What will, or should be, remembered as the worst prison in American History is Andersonville, the prisoner-of-war camp in Georgia where the Confederates sent tens of thousands of Union soldiers. Conditions were terrible; thousands of prisoners died of starvation and disease. The only Confederate tried and executed after the Civil War was the commandant of Andersonville – and he was, interestingly enough, a native Austrian. Brian Matthew Jordan at Emerging Civil War has a reflection: “A Thousand Words a Battle: Andersonville.”
I can remember when silence at libraries was not only the rule, but it was strictly enforced. And it didn’t matter whether it was the local branch of the library system, your junior high or high school library, or the big university libraries I had access to growing up in New Orleans. Times have changed. Ted Gioia at The Honest Broker asks “Why Are Quiet Spaces Disappearing?”
Jacob Savage at the Free Press has a different question. He recently took his family to an animal park in Utah, and then they went on to the zoo in Los Angeles. The contrast couldn’t have been more striking. Jacob’s question, which is more of a statement: “Why Blue States Can’t Have Nice Things.”
I debated long and hard about including something this week. But the gaslighting by what we call the national media, not to mention my own hometown newspaper, finally became too great. The National Security Advisor, the FBI, and Sen. Charles Grassley began releasing previously classified documents about Russiagate. The media decided it wasn’t news; nothing to see here, so move along, move along, worry more about Epstein. The media, however, was mostly complicit in what happened back in 2016 and 2017, so I understand the gaslighting. Matt Taibbi at Racket News has had the most consistent and in-depth coverage. See the Culture entry below for a raft of stories.
More Good Reads
America 250
Fire and Explosions at Fort St. John’s in 1780 – Robert Jeffrey at Journal of the American Revolution.
Jefferson Overruled – J. French Hill at Coolidge Review.
“In the Cause of American Liberty:” Catholic Contributions to American Independence – Raphael Corletta at the Journal of the American Revolution.
News Media
Informing the disinformation reporters – Sebastian Milbank at The Critic Magazine.
Writing and Literature
The Luminosity of Blood Meridian – Mark Botts at Front Porch Republic.
Othello’s Last Words – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.
American Mythos: Why the West Still Beckons – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.
Ray Bradbury Against Conformity and Ray Bradbury: From Prolific Writer to Voice of the Space Age – Bradley Birzer at The Imaginative Conservative.
Israel
Is Gaza Starving? Searching