A Little Stroll Down the C&O Canal

I traveled down to visit the Roving Historian yesterday.  He decided to take me to a local historic site in Williamsport, Maryland.  We took a short drive to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (C&O Canal).  More specifically, I saw the Conocheague Creek Aqueduct and Lock 44.  This canal, like many others constructed during the nineteenth century, was a man-made engineering structure built to facilitate easier trade of goods and other products.  Spanning nearly 190 miles from Cumberland, Maryland, to Georgetown, Maryland, the canal follows the Potomac River sitting as a reminder of different times and a dream unfilled.  Despite providing positive benefits to local communities, these canals faded away into obscurity with the rise of new and better technologies, most notably railroads.

On this day, I noticed that the majority of the people at this site were not there to learn about the canal or the history surrounding it.  It has become a nature trail for people to exercise, take pictures, or walk their dogs.  Nature has reclaimed its manipulated land by covering up the old structures or by stringing a jungle like canopy across the trail.  Stagnant water with a thick film of algae and some other pieces of litter fill the old canal.  Now, I do not have ill feelings towards those people visiting the Williamsport Visitor Center on the C&O Canal.  I feel that we sometimes forget or pass over these types of historical moments in our country's past.  Yet, the Canal seems to be a moot point in the history of trade and engineering because innovations like the railroad became so prominent.  Whatever use the trail may be to us individually, let us not forget the skill and ingenuity our countrymen built by taking some time to reflect on their hardwork.

Forget A Traitor...Remember A Patriot?

"He saved America, before he betrayed it." ~ Bill Stanley commenting on Benedict Arnold

How do we as historians reevaluate an individual's role and legacy?  Can we forgive or save an individual by not so much overlooking faults, but weighing the positive and negative contributions?  Do we have an obligation to take on such a task and try to reconcile someone's past regardless of the consequences or backlash?  I happened upon an interesting article dealing with an important figure from the American Revolution.  The author, John Hanc, was touring London and discovered some unusual memorials to Benedict Arnold.  Americans remember Benedict Arnold as the epitome of a traitor.  Arnold once a true tactician in the battlefield, served the colonies as a general.  His command ushered in huge victories for American forces in key battles, such as Quebec and Saratoga.  However, his pride and ego pushed him to betray the Colonial forces and to switch sides after failing to receive recognition and promotion.  (Arnold was married to Margaret "Peggy" Shippen whose grandfather Edward Shippen founded Shippensburg.)  Hanc describes how during a "Tory Tour" locations memorialize Benedict Arnold in a positive way for the United States.  Even more troubling is that his legacy was being promoted this way by an American named Bill Stanley.  Stanley became a vocally steadfast Arnold supporter and donated a headstone to his final resting place in London six years ago.

Personally, I cannot characterize Benedict Arnold as a patriot.  Yes, his battlefield resume illustrates his strong abilities as a leader, but if not discovered he would have provided the British with the important fort at West Point.  The name is used as a general tag to describe any individual who slights or undermines something.  How can Americans forget his actions to aid the British during the Revolution?  I won't and I find it a little bit offensive to donate or buy memorials that attempt to label him as a patriot.  Should he be forgotten in American history? No, but he does not deserve to be placed on a similar pedestal with George Washington, John Paul Jones, or Nathan Hale.  To do so would be criminal and a travesty to those prominent figures remembered during our country's important struggle for freedom.

Read the article here.

For further Revolutionary spy intrigue, look up Silas Deane and Edward Bancroft.

The National Archives At College Park

Last week, I was able to help a good friend conduct some serious historical research.  My friend, Jim a.k.a. The Roving Historian, will be writing a book about the 509^th Parachute Infantry Battalion and their story during World War II.  These paratroopers do not get the same recognition or recollections as other paratrooper groups such as the 101st Airborne.  However tragic the story may be, it must be told and added to the collective memory about paratroopers and the greatest generation.  Jim wished to find photographs taken of the 509^th.  I wanted to help as much as I possibly could so I traveled down with him to the National Archives at College Park, Maryland.

