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David Voelker

David Voelker's Public Library

02 Aug 09

Medieval Sourcebook: Christopher Columbus: Extracts from Journal

  • Hereupon I left the city of


    Granada, on Saturday, the twelfth day of May, 1492, and proceeded


    to Palos, a seaport, where I armed three vessels, very fit for


    such an enterprise, and having provided myself with abundance of


    stores and seamen, I set sail from the port, on Friday, the third


    of August, half an hour before sunrise, and steered for the


    Canary Islands of your Highnesses which are in the said ocean,


    thence to take my departure and proceed till I arrived at the


    Indies, and perform the embassy of your Highnesses to the Princes


    there, and discharge the orders given me. For this purpose I


    determined to keep an account of the voyage, and to write down


    punctually every thing we performed or saw from day to day, as


    will hereafter appear. Moreover, Sovereign Princes, besides


    describing every night the occurrences of the day, and every day


    those of the preceding night, I intend to draw up a nautical


    chart, which shall contain the several parts of the ocean and


    land in their proper situations; and also to compose a book to


    represent the whole by picture with latitudes and longitudes, on


    all which accounts it behooves me to abstain from my sleep, and


    make many trials in navigation, which things will demand much


    labor.






    Friday, 3 August 1492. Set sail from the bar of Saltes at 8


    o'clock, and proceeded with a strong breeze till sunset, sixty


    miles or fifteen leagues south, afterwards southwest and south by


    west, which is the direction of the Canaries.

  • Sunday, 9 September. Sailed this day nineteen leagues, and


    determined to count less than the true number, that the crew


    might not be dismayed if the voyage should prove long. In the


    night sailed one hundred and twenty miles, at the rate of ten


    miles an hour, which make thirty leagues. The sailors steered


    badly, causing the vessels to fall to leeward toward the


    northeast, for which the Admiral reprimanded them repeatedly.






    Monday, 10 September. This day and night sailed sixty leagues,


    at the rate of ten miles an hour, which are two leagues and a


    half. Reckoned only forty-eight leagues, that the men might not


    be terrified if they should be long upon the voyage.






    Tuesday, 11 September. Steered their course west and sailed


    above twenty leagues; saw a large fragment of the mast of a


    vessel, apparently of a hundred and twenty tons, but could not


    pick it up. In the night sailed about twenty leagues, and


    reckoned only sixteen, for the cause above stated.

  • 13 more annotations...
01 Jul 09

Chapter 7: American History in Schools and Colleges - American History in Schools and Colleges

  • The successful college survey of United States history should leave
    in the student’s mind a definite pattern of historical development and a clear
    understanding of the nature and values of American civilization. It should give
    him a lasting foundation upon which he can build, not only as he takes more
    courses in history but also as the events of his lifetime unfold.
  • Above all, he must stress interpretation, integration, and comparison rather
    than narrative outline
  • 1 more annotations...

AHA Reports: The Study of History in Schools(1898)_Committee of Seven: How the Different Blocks or Periods

  • "The roots of the present lie deep in the past, and nothing in the past is dead to the man who would learn how the present comes to be what it is." Though we must not distort the past in an effort to give meaning to the present, yet we can fully understand the present only by a study of the past; and the past, on the other hand, is appreciated only by those who know the present.
30 Jun 09

Chapter 2: Why Should Americans Know Their Own History? - American History in Schools and Colleges

  • Laymen and educators are generally agreed that knowledge of
    our own history is essential in the making of Americans. The reasons for this
    belief may be summed up under four main heads. History
    makes loyal citizens because memories of common experiences and common
    aspirations are essential ingredients in patriotism. History makes intelligent
    voters because sound decisions about present problems must be based on
    knowledge of the past. History makes good neighbors because it teaches
    tolerance of individual differences and appreciation of varied abilities and
    interests. History makes stable, well-rounded individuals because it gives them
    a start toward understanding the pattern of society and toward enjoying the
    artistic and intellectual productions of the past. It gives long views, a
    perspective, a measure of what is permanent in a
    nation’s life. To a people it is what memory is to the individual; and memory,
    express or unconscious, guides the acts of every sentient being.
  • Even more important than knowledge of specific facts is the
    type of thinking which is encouraged by the study of history.

