"I consider the study of history a quest for understanding what it means to be human." I love this definition. Maybe this is one of the reasons why I am so drawn to your work. This is exactly why I have read history since I was a small child. It's why I majored in history in college. It's why I stopped my academic pursuits after my undergrad career. It felt like academic historians were sociologists who cared nothing for the story of humanity. Thanks so much for your writing. They are always a joy to read.
Thanks for the additional information on the precivil War statesman Henry Clay. Heartbreaking to lose so many children even at a time when early deaths were common. In reading hiis letter one gains aa sense of Clay's character and that he took the time to think about what this last daughter meant to him.
Your note also reminded me how I enjoyed you work in looking at those great statesmen of the early 19 yummyt century..My how they tried to avoid a civil war they knew would produce great devastation. And of course we are still living with the consequences. This period remains one of my favorite periods as our domestic problems were reaching breaking points. The US history following the great war where America was a power that generated a new set of international responsibilities that could no longer be ignored. Yes the study oof history does offer understanding of who we are.
One of the classical Greek tragedians (although I can't recall which one (Sophocles? Euripides? Aeschylus?.) wrote: "There is something fundamentally unnatural about the old burying the young."
"I consider the study of history a quest for understanding what it means to be human." I love this definition. Maybe this is one of the reasons why I am so drawn to your work. This is exactly why I have read history since I was a small child. It's why I majored in history in college. It's why I stopped my academic pursuits after my undergrad career. It felt like academic historians were sociologists who cared nothing for the story of humanity. Thanks so much for your writing. They are always a joy to read.
Thanks for the additional information on the precivil War statesman Henry Clay. Heartbreaking to lose so many children even at a time when early deaths were common. In reading hiis letter one gains aa sense of Clay's character and that he took the time to think about what this last daughter meant to him.
Your note also reminded me how I enjoyed you work in looking at those great statesmen of the early 19 yummyt century..My how they tried to avoid a civil war they knew would produce great devastation. And of course we are still living with the consequences. This period remains one of my favorite periods as our domestic problems were reaching breaking points. The US history following the great war where America was a power that generated a new set of international responsibilities that could no longer be ignored. Yes the study oof history does offer understanding of who we are.
One of the classical Greek tragedians (although I can't recall which one (Sophocles? Euripides? Aeschylus?.) wrote: "There is something fundamentally unnatural about the old burying the young."
He was both a Representative and a Senator from Kentucky at different times and served for a long period as Speaker of the House.