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Category Archives: Profiles
Born on the Tenth of January
If Tom Cruise was Born on the Fourth of July, then he can thank Thomas Paine, who it can be said was born on January 10, 1776 with the publication of his incendiary essay, Common Sense, that argued for independence from England. He priced it cheaply (two shillings), argued passionately, and wrote in a direct style so that readers could understand him. Continue reading
George Washington: America’s First President & the Birth of a Nation
George Washington rose to prominence on the shoulders of his dynamic half-brother Lawrence, married wisely, and was enormously popular with the soldiers of Virginia and politicians of his day. Find out more about his life in this full documentary.
The Undeniable Sean Connery
The following has less to do with history or education, but a superb Profile of a very gifted actor. Do enjoy this – as I have. ~ Ed.
Behind the actor’s characters, you sensed something hard, immutable, and crystalline that belonged to him alone.
Sean Connery looking at the camera with a cigarette in his hand. Photograph by John Downing / Getty
With the passing of Sean Connery, who has died at the age of ninety, we have lost perhaps the very last movie star who was known and revered for playing himself. Continue reading
John Jay: The Nation’s most forgotten Founding Father
On December 12, 2017, one of America’s most prominent, yet forgotten, Founding Fathers would have turned 272 years old. John Jay, a native of New York City, had among the most impressive resumes in American history, especially among the Founding Fathers who never became president. Jay served in the Continental Congress, as a diplomat representing the United States in the Treaty of Paris, an author of the Federalist Papers, America’s first chief justice, acting secretary of state under George Washington, and governor of New York. Continue reading
Hank Aaron: Home Run King Who Defied Racism… Dies at 86
Publisher’s Note: I awoke Friday morning to the news that one of my boyhood hero’s had passed on to the great Field in the Heavens. I spent most of my youth during the summers where I had been born – lees than an hour from Milwaukee – sitting on the lawn in front of my Grandfather’s home – with Uncle Charlie, where we would listen to Hank, Lew, Eddie, Warren and the rest of my favorite team “play ball.” Save me a seat in the Heavenly Bleachers and I will be along soon enough Mr. Aaron. RIP ~ Jeffrey Bennett
He held the most celebrated record in sports for more than 30 years.
Hank Aaron was among the greatest all-around players in baseball history, earning his home run record in the face of hate mail and even death threats.Credit…Mark Rucker/Transcendental Graphics, via Getty Images
January 22, 2021 ~ Hank Aaron, who faced down racism as he eclipsed Babe Ruth as baseball’s home run king, hitting 755 homers and holding the most celebrated record in sports for more than 30 years, has died. He was 86.
Playing for 23 seasons, all but his final two years with the Braves in Milwaukee and then Atlanta, Aaron was among the greatest all-around players in baseball history and one of the last major league stars to have played in the Negro leagues. Continue reading
Walter Williams: Suffer No Fools
Walter once said he hoped that, on the day he died, he would have taught a class that day. And that is just the way it was, when he died on Wednesday, December 2, 2020. ~ Thomas Sowell
On the major social and political issues of our time, Walter Williams was one of America’s most important and provocative thinkers. He was black, yet he opposed affirmative action. He believed that the Civil Rights Act was a major error, that the minimum wage actually creates unemployment and that occupational and business licensure and industry regulation work against minorities and others in American business. Perhaps most importantly he had come to believe that it has been the welfare state that has done to black Americans what slavery could never do: destroy the black family. Walter Williams expressed all of these provocative ideas and more in this public television documentary produced by Free To Choose Network. Continue reading
President Jefferson in the White House
She was a new bride in the fall of 1800. Immediately following her wedding in Philadelphia Margaret Bayard Smith and her husband traveled to Washington to make a new home. He had just started the Washington Intelligencer newspaper. Mr. Smith and his newspaper supported Thomas Jefferson in his bid for the presidency in the election of 1800. After his election and throughout his eight years as President, Jefferson often invited the Smith’s to the White House or visited their home on Capitol Hill. Continue reading
Walter E. Williams 1936-2020
I awoke early on a December morning and was shortly put into a state of shock – and great sadness. It has taken me nearly thirteen days before I could bring myself to publish this tribute to a GREAT human being – by another man, who I feel as strongly about – Thomas Sowell. Both men have had a tremendous impact on my life for this past quarter-century plus. R.I.P. Mr Williams. As with music that has been left to me by many artists throughout my life, I also will be left with your wisdom through your writings. ~ Jeffrey Bennett, Publisher
Walter E. Williams 1936-2020
Walter Williams loved teaching. Unlike too many other teachers today, he made it a point never to impose his opinions on his students. Those who read his syndicated newspaper columns know that he expressed his opinions boldly and unequivocally there. But not in the classroom.