Now, we both have never done historical research at our national repositories before so it seemed a little daunting.  Professional historians and other academic researchers utilize these facilities to locate a vast sum of primary source materials for their writing more readily than us.  As we entered the building, we had to go through the typical security procedures for all federal installations.  We walked through metal detectors and placed any possessions in a bin to be scanned as well.  First Jim had to register his laptop, camera, and scanners by providing the serial numbers.  He received a sheet with this numbers that needed to be shown at all security checkpoints.  Next, we registered as researchers and viewed a PowerPoint slide show detailing other rules and regulations to follow in the building.  Basically no writing materials brought could be used in the facility.  Only paper and pencils provided to us by government employees.  These are pretty much universal rules in any archival institution.  Pencils can be erased prohibiting much damage to any archival materials if someone would do something malicious to it.  Anything else we carried sat in a locker in the basement before we went upstairs to the Still Picture Research Room.

As the search began, research assistants gave us a quick understanding on how to search their card catalogs.  Yes, these photo archives do not have the collections digitized to search for on an online database or an in-house computer database either.   This can become a topic in itself.  Digitization allows researchers to access information and resources without having to travel far distances for extended periods, for example a roadtrip from Michigan.  Yet, the vast amount of photographs held at the National Archives presents a problem as well.   Who will give the resources and time to digitize about 8 million images?  Searching through the card catalog could be done by keywords such as parachute, Anzio, France, or the unit’s number (509^th).  From there, we wrote down the photo’s specific number (SC 325999) and then utilized another finding aid listing the photos numerically and how they were placed in boxes.  Photo 325999 was in a certain range that placed it in Box 684.  Next, we filled out a pull card that needed all this information including the researcher’s name.  Box pulls occurred at specific times throughout the day so it was almost a mad rush to find photos we wanted to look at, find the box numbers, and fill out a pull card.

Archival workers would take our pull cards and retrieve the requested boxes and place them on a book cart and wheel them out to the waiting researchers.  Jim brought his laptop and scanner up to the research room.  Understandably, scanners seem like a thing of the past in this computer and digital age.  Truthfully, scanners are not used as readily as once before unless of course an archive uses them to digitize their collections.  People can simply plug their cameras into a computer and after a short upload any photos taken are immediately digitized for usage.  However, researchers utilize these “archaic” devices to bypass any charges for requesting prints of photographs.  These charges can put a hurting to a researcher’s wallet if a reproduced print of a single photograph costs eight to ten dollars.  Thankfully, the National Archives permits researchers to bring a scanner and scan individual pictures directly to their personal computer.

I helped facilitate this process for Jim by helping finding photos to look at and to assist with the scanning.  I would remove the photos from the box, (we had to wear the white gloves to protect the photos), and allow Jim to see if he wanted the photo.  From there, he would type the caption on the back and then load the photo on the scanner and scan it.  We went through close to fifty boxes in a few hours, which might have taken Jim alone two days at the least.  It was a long day but I enjoyed the time being able to do some professional research and assist a good friend.  I would recommend utilizing the Still Photo Research Room to anyone.  The staff was friendly and assisted with any questions/requests to make our work move along.  Hopefully, I can travel down there again and do some research in the other research rooms as well.


Photo 185273, Box 196, Equipment carried by a parachutist radio operator.  Equipment includes: M-1 Rifle, with one 8 round clip, bayonet, 200 rounds of ammunition, lensatic compass, flashlight and radio.


Photo 279944, Box 534, 24 Jan 45 Infantrymen moving toward enemy position near St. Vith, Belgium, 7th Armored Division, 509th Parachute Infantry.

Check out Jim's Blog at www.rovinghistorian.com.

Oral History & Human Memory

I felt I should respond to The Roving Historian (Jim) in regards to his last blog, “Stolen Valor & Getting It Wrong.”  Before continuing, I suggest you read Jim's entry about Charles Pellegrino and his grave error resulting from an important source utilized heavily in his book The Last Train From Hiroshima.  Now, I will not comment completely on this but I do agree with Jim on Pellegrino’s irresponsibility and gullibility when speaking to his sources.  A competent and thorough researcher would fact check any individual’s claims about their participation in a highly critical mission.  Furthermore, the individual Joseph Fuoco shamefully provided and fabricated misleading and utterly false experiences and information to the author.  Professionally-trained historians understand the human mind’s limitations when recalling specific events and personal experiences.  Oral histories bolster a book’s source material and provide unique revelations about an event.  However as is apparent, an interviewee may add embellishments, but a historian must analyze and filter this to pull out the facts.