AHA Reports: The Study of History in Schools(1898)_Committee of Seven: Value of Historical Study

  • it is equally
    true that progress comes by making additions to the past or by its silent
    modification
  • The
    chief object of every experienced teacher is to get pupils to think properly
    after the method adopted in his particular line of work; not an accumulation of
    information, but the habit of correct thinking, is the supreme result of good
    teaching in every branch of instruction
  • 4 more annotations...
19 Jun 09

Chapter 10: As We See It - American History in Schools and Colleges

  • The primary obligation of the college teacher of history
    is to present his subject in an interesting and stimulating manner.
  • Without deprecating facts or minimizing details, teachers
    of history should stress the more enduring values which that subject affords,
    namely, historical perspective, a sense of continuity, and the ability to use
    the historical approach in their teaching
19 Jan 09

Martin Luther King - Nobel Lecture

  • I experience this high and joyous moment
    not for myself alone but for those devotees of nonviolence who
    have moved so courageously against the ramparts of racial
    injustice and who in the process have acquired a new estimate of
    their own human worth. Many of them are young and cultured.
    Others are middle aged and middle class. The majority are poor
    and untutored. But they are all united in the quiet conviction
    that it is better to suffer in dignity than to accept segregation
    in humiliation. These are the real heroes of the freedom
    struggle: they are the noble people for whom I accept the Nobel
    Peace Prize.
  • This evening I would like to use this lofty
    and historic platform to discuss what appears to me to be the
    most pressing problem confronting mankind today. Modern man has
    brought this whole world to an awe-inspiring threshold of the
    future. He has reached new and astonishing peaks of scientific
    success. He has produced machines that think and instruments that
    peer into the unfathomable ranges of interstellar space. He has
    built gigantic bridges to span the seas and gargantuan buildings
    to kiss the skies. His airplanes and spaceships have dwarfed
    distance, placed time in chains, and carved highways through the
    stratosphere. This is a dazzling picture of modern man's
    scientific and technological progress.
  • 12 more annotations...
18 Jan 09

Johnson v. M’Intosh, 21 U.S. 543, 5 L.Ed. 681, 8 Wheat. 543 (1823)

  • On the discovery of this immense continent, the great nations of Europe were eager to
    appropriate to themselves so much of it as they could respectively acquire. Its vast extent offered an
    *573
    ample field to the ambition and enterprise of all; and the character and religion of its inhabitants
    afforded an apology for considering them as a people over whom the superior genius of Europe might
    claim an ascendency. The potentates of the old world found no difficulty in convincing themselves
    that they made ample compensation to the inhabitants of the new, by bestowing on them civilization
    and Christianity, in exchange for unlimited independence. But, as they were all in pursuit of nearly
    the same object, it was necessary, in order to avoid conflicting settlements, and consequent war with
    each other, to establish a principle, which all should acknowledge as the law by which the right of
    acquisition, which they all asserted, should be regulated as between themselves. This principle was,
    that discovery gave title to the government by whose subjects, or by whose authority, it was made,
    against all other European governments, which title might be consummated by possession.
  • No one of the powers of Europe gave its full assent to this principle, more unequivocally than
    England. The documents upon this subject are ample and complete. So early as the year 1496, her
    monarch granted a commission to the Cabots, to discover countries then unknown to Christian
    people, and to take possession of them in the name of the king of England. Two years afterwards,
    Cabot proceeded on this voyage, and discovered the continent of North America, along which he
    sailed as far south as Virginia. To this discovery the English trace their title.




                In this first effort made by the English government to acquire territory on this continent, we
    perceive a complete recognition of the principle which has been mentioned. The right of discovery
    given by this commission, is confined to countries 'then unknown to all Christian people;' and of these
    countries Cabot was empowered to take possession in the name of the king of England. Thus
    asserting a right to take possession, *577 notwithstanding the occupancy of the natives, who were
    heathens, and, at the same time, admitting the prior title of any Christian people who may have made
    a previous discovery.

  • 7 more annotations...
12 Jan 09

George Kennan "The Sources of Soviet Conduct" (1946)

I have highlighted some key passages of this document. By the way, Kennan was from Milwaukee. He's up there with Robert La Follette and Joseph McCarthy (ahem) as a key American political figure from Wisconsin. --DV

www.historyguide.org/...kennan.html - Preview

Cold-War sources History-206

McKinley's War Message

  • Executive Mansion, April 11, 1898.



    To the Congress of the United States:

  • The grounds for such intervention may be briefly summarized
    as follows:



    First. In the cause of humanity and to put an end to the barbarities,
    bloodshed, starvation, and horrible miseries now existing there,
    and which the parties to the conflict are either unable or unwilling
    to stop or mitigate. It is no answer to say this is all in another
    country, belonging to another nation, and is therefore none of
    our business. It is specially our duty, for it is right at our
    door.



    Second. We owe it to our citizens in Cuba to afford them that
    protection and indemnity for life and property which no government
    there can or will afford, and to that end to terminate the conditions
    that deprive them of legal protection.



    Third. The right to intervene may be justified by the very
    serious injury to the commerce, trade, and business of our people
    and by the wanton destruction of property and devastation of the
    island.



    Fourth, and which is of the utmost importance. The present
    condition of affairs in Cuba is a constant menace to our peace
    and entails upon this Government an enormous expense. With such
    a conflict waged for years in an island so near us and with which
    our people have such trade and business relations; when the lives
    and liberty of our citizens are in constant danger and their property
    destroyed and themselves ruined; where our trading vessels are
    liable to seizure and are seized at our very door by war ships
    of a foreign nation; the expeditions of filibustering that we
    are powerless to prevent altogether, and the irritating questions
    and entanglements thus arising -- all these and others that I
    need not mention, with the resulting strained relations, are a
    constant menace to our peace and compel us to keep on a semi war
    footing with a nation with which we are at peace.

