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4 thoughts on “Happy Patriots’ Day!”
When I moved to the area in 1973, April 19 was Patriots Day. Two years later, the entire region was enveloped by the American Revolution Bicentennial. Now it’s only about “Marathon Monday.” A whole generation has grown up without an appreciation of the intense significance of the day in our region.
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I am about three quarters through Ron Chernow’s bio of George Washington. He is a good historian, a good biographer, and a good writer. The 18th century in America seems far distant but in many ways it’s not. The issues that separated us then are still extant, though in different forms. The political system that, until resent years, we shared, still persists and I have hopes that it will continue to do so.
That minuteman statue is deservedly iconic. Perhaps we can hope that a similar one might be erected in Ukraine, if not Afghanistan. “Patriotism” is a plastic concept.
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Jim, I’ll bet it’s really good. I listened to the audiobook of Chernow’s Hamilton biography a few years ago, and I remember that Washington was just about the only person for whom Chernow had total respect. Hamilton would spin off into craziness whenever he wasn’t under Washington’s guidance.
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It is very good but long, 800 pages, and in both ways similar to his book on Grant. I haven’t read the Hamilton.
Because of the (short) Ken Burns series on Franklin, I read the text of Franklin’s final speech at the Constitutional Convention recently and look forward to reading Walter Isaacson’s biography of him. His final speech seems testimony to what too often seems the myth of wisdom accompanying age. Here is a link to the text.
When I moved to the area in 1973, April 19 was Patriots Day. Two years later, the entire region was enveloped by the American Revolution Bicentennial. Now it’s only about “Marathon Monday.” A whole generation has grown up without an appreciation of the intense significance of the day in our region.
I am about three quarters through Ron Chernow’s bio of George Washington. He is a good historian, a good biographer, and a good writer. The 18th century in America seems far distant but in many ways it’s not. The issues that separated us then are still extant, though in different forms. The political system that, until resent years, we shared, still persists and I have hopes that it will continue to do so.
That minuteman statue is deservedly iconic. Perhaps we can hope that a similar one might be erected in Ukraine, if not Afghanistan. “Patriotism” is a plastic concept.
Jim, I’ll bet it’s really good. I listened to the audiobook of Chernow’s Hamilton biography a few years ago, and I remember that Washington was just about the only person for whom Chernow had total respect. Hamilton would spin off into craziness whenever he wasn’t under Washington’s guidance.
It is very good but long, 800 pages, and in both ways similar to his book on Grant. I haven’t read the Hamilton.
Because of the (short) Ken Burns series on Franklin, I read the text of Franklin’s final speech at the Constitutional Convention recently and look forward to reading Walter Isaacson’s biography of him. His final speech seems testimony to what too often seems the myth of wisdom accompanying age. Here is a link to the text.
https://archive.csac.history.wisc.edu/assessments_64.pdf