reflecting in History’s Mirror–January 7, 2014.
12. The Little Course That Did–February 14, 2014.
13. He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother, the Writer–March 15, 2014.
14. “Famous for Being Famous”:  A Kardashian for the Gilded Age–April 15, 2014.
15. “That’s Why They Paid Me the Big Bucks”–May 15, 2014.
16. Growing Up in Colonial New England–June 15, 2014.
17. The South on the Nation’s Psychiatric Couch, Again–July 12, 2014.
18. American Witch-Hunters:  Salem & McCarthy–August 15, 2014.
19. Evolution of a Blog:  “Retired But Not Shy” at Four–September 15, 2014.
20. Muchas Gracias: Responding to a “Thankfulness Challenge”–October 15, 2014.
21. The Rise and Decline of the Redneck Riviera–October 15, 2015
22. Is Wolf Hatred Really “Wolfism”?–October 24, 2015.
23. Alive and Still Bloggin’:  “Retired But Not Shy” at Five–November 14, 2015.
24. Testifyin’ at the PDC–November 15, 2014.
25. My Vietnam War–and Welcome to It–February 16, 2015.
26. A Scrappy Fourth of July–July 1, 2015.
27. An Anti-Slave Trade Movement in Middle Georgia, 1816-1826?–September 1, 2015.
28. A Tale of Three Books–September 15, 2015.
29. Remembering Arnold Shankman (1945-1983)–December 15, 2015.
30. Changing Views of the Removal of the Cherokees from Georgia–May 1, 2016.
31. .”The Flags, Daddy, the Flags!”:  “Retired But Not Shy” at Six–June 1, 2016.
32. “Teaching 21st-Century Students”:  A Reflection–September 1, 2016.
33. A “Founding Mother” on Political Partisanship–October 1, 2016.
34. A Post for Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, 2017–January 3, 2017.
35. Betts:  A Mother’s Memoir–based upon a brief family history and a more detailed memoir by my late mother, Betts Lamplugh–Part I; Part II; Part III; Part IV; Part V; Part VI; Part VII; Part VIII; Part IX.
36. The Year of “Betts”:  “Retired But Not Shy” at Seven–July 1, 2017.
37. A Happy Fourth, from Antebellum Georgia–July 3, 2017.
38. Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Hillbillies–August 1, 2017.
39. My Brother, the Writer:  Act 2–May 15, 2018.
40. “Confessions of a Historical Pack Rat”:  “Retired But Not Shy” at Eight–June 15, 2018.
41. The New South:  Myth and Reality–August 1, 2018.
42. Midterm Elections, 1866, 2018: Deja Vu (Sort of)–August 15, 2018.
43. The Road to Jim Crow, Part 1–September 1, 2018.
44. The Road to Jim Crow, Part 2–September 28, 2018.
45. The Gathering–September 15, 2018.
46. My People, Yes!–November 15, 2018.
47.  Freeman’s R.E. Lee–April 1, 2019.
48.  My Brother, the Writer, Act 3: The Prequel–May 1, 2019.
49.  The Year of Hubris: “Retired But Not Shy” at Nine–June 1, 2019.
50.  The “Lost Cause” and Frederick Douglass’s Response–September 1, 2019.
51.  Ben:  An American Dad–A companion piece to the “Betts” series, this one looks at the life of my father, Ben Lamplugh–Part I; Part II; Part III; Part IV; Part V; Part VI; Part VII.
52. One Historian’s “Contingent” Career, Part 1–February 1. 2020.
53. One Historian’s “Contingent” Career, Part 2–April 1, 2020.
54. The “Year of Ben”; and a Decade of “Retired But Not Shy”–June 1, 2020.
55. To Ben on Father’s Day, 2020:  “Ben as Dad”–June 17, 2020.
56. Jim Crow and His Minions–August 1, 2020.
57. “The Vietnam War and American Culture(s)–September–November 2020. Comparing two books, written a generation apart (1985, 2015), on the impact of the Vietnam War on American culture(s), and vice versa.  Part 1; Part 2; Part 3.
58. “Martin Luther King, Jr., 2021”–January 15, 2021.
59. “Growing Up White in the Jim Crow South:  A View from North Carolina“–March 2, 2021.
60. “Memories of Betts on Mother’s Day”–May 10, 2021.
61. Blogging through the Pandemic: “Retired But Not Shy” at Eleven–June 1, 2021.
62. “Retro Posts,” Part 1–December 1, 2021.

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For  those interested in reading more of my reflections on history, here are links to several books on the subject:

Rancorous Enmities and Blind Partialities:  Parties and Factions in Georgia, 1807-1845 (University Press of America, 2015)

In Pursuit of Dead Georgians:  One Historian’s Excursions into the History of His Adopted State (iUniverse, 2015)

Politics on the Periphery:  Factions and Parties in Georgia, 1783-1806 (University of Delaware Press, 1986)