cacakerbamakhlukpolitik

I am increasingly convinced that the fourth great crisis of American national life (after 1774-1794, 1861-68 or so, and 1929-45) began either on 9/11 or in November 2000 at the time of the contested election, and that it is limping towards its conclusion as Barack Obama moves through a disappointing second term.  Events could change my mind. Another economic collapse or a foreign war could put us back into full crisis mode, although the latter, despite disquieting noises from China, seems unlikely.  The crisis is in many ways a non-violent version of the civil war.  The nation, divided largely on regional lines, has fought a bitter conflict over the role of the federal government and over values.  Religion has played a larger role in this crisis than in any other in American history.  This time we have not fought the conflict militarily, but rather through a ruthless use of our political institutions designed to mobilize both sides around common values.  Because I have given small amou

 Richard R. Kenney Perhaps no place in Mill Creek Hundred has as rich and diverse of a history as Brandywine Springs. Normally when we think of these 60-some acres at Faulkland Road and Newport Gap Pike we think of its more than two centuries worth of use as a public site for rest, relaxation, and entertainment. The site has, in turn, hosted a colonial-era tavern/inn, a resort hotel, an amusement park, and a public state/county park. Lesser known are some darker stories, including several deaths and at least one tragic murder. But just as interesting and noteworthy as these chapters are the park's military connections, including one Victorian Era story in particular. (Hat tip to Terry Zitzelberger for making me aware of it) Throughout its history, MCH has had occasional brushes with the military, whether it be Robert Kirkwood, the events of early September 1777 , or the more recent presence in or near the hundred of several facilities used by the armed forces, reserves, or Natio

My 18-month-old daughter Mélanie and I have a routine on most days. In the late morning, we go to the local outdoor mall and settle in at the Peet's Coffee & Tea, where the staff are incredibly friendly and welcoming (where I sit now writing this post and sipping a latte while Mel eats fruit salad). When she's ready for the some play time, we talk around the mall, play with the toys at Pottery Barn Kids (where they are also incredibly welcoming), look at the clothes at J. Crew (ditto on welcoming and where Mummy has been known to use our rambles as an excuse to pick up a new pair of ballet flats or a cardigan). And we almost always visit the play park. Mélanie loves other kids and there are almost always kids to play with at the park. One afternoon this week we met a nice family with a very cute 10-month-old. For once Mélanie, who tends to be the one of the younger ones in a group of kids, was the big girl. Like me, the 10-month-old's mom was telling me how she's

The Republican Party has a problem: it represents several shrinking demographics, led by elderly white people and the well-to-do.  The ineradicable views of white voters in the red states and gerrymandering in purple states like Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania have locked a majority in Congress in for them for some time to come, but they are having a much harder time in presidential elections and even statewide races.  Their rhetoric increasingly emphasizes the electoral power of the less well off, whom they like to stigmatize as those who merely take from the government while they give to it--the notorious 47%, which may well grow thanks to the sequester that they ordered.  Now they face the dilemma of immigration reform, which studies show would benefit the nation's economy but which would also add millions of new hispanics to the voting rolls. It occurred to me this morning that the solution to Republican electoral problems is, when you think about it, obvious, and a friend of mi

I love sites like This Day in History . I get so many ideas for books (often books I'll never write, LOL!) by looking at the daily events. Today is full of fodder (the Statue of Liberty arrived in 1885, the Battle of Bunker Hill took place in 1775, the Watergate break-ins happened in 1972), but my favorite tidbit was that today Sir Francis Drake claimed what would become California for Queen Elizabeth I today in 1579: "During his circumnavigation of the world, English seaman Francis Drake anchors in a harbor just north of present-day San Francisco, California, and claims the territory for Queen Elizabeth I. Calling the land "Nova Albion," Drake remained on the California coast for a month to make repairs to his ship, the Golden Hind, and prepare for his westward crossing of the Pacific Ocean." What an interesting starting place for an alternative history series. What if Roanoke colony had been established in there instead of an island off Virginia a few years la