While reading Jim’s blog, I remembered a book I had read during my graduate program in an oral history class.  This incident dealing with Pellegrino and Fuoco reminded me of a specific example in Alessandro Portelli’s The Death of Luigi Trastulli and Other Stories: Form and Meaning in Oral History.   Portelli states “Oral sources tell us not just what people did, but what they wanted to do, what they believed they were doing, and what they now think they did.”  He highlights this statement by describing Luigi Trastulli’s death.  In March 1949, Trastulli succumbed to injuries received in a confrontation with police and factory workers in Terni dealing with Italy’s acceptance of the North Atlantic Treaty.  This was his true fate.  Despite this, Terni’s inhabitants place the event years later.  Two individuals evoked religious imagery and execution-like descriptions when retelling Trastulli’s death.  Others placed his death later in 1953 when three thousand workers lost their jobs.  Portelli comments that, “the firing…is the most important dramatic event in the town’s working-class history and…it is only appropriate that the most tragic episode should find its place in this context.”  The relative distance and association between the events dealing with Trastulli, the workers, and NATO manifest themselves “as a series of discrete, if similar and connected events.”  These narrations illustrate how individuals reconstruct memories to give meanings to events transpiring in their community and on an individual basis.

Oral histories manage to bring out important viewpoints and first-hand accounts to larger historical events by adding a personal spin.  Human memory ultimately can allow for exaggerations or misplacements in chronology when describing a historical event.  As Portelli illustrates, an author must have the facts before moving forward with a historical book or narrative.  His knowledge of Trastulli’s death allowed Portelli to analyze an individual’s account of the event and to elaborate on how these people connected personal occurrences to it.  Whereas Pellegrino entrusted his source by not following up with sound primary source research and in the end created a historical work supported by bold-faced lies by an individual hoping to add glory where it was not due.  Brave individuals sacrificed much to win World War II.  Fuoco’s ego does a great disservice to them and sets up, if not remedied, a blemish on the historical record.  Historians must be vigilante and follow up with strong primary source research to ensure these accounts do not enter the historical record for future generations to accept.

Sources

Second Paragraph:

Alessandro Portelli, The Death of Luigi Trastulli and Other Stories: Form and Meaning in Oral History (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991), 50 (first quotation), 1-2, 11-12, 15 (second quotation), 25 (third quotation).

The Strength Of Our Democracy & Third Parties

I pride myself on being as politically active as possible since reaching the legal age to vote in this country.  No election passes me by without placing my ballot.  I have not always favored those sitting in seats of power in our government, but I refuse to let it discourage me from participating in a given right that so many have sacrificed defending from the Revolutionary War to World War II.  Nevertheless, our government appears to be at a standstill with one political party taking the reins while the other drags it feet.   Democrats and Republicans engage in this practice quite frequently.  Our elected officials appear to have lost track of whom they should be representing or which interests should take precedent.  In the past nine years, I have seen continual mudslinging and jockeying over the most asinine issues and contentions.  And I ask for what?  Simply, to one up the other party.

A two-party system illustrates serious flaws in a governmental system, especially when the two parties had significant time to entrench their power structures and personnel.  They dominate the system limiting other new parties, groups, or other thinkers to enter the political arena.  Americans need a political arena with diversity.  The United States represents to the world national diversity, spiritual diversity, economic diversity, and geographic diversity.  However, 300 million people are governed mostly by two political ideologies that are politically different sides of the same coin.  Why can’t the United States have stronger third parties that challenge Democrats and Republicans?  I urge Americans to start looking at third party candidates when they feel unrepresented by Democratic and Republican ideas and issues.  A stronger nation will result with this change and competition in the political arena.