  • 2 more annotations...
06 Dec 08

ConsumerReports.org - Money tips for new parents, your baby's college fund

  • While these accounts can have their uses, they also come with a number of drawbacks. One is that they could have a negative
    effect on your child's eligibility for financial aid. Most financial aid formulas treat assets belonging to a child (as UGMAs
    and UTMAs are considered to be) less favorably than those of a parent (as is the case, for example, with 529 plans).
  • Bear in mind that financial-aid formulas generally treat parents' assets more kindly than money they view as belonging to
    a child. That is, they expect the student to contribute a far greater percentage of his or her assets to pay the bill. If
    you expect financial aid to be a major consideration for you when the day finally comes, you may do well to have more money
    in your name and less in your child's.

Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman: The global economy is in chaos, but it could so easily have been avoided |
Books |
The Guardian

  • What we're going to have to do, clearly, is relearn the lessons our grandfathers were taught by the Great Depression. I won't try to lay out the details of a new regulatory regime, but the basic principle should be clear - anything that has to be rescued during a financial crisis, because it plays an essential role in the financial mechanism, should be regulated when there isn't a crisis so that it doesn't take excessive risks. Since the 30s, commercial banks have been required to have adequate capital, hold reserves of liquid assets that can be quickly converted into cash and limit the types of investments they make, all in return for federal guarantees when things go wrong. Now that we've seen a wide range of non-bank institutions create what amounts to a banking crisis, comparable regulation has to be extended to a much larger part of the system.
  • The true scarcity in Keynes' world - and ours - was therefore not of resources, or even of virtue, but of understanding.
27 Nov 08

H-Net Discussion Networks - H-SHEAR Exclusive: Tise on Turkeys -- the historians' version, comments invited

  • ry
    pipeline that crossed problematic, if not hostile Islamic lands. Since
    the Christian monarchs of Spain attempted to delete both Islamic and
    Judaic residents from all of Iberia the very day Columbus sailed into
    the Atlantic,
  • In the realm of
    fowl, there were two very interesting creatures: (1) the Muscovy duck
    (_Cairina moschata_) and, of course, (2) our good old Aztec _huexoloti_
    (_Meleagris gallopavo_).
  • 11 more annotations...
23 Nov 08

The Crying Indian | Ginger Strand | Orion Magazine

  • A 1948 Ad Council pamphlet, “The Miracle of America,” is typical. In it, Uncle Sam—shown striding across the cover with a toolkit and rolled-up sleeves—explains American free enterprise to an average family. The key, Uncle says, is ever-more-efficient production: “The mainspring of the American standard of living is High and Increasing Productivity!” America’s high rate of consumption—“We take abundance for granted”—is a sign of superiority. The U.S. has only one-fifteenth of the world’s population, the booklet explains, but consumes “more than half of the world’s coffee and rubber, almost half of the steel, a quarter of the coal and nearly two-thirds of the crude oil.” This, the Ad Council assured the nation, was Success.
  • The packaging industry justifies disposables as a response to consumer demand: buyers wanted convenience; packagers simply provided it. But that’s not exactly true. Consumers had to be trained to be wasteful. Part of this re-education involved forestalling any debate over the wisdom of creating disposables in the first place, replacing it with an emphasis on “proper” disposal. Keep America Beautiful led this refocusing on the symptoms rather than the system. The trouble was not their industry’s promulgation of throwaway stuff; the trouble was those oafs who threw it away.
  • 13 more annotations...
22 Nov 08

Cornerstone Speech by Alexander H. Stephens

Stephens make the argument that slavery (and racial inequality) form the cornerstone of the Confederate society.

www.teachingamericanhistory.org/...index.asp - Preview

racism slavery confederate-states-of-America equality inequality Jefferson

  • March 16, 1861, at Savannah, Georgia - david_voelker on 2008-11-22
  • Jefferson in his forecast, had anticipated this, as the "rock upon which the old Union would split." He was right. What was conjecture with him, is now a realized fact. But whether he fully comprehended the great truth upon which that rock stood and stands, may be doubted. The prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old constitution, were that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with, but the general opinion of the men of that day was that, somehow or other in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent and pass away.
  • Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slaveryďż˝subordination to the superior raceďż˝is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.
18 Oct 08

The Wright Stuff

  • After Lincoln’s death, Douglass described Lincoln as "the white man’s president." But he also said after his first meeting with the Great Emancipator in 1863 that Lincoln "was the first great white man in the United States that I talked with freely, who in no single instance reminded me of the difference between himself and myself, of the difference of color." If this was praising him with faint damnation, it is praise many of us would be glad to receive.
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