February 12th is also Abraham Lincoln's birthday. In fact, Lincoln and Darwin were born the same day of the same year. I want to focus on Lincoln in this article. Recently I was, coincidentally, reading some old reference books I have and some things about the Civil War struck me. First off, one thing is clear: Abraham Lincoln, though a great man in his own right, would have been a minor figure in history and a minor, probably one-term, President had it not been for the Civil War. By seceding, the Southern States catapulted Lincoln into history. Lincoln won below 40% of the popular vote. Lincoln's Republican Party won a majority in neither House of Congress. According to The Presidents, edited by Henry Graff, Stephen Douglas felt that had the Southern States not seceded, Lincoln would have been powerless:

...an object of pity and commiseration rather than of fear and apprehension by a brave and chivalrous people.

But that is not what happened. The South DID secede and this gave Lincoln the opportunity to be a great figure in history. And Lincoln certainly rose to the occasion.

The claim that secession had nothing to do with slavery is bunk, mere revisionism by the losing side that didn't want to be tarred forever for defending slavery. Southern secession was EXPLICITLY (though not necessarily exclusively) about slavery. The North did not fight primarily over the issue of slavery, but over preservation of the Union. But for the South, preservation, and even expansion, of slavery was the prime issue for at least 2 decades before the Civil War, and was the main reason explicitly stated for secession. In fact, the issue of slavery almost led to secession more than once before South Carolina finally made good on the constant Southern threat. Slavery was the issue that dominated American politics. Perhaps the South and individual Southerners had reasons other than JUST slavery for fighting. But the single issue that led to secession was slavery. Period. Any other claims are false.  read more »

In 2008 Americans became aware of a region most had never head of before: South Ossetia. The nations of Russia and Georgia fought a war over South Ossetia. South Ossetia is recognized as part of Georgia by all but three nations. Russia, Nicaragua and Venezuela all recognize South Ossetia as independent, though Russia treats it more as a satellite of Russia. North Ossetia is part of Russia. Recently, about a year after the war itself, the EU issued a report on the war that blamed both Russia and Georgia for the outbreak of the war and blamed both for violations of human rights. Ossetia remains a flashpoint today with no real resolution to the conflict.

The Caucasus region, which includes several such flashpoints including Ossetia, Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia, Abkhazia, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, actually has a fascinating history going back as far back as history goes. To many New Yorkers, many of these cultures blend into the "Russian" communities in places like Brighton Beach. In fact, many restaurants we think of as "Russian" in NYC are actually Georgian.  read more »

On Columbus day and Thanksgiving, I often discuss the ambivalent nature of these holidays. Both represent the opening of the Americas to European colonization. This led both to the creation of opportunities that would not have been there otherwise. The example I always use is the fact that had the US not been founded, my family would undoubtedly been killed in Europe during the waves of anti-Semitic violence between 1900 and 1945. The events celebrated by Columbus Day and Thanksgiving day unquestionably saved my family. Of course those same events led to the extermination of many Native American families as well. Hence the ambivalent nature of these holidays.

Among the articles I have written on this subject are:

All we take for granted has been built on genocide

Columbus Day Through the Eyes of Native American Democrats

Columbus Day

And on a related note: America Before Columbus: 1421 and 1491

This year I have some different thoughts on Columbus Day, ones that link directly to the saving of families persecuted in Europe. What gets ignored in the celebrations of Columbus Day (which either are overtly pro-colonialism and/or oddly a reflection of Italian Nationalism) is the interesting story of Columbus himself and his family.  read more »

Do you remember when Rudy Giuliani made the outrageous claim that it was unfair for anyone to criticize him and his administration because no one could have been prepared for jets flying into buildings? Or that it was not his fault he chose to put the mayoral emergency response bunker, a $61 million emergency-command center and obvious terrorist target inside 7 World Trade Center?

Well, the Memory Hole doesn't want you to forget the facts:  read more »

Every year at Passover I write a diary focused on the origins of Jews. This is largely what I wrote last year, including a discussion of threads of evidence that influences from Egypt were part of the origin of Judaism, just like the Passover story goes.

Passover celebrates, supposedly, the escape of the Jews from slavery in Egypt. This escape is considered one of the defining moments in Judaism, perhaps THE defining moment. Into this event is placed the entirety of the ancient Jewish identity, supposedly divided into "12 tribes," as well as the defining of Jewish religious law. That is a lot to put into one holiday! But there is a more general theme, that of the struggle for freedom that many cultures can relate to.  read more »