Historically, third parties played roles in United States political history and popped in and out with rising social, economic, and political events.  The Know-Nothing Party rose from relative obscurity and dominated state and local politics during the 1850s and disappeared with the ascending Republican Party.  Abraham Lincoln could technically be labeled the first third party candidate to win as a Republican taking the 1860 presidency from the Democrats and the declining Whig Party.  In 1948, Strom Thurmond running as a Dixiecrat won a handful of states receiving their electoral votes during Harry Truman and Thomas E. Dewey’s campaigns.  Twenty years later, George Wallace basically took the same states in the 1968 Presidential Election.  (As a note, I do not think that Strom Thurmond or George Wallace were ideal candidates because they ran on issues such as segregation and intolerance.)  I vaguely remember seeing the rather eccentric Independent Ross Perot chatting away on the televised presidential debates in 1992.  Ross Perot would be the only third party candidate I would see in a live presidential debate to this point.  More recently, Ralph Nader, the former Green Party presidential candidate, received close to 3% of the national vote in the 2000 Presidential Election.  These were tiny spotlight moments during the critical presidential campaigns, but they illustrate a far greater need especially with our country’s critical situation transpiring over the past decade.

Now, I understand that many may challenge my assertions that the United States needs more political parties.  Others can already label them as scapegoats and spoilers in many elections, Ross Perot heard that from the Republicans, and Ralph Nader heard it the worst from Al Gore’s followers in 2000.  I do not buy that any third party candidate is intentionally attempting to ruin some other candidate’s chances by running in a campaign.  Ralph Nader did not sabotage Al Gore; Al Gore failed to win those voters’ ballots.  He did not even win his own state Tennessee.  I personally welcome the new dialogue on candid issues or stalemated issues, plus I wish they would be included in the debates.  Yet, these are controlled by the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), which was formed by the Republican and Democratic Parties, effectively creating barriers for other party candidates to make it to the national stage.

To lighten the mood, I would to like to mention a specific episode of The Simpsons entitled “Citizen Kang.”  It entails the one-eyed aliens named Kang and Kodos taking the human forms of Bill Clinton and Bob Dole during the 1996 Presidential Election.  Their hope is to be voted in as the president and then take over the planet.  Through a series of events, Homer Simpson reveals their identities to the populace.  Kang and Kodos tell the people that, “It’s a two party system you have to vote for one of us.”  A stranger in the crowd shouts out, “Well in that case, I’ll cast my vote for a third party.”  They respond by saying, “Go ahead throw your vote away,” and begin to cackle in laughter.  Scene cuts away to scan the crowd stopping on Ross Perot wearing a political boater/skimmer.  He rips off the hat and punches the top out of it in disgust.   Frankly, this assertion of ‘throwing your vote away’ echoes true to most Americans.  Why cast your vote for someone who you know isn’t going to win?  Regardless, you are expressing your voice and how you stand politically.  It is not about winning or losing, but by demonstrating this right to vote and choose.  I implore Americans to think about their voice a little more next time and maybe throw their vote away next time.  Perhaps, enough people will do this someday and we may shock the very foundations of this two-party system.

Flight 93 Memorial

Americans will never forget where they were or what they were doing as events unfolded on September 11th, 2001. This day remains etched in this country’s collective memory as one of the worst tragedies to befall it. In the last eight years, I visited the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. Yet, I never really had a chance to see the Flight 93 Memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. A few months ago an opportunity presented itself while out in western Pennsylvania. Shamefully, I did not realize that the Memorial was only a short drive from where I was staying so before returning home I decided to visit it.

Without sounding offensive to the lives lost on that fateful day, I felt unimpressed and betrayed at the memorials and other remembrance pieces. The temporary Memorial sits on a gravel parking lot with a small shack signifying Flight 93. An individual could spend thirty minutes at this location and be able to see everything. Flight 93’s final resting place stands about 500 yards from the Memorial surrounded by chain link fence with an American flag attached to it, barely visible to the naked eye or a telescopic camera lense.

Benches and angel figurines stand commemorating the lives’ lost on this flight with plaques and polished-stone memorials lining the Memorial donated by groups and other individuals. Emotionally, I could not celebrate their sacrifice whereas I left mourning their actions. This land can be considered hallowed ground, but the whole place left a morose feeling. How long must it take to build a reflective and honorable memorial?