If you'll recall (or even if you won't), a while back there was a post that included a 1921 picture of a bridge that was captioned as being "near Smith's Corner". Since the picture looked to me to be almost certainly taken on Old Capitol Trail just west of Newport Gap Pike, I spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure out just what and where Smith's Corner was. At the time, my working assumption was that Smith's Corner was the Newport Gap Pike-Old Capitol Trail intersection that would have been just behind the photographer of the 1921 shot. I and several others then went about trying to figure out why it was called Smith's Corner, a name no one seems to have been familiar with. I spent my effort attempting to find someone named Smith who ever lived at or near the crossroads there. Seemed like the logical answer at the time. A follow-up post even put forth one possible theory for the name. Since then I've had a thought. OK, actually I

Among the millions, if not billions, of people around the world who in 2009 hoped that Barack Obama might introduce basic changes to American foreign policy were the Nobel Committee in Norway, which offered him a very premature Nobel Peace Prize.   Of the four Presidents to have received it, including Teddy Roosevelt, Wilson, and Carter, he now looms as by far the least deserving.  He did withdraw American troops from Iraq and promises to do the same in Afghanistan, but only after six more years of futile war in that second country.  He has made no major progress in our relations with any major industrial state, and he has gotten nowhere in his attempts to make peace between Israel and the Palestinians.  In the Middle East he has essentially continued, at lower cost, the neoconservative policies of George W. Bush, according to which the only good dictator is a fallen dictator, regardless of what consequences might follow.  He committed himself successively to the fall of Hosni Mubarak,

Ash, the hero of my WIP  Crimson Joy , is a Jewish con man who grew up in a gang of street thieves in London. It's distressingly difficult to find information about Regency con artists. Everyone seems to agree that the principles of conning had very likely been worked out for centuries, and that many modern short cons (as distinguished from long cons, in which the victim is sent home for his money, and which require a fixed location where the mark can be "played") have probably existed in some form at least that far back. But the details...those are fuzzy. Here are a few things I have found: 1. The word "con," and pretty much all the vocabulary that we now associate with the profession, were developed in the decades around the turn of the 20th century. In the Regency, con artists would probably have been called "swindlers," and their marks would have been "flats." Interestingly enough, according to the OED, the word "swindler" co

UNTAMED is set in 1816. Is there a particular reason you chose that year? I wanted Untamed to be set in the Regency proper, but I have a squeamish aversion to war. I can’t help but be sceptical of happy endings in such a grim setting (despite the many romances that prove me wrong). I liked the idea of setting it in an England that’s dealing with the aftermath of war and social upheaval at the same time. How did you become interested in this time period? What do you love about it? Colin Firth introduced me to Jane Austen, and Jane Austen introduced me to the last golden age of the English aristocracy. That’s always how the Regency feels to me, anyway – like this last, blind hurrah in the face of change. The aristocracy’s money still came from owning land, and they still held the balance of parliamentary power. But all of that would change in the next few decades as parliament was reformed and industry became the driving economic force of the country. What do you like least about this p

Nearly eight years ago, I wrote a post on the career of Drew Pearson, the muckraker who with his collaborators Robert Allen and Jack Anderson infuriated Administrations from Roosevelt to Nixon, and who successfully defended all but one of many dozens of libel suits along the way.  I concluded that post with a lament that there was no one remotely like Pearson writing today, either for newspapers (he was a syndicated columnist) or in the blogosphere.  Last weekend I saw We Steal Secrets, a very well-balanced documentary about Julian Assange, Bradley Manning, and Wikileaks, and I left the theater thinking about the similarities and differences between Assange and Pearson, and between Pearson's time and ours. Neither Pearson nor Assange had, or have, any respect for government serecy regulations per se.  Pearson published lots of classified information and was repeatedly investigated for doing so.  Pearson, however, always did so for a very specific purpose--to point out that a parti

In a blog interview I did around the release of  The Paris Affair, Heather Webb asked a question that got me to thinking about forensics in historical mysteries. So much of present day mysteries, in books, on television, in movies, involves analyzing forensic evidence. My Malcolm and Suzanne Rannoch have no CSIs, medical examiners, or forensic anthropologists to assist them in gathering and analyzing data. On the other hand, even without 21st century technology sleuths can still forensic evidence. C.S. Harris has a doctor character whose analysis of corpses is often of key help to Sebastian St. Cyr. The Victorian Sherlock Holmes was, as my father liked to say, a classic empiricist, his solutions built from the data he gathers. Both John Watson and Mary Russell frequently record him bemoaning the lack of data. Like other literary investigators  in the 19th century and earlier, Malcolm and Suzanne look at footprints, find stands of hair or threads of fabric caught on cobblestones of