Walter once said he hoped that, on the day he died, he would have taught a class that day. And that is just the way it was, when he died on Wednesday, December 2, 2020.
He was my best friend for half a century. There was no one I trusted more or whose integrity I respected more. Since he was younger than me, I chose him to be my literary executor, to take control of my books after I was gone.
But his death is a reminder that no one really has anything to say about such things. Continue reading
Her name was not ‘Hedly‘
November 9, 2020 marked the 106th birthday of Hollywood actress and inventor, Hedy Lamarr (image circa 1930) was often dubbed the “most beautiful woman in the world.” But there was far more to her story, as she was also the co-inventor invented a device that helped make possible the development of GPS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi technology! Continue reading
The Real Story of Ben-Hur’s ‘Tale of the Christ‘
CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. – For many, watching the movie “Ben-Hur” has become an Easter tradition. The 1959 blockbuster, starring Charlton Heston, made history with a record 11 Academy Awards.
Now, the 1925 silent version is making a comeback. But what many may not know is that Hollywood didn’t create this classic story.
The idea came from the best-selling novel, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, published in 1880. The book tells the story of a life-altering encounter between a first-century Jewish prince and Jesus of Nazareth.
The author is Lew Wallace – a true renaissance man. Continue reading
Was John Brown Sane?
The exploits of John Brown have long fascinated historians. His actions, for better or worse, certainly had a significant effect on the country prior to Southern secession, but the fascination with Brown is largely driven by the enigma the man himself has proven to be. In trying to explain his actions and motives, historians have wrestled with questionable and biased testimonies by the people who knew him, and many of the mysteries surrounding John Brown have been explained – then and now – by mental disorders. Continue reading
Davy Crockett’s Death at the Alamo Is Now a Case Closed – Or Not?
The details of legendary pioneer Davy Crockett’s death have been told by many sources — Some Questionable!
Each year around March 6, the anniversary of the 1836 Battle of the Alamo, the question arises as to how Davy Crockett died. It is not enough to know that he died. We need to know exactly how this legendary American lost his life in one of our nation’s most famous battles. Thankfully, there were eyewitnesses. Continue reading
Whitey Ford, Beloved Yankees Pitcher Who Confounded Batters, Dies at 91
‘Take me out to the Ballgame…’ ~ when it was still a ‘sport.’
An irrepressible son of New York City, Ford joined the pantheon of baseball legends who dominated the 1950s and ’60s.
Whitey Ford pitching batting practice at the Yankees’ spring training camp in 1971, four years after retiring. A Yankee for his entire career, he won 236 games, the most of any Yankee, and had a career winning percentage of .690. Ernie Sisto/The New York Times
Whitey Ford, the Yankees’ Hall of Fame left-hander who was celebrated as the Chairman of the Board for his stylish pitching and big-game brilliance on the ball clubs that dominated baseball in the 1950s and early ’60s, died on Thursday night at his home in Lake Success, N.Y., on Long Island. He was 91. The Yankees announced his death. Continue reading
The Mike Wallace Interview with Ayn Rand
Sixty years later, we are on the brink of financial collapse and dictatorship. She correctly anticipated the trajectory of the United States, and was a visionary.
Wallace: “Do you actually predict dictatorship and economic disaster for the United States?”
Rand: “If the present collectivist trend continues and if the present anti-reason philosophy continues, then yes, that is the way the country is going.”
Josiah Henson: The forgotten story in the history of slavery
His life partly inspired Uncle Tom’s Cabin. He was entertained at both Windsor Castle and the White House. He rescued more than 100 enslaved people. But barely anyone has heard of him.
Josiah Henson, photographed in Boston, 1876
From its very first moments, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s debut novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a smashing success. It sold out its 5,000-copy print run in four days in 1852, with one newspaper declaring that “everybody has read it, is reading, or is about to read it”. Soon, 17 printing presses were running around the clock to keep up with demand. By the end of its first year in print, the book had sold more than 300,000 copies in the US alone, and another million in Great Britain. It went on to become the bestselling novel of the 19th century.
Before reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin, I only knew that Stowe’s novel had been credited with influencing the debate at the heart of the American civil war. I had an expensive education, but sadly I learned very little about black history at school; by my early 20s, only names such as Frederick Douglass or Harriet Tubman still rang a bell. All that changed when I discovered that Stowe’s novel was based on the life of a real man, named Josiah Henson, whose cabin in Ontario was just a few hours from my home… Continue reading
H.L. Mencken Quotes on Government, Democracy, and Politicians
Today (September 12th) is H.L. Mencken’s birthday. The “Sage of Baltimore” (pictured above) was born in 1880 and is regarded by many as one of the most influential American journalists, essayists, and writers of the early 20th century. To recognize the great political writer on his birthday, here are 12 of my favorite Mencken quotes: Continue reading
David Crockett
The modern actor Billy Bob Thornton once said David Crockett in the film The Alamo was his favorite role. John Wayne played him, too. Every boy who grew up before the 1970s wanted to be Crockett. He was the “king of the wild frontier,” the man who wrestled bears and jumped rivers, the man with the sharpshooter’s eye who tamed the wilderness. He was larger than life; as one historian wrote, “His life is a veritable romance, with the additional charm of unquestionable truth. It opens to the reader scenes in the lives of the lowly, and a state of semi-civilization, of which but few of them can have the faintest idea.” Crockett was so popular because he was one of us, a common man without advantages who achieved great things on his own merit. He was the quintessential American. Continue reading
Hey, useful idiots: Karl Marx was a racist and anti-Semite
Walter E. Williams: His devotees who destroy property also don’t care about people of color.
Most people who call themselves Marxists know very little of Karl Marx’s life and have never read his three-volume “Das Kapital.” Volume I was published in 1867, the only volume published before Marx’s death in 1883. Volumes II and III were later edited and published in his name by his friend and collaborator Friedrich Engels. Most people who call themselves Marxist have only read his 1848 pamphlet “The Communist Manifesto,” which was written with Engels.
Marx is a hero to many labor union leaders and civil rights organizations, including leftist groups like Black Lives Matter, Antifa and some Democratic Party leaders. It is easy to be a Marxist if you know little of his life. Marx’s predictions about capitalism and the “withering away of the state” turned out to be grossly wrong. What most people do not know is that Marx was a racist and an anti-Semite. Continue reading
George Armstrong Custer… and All That
Years ago I saw a bumper sticker for a car that said “Custer died for your sins.” I don’t know who put it out, some Indian group or what, but I felt it was a bit on the blasphemous side. Jesus Christ died to pay for my sins and then He arose from the dead on the first Easter morning. Custer had nothing to do with it, thank heaven! He would have been a pitiful savior.
Quite awhile back now someone gave me a book by Stephen E. Ambrose called Crazy Horse and Custer. The paperback version was published in 2003, so I assume a hardback version came out sometime previous to that. Continue reading