A permanent memorial is set to be finished in 2011 around the attack’s ten-year anniversary. According to the National Park Service’s website for Flight 93, the Memorial will be an extensive site with numerous aesthetic features to commemorate and honor the passengers’ and flight crews’ sacrifice. I cannot say if I will travel out to Somerset County to see the Memorial again. Understandably, the families may not want to “cover” up the final resting places of their loved ones so soon. Should the nation have waited this long to memorialize this ground or leave it untouched out of respect to the families? . I do feel as though these places need memorials sooner than later. If they are left without proper commemoration, the location scars the landscape and the nation.

The Environment And You

Should climate, raw materials, pathogens, flora, and fauna be studied in order to explain history’s course? Numerous examples pop into one’s mind when thinking about these subjects and their relation to historical events. We’ve seen the damaging repercussions weather-related calamities brought countries and people’s populations in the last five years. How can we forget the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami or Hurricane Katrina? Climate and weather have played a huge role to areas affected by these disasters. Yet weather and geography not only promote destruction and death, they create unseen barriers preventing germs or plant species from spreading, which can either be beneficial or detrimental. As a history fanatic, I never really thought about how long term trends are illustrated utilizing the factors I listed earlier. Jared Diamond wrote about these subjects in his Pulitzer-Prize winning book, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies.
Diamond argues on page 25, “History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples’ environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves.” He often states how people and cultures developed unequally through a lack of certain advantages like domesticated animals or pathogen resistance, not genetic or mental capacities. Geographic positions also affected how these factors diffused throughout the continents. Diamond displays on page 77 the continents directional orientations, Eurasia east to west, the Americas and Africa north to south. For example, Africa’s Saharan Desert greatly impedes diffusion from the continent’s southern half to its Mediterranean coastlines. Nevertheless, Diamond’s explanations and examples for each criterion demonstrate how things evolved and developed in one region versus another region, perhaps affecting all of human history.
A term I found most interesting appears right when Diamond describes his argument, “environmental determinism.” This term or better yet, theory, supposes that historical developments have directly resulted from humans’ reaction and interaction with the natural world. When thinking about this concept, it first appears intriguing and thought provoking. Earth literally causes its own history. However, environmental determinism seems overly simplistic. Historical events and human development cannot be limited to weather patterns or other ecological agents. They provide an influence and pressure, but not enough to explain the course of history.

An Afternoon At The Extreme Capitalist's New Yankee Cathedral

This past weekend I had the opportunity with some family members to watch a baseball game at the new Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York. I used to reside in Brooklyn, NY when I was a child so I grew up with the Yankees being my favorite baseball team. Last September I watched my final game at the old stadium and looked forward to the new Yankee baseball diamond. Sports history represents a huge subtopic in the grand schemed of history in general. People find sports history easier to connect to based on their youth or even from hearing stories from parents and grandparents. It’s a way to actually take part in an historical event, such as Lou Gehrig’s farewell speech or those blasted Boston Red Sox coming back from a 3-0 deficit to win the 2004 American League Championship against the Yankees no less. I’m not bitter. They are pleasurable events adding nostalgic feelings to an individual and those other witnesses.
Frankly, I was in awe at the new stadium. After crossing over E. 161st Street and the old stadium to your back, you find yourself at Babe Ruth Plaza between Gates 4 and 6. Most ticket holders probably would want to enter here because you are immediately in what is called “The Great Hall.” Huge banners displaying Yankee greats are draped down from the ceiling in this hall. If you ever had the opportunity to see the old Yankee Stadium, you would understand how narrow the halls and concourses herded fans to their seats and the food/drinks/souvenir stations. Fans can now see the entire field from the lower level where the food courts and other shops are located. As I was walking I did pass the Yankee Museum on one of the ramps leading to my seat, though I did not go to it. Now besides these new amenities, the stadium reincorporated the old Yankee Stadium’s history with Monument Park, the facades, the retired numbers, and the Yankee World Series Championships.

Are you hungry yet? I could have spent the entire game just going to the different food stations and eating. Of course, it holds the typical Nathan’s hotdogs, soda, beer, pretzels, and French fries. Grand additions have been made also, everything from sushi, Kosher foods, Moe’s Southwest Grill, Hard Rock Café, NYY Steak steakhouse, and a Mohegan Sun in center field.  I ate a Lobel’s steak sandwich, priced at $15 a pop. They literally prepare all the steak right there at the stadium and a window shop to show how they age and butcher the meat.
Sadly due to outrageous ticket prices for this stadium, there are a large amount of empty seats throughout the entire stadium. It is $1200 for one seat behind home plate; they were originally $2600 per seat!! Prices are slightly ridiculous at the new ballpark and with these troubling economic times baseball games are not selling out. However, I would still go to many more games if I were in close proximity to New York and if you ever get the chance, I suggest you go see this capitalistic spectacle.

