What is History? Part 34
Never trust a man who reads only one book. —Arturo Perez-Reverte
. . . the monarchy had become an insatiable machine for devouring taxes, while a drained populace received nothing in exchange but the political blunders and the disasters of war. —Perez-Reverte
In a sense the American Civil War is a belated chapter of the German revolution of 1848. —Heinrich H. Maurer
It is generally recognised today that Lincoln could never have carried the Northwest in 1860, and with it the country, without German support. —Andreas Dorpalen
I did only what my duty demanded. I could have taken no other course without dishonour. And if it all were to be done over again, I should act in precisely the same manner. —R.E. Lee
Peace is but a cessation of hostilities in a war that is never ending. —Thucyidides
More affectation and hypocrisy are necessary for the trade of literature and especially the newspapers than for brothel keepers. —J.S. Mill
Surely man can have no better claims to sympathy than bravery, good looks, and misfortune. —Thackeray
A wrong that was a wrong yesterday must be a wrong tomorrow. —Thackeray
You can't build up a reputation on what you are going to do. —Henry Ford (who obviously did not anticipate Obama)
Entries(RSS)
"More affectation and hypocrisy are necessary for the trade of literature and especially the newspapers than for brothel keepers. —J.S. Mill
This is no doubt true. My old professor once said over lunch with some politicos evidently scandalized by Mr. Clinton's trist with Ms. Lewinsky, "It is the most honest mistake the man has ever made."
Dr. Wilson,
Your quote:
"'In a sense the American Civil War is a belated chapter of the German revolution of 1848.' —Heinrich H. Maurer"
Yes, what the German nationalists and Marxists could not win in Germany, they won in America. Of the two, the nationalists and the foul spirit which they infused into Hamiltonian commercial interest prevailed until FDR. With him, or at least in the context of his policies, the Marxists, the other half of the Teutonic plague, came to ascendancy and continue their march. Both nationalism, which sometimes manifests itself in Pat Buchanan with whom I agree on many issues, and the Marxist are the enemies of the old union of constitutionally federated republics.
Now, the nationalists, the one-state(nation)-indivisible people, cannot comprehend that they were themselves a necessary step to internationalism, not realizing or wanting to admit that the spirit which drives it is the same spirit which drove the nationalists to create Hobbesian states in Germany, in Italy and in the United States and subsume the principalities, republics and tiny organic states in the 19th century. They, the nationalists, have outlived their usefulness and the spirit moves on to the global arena rather than remaining in the national arena.
Now, the nationalists, the one-state(nation)-indivisible people, cannot comprehend that they were themselves a necessary step to internationalism
On the same line of thinking these same nationalists cannot see the contradiction between their cry (as political conservatives) for smaller centralized government and their rah, rah, Go Military, fight, fight, fight jingoism. Sean Hannity, it seems, never considered that war is the health of the state, and to support one is to increase the other.
I think you have to lay much of this at the feet of the Post-Occamist/Post-Cartesian spirit that made compartmental thinking....uh, convenient. Under Nominalist categories were don't really have to see connections between things unless we want to. St. Thomas, on the other hand, would see the idea, whatever it is, to its logical conclusion. Just look at the notion of patriotism...it has been an expanding concept from John Randolph to R. E. Lee to Teddy Roosevelt...to Barach Obama, and with the expansion comes increasing abstraction. What is next? The individual as a citizen of the Cosmos? Just how is that lived out? No. The patriotism that can be lived out in any meaningful way is and always has been local. Lose it and you lose your freedom.
Many Marxists(including Marx himself) loved Lincoln and many GOP supporters were indeed flaming Marxist immigrants from Germany. Many Union generals(maybe even Sherman) were Reds. I have never really have read anything about German nationalists though coming over in 1848 though. I mean they still had work to do via Prussia to get their own nation unified, much less come over here and try to Prussianize the US. I guess I am saying I am not sure why German nationalist would care about the US when they still needed to creat a unified Germany still.
#4. Mr. Bruce. Two points. A great many radicals fled Germany and central Europe when the 1848 revolutions were put down. They saw America as a fertile field for constructing the revolutionary national state. Especially since in their typically German abstractionism they understood nothing about America except a literal-minded reading of the Declaration (something which Lincoln adopted from them in the Gettysburg Address.) They became politically active as soon as they arrived. Second point: do not stress too strongly that these people were Communists. They were proto-National Socialists as well as proto-Reds. It amounts to the same thing. Addenda: The population of the Midwest was 15% German immigrant in 1860, which is how Lincoln won, as suggested in the quotation. He may not even have had a majority of native Northerners.
#5. Dr. Wilson. Is there a book that describes this, "something which Lincoln adopted from them in the Gettysburg Address"?
P.S. Is there any chance you could write a full history of the United States, so we don't have to depend on leftists or neocons (but I repeat myself)?
#5 Dr. Wilson, (or anyone else reading this) is there a good history of the Midwest out there? I have lived in Wisconsin and Michigan my entire life. It seems to me (not more than an impression) that there are two types of Germans in the Midwest: those with a very definite socialist bent and those that are more conservative, being rather independent in religion, politics and finances. I am just trying to make some sense of Wisconsin without having to try to slog through a history written by a liberal.