Swine Flu

I’ve been monitoring the news the last few days in regards to this outbreak of swine flu. People are becoming alert and fearful about a full-blown pandemic. According to commentators and medical professionals, we will not know for a couple of days how infectious and lethal this new strain of flu will be to the human population. Only a few years ago, officials worried the global population about the avian or bird flu. The Spanish Influenza ravaged the early-twentieth century after World War I. Europe lost millions in the fourteenth century caused by the bubonic plague. Frankly, there is an environment of fear due to twenty-four hour news networks and bombardment of terms like “Swine Flu Emergency” and “Flu Outbreak.” Should we use caution, like hand washing and covering sneezes? Yes, use common sense to protect your well-being and other’s health. Be alert, but we do not need to become eccentric and paralyzed with fear.
CNN displayed a map highlighting countries with reported swine flu cases. It made me think of a game I played on the internet a few months ago. This game developed by Dark Realm Studios, located on crazymonkeygames.com, was entitled “Pandemic II.” Simply, a player must engineer a viral, bacterial, or parasitic infection that wipes out the entire planet’s population. An individual receives evolution points as the infection spreads. These points then can be used to unlock symptoms, resistances, and transmission vectors. Countries contain hospitals, seaports, and airports. Planes and ships go back and forth to these locations during gameplay dispersing the infection. There are also simulated weather, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and droughts that either boost or hinder its effectiveness. Strategically, a disease must be highly “lethal” and “infectious,” but not “visible” or the world governments will initiate actions to prevent its further spread. These procedures include: handing out masks and bottled water, closing borders, seaports, airports, and hospitals, exterminating rodents and insects, burning the deceased’s bodies, and developing a vaccine.
Honestly, this seems like an odd thing to write about because of the gravity of the situation. The swine flu should be taken seriously and I hope I did not offend anyone. However, Pandemic II demonstrates, in a sense, how the world might react to a global epidemic.

Operation Valkyrie Is In Effect...

I figured I would change it up for a blog and comment on something a little differently. Over Christmas 2008, the movie Valkyrie was released into theaters nationwide. Being a history fanatic especially with subject material dealing with World War II, I decided to go see the movie. I admit I have no formal background into the failed assassination or any of the conspirators in the plot. Honestly, the story is an enjoyable, quick route to the assassination plot on Hitler’s life and subsequent attempt to institute Operation Valkyrie on the German homeland. It definitely piqued my interest into the German resistance against Hitler’s Nazi regime. I could almost feel myself rooting for the German officers to kill Hitler, but ultimately you know they fail. After viewing the movie, I decided to contact one of my professors from graduate school whose expertise is in German history. Dr. Mark Spicka responded to my email with fascinating comments and information that helped me in seeing how scholars could critique Valkyrie.
Now, the main character in the movie was Colonel Claus Von Stauffenberg. Tom Cruise’s portrays the Colonel as a value-driven man with noble intentions for the German land and people. Dr. Spicka informed me that Von Stauffenberg lived by strong morals with a duty to protect Germany’s honor. Yet, these values might not have included every single German citizen’s participation if they succeeded in killing Hitler. Ludwig Beck, played by Terrence Stamp, fills another intricate role in the July 20 Plot. Since I knew nothing in great detail about all of the actors in the assassination attempt, I either didn’t hear that he was a former general in the movie or they failed to mention it. His character appeared to be on an honorable platform just like Von Stauffenberg’s depiction. However, Dr. Spicka continued to tell me that General Beck resigned over disagreements with Hitler dealing with Czechoslovakia in 1938. I now quote what he wrote about the General: “He (Beck) did not think that Germany was yet strong enough to risk war, but was not against the idea pursuing an expansionist war at some future point.” I greatly appreciated all Dr. Spicka’s comments because it definitely helped me realize where historical movies of such magnitude have some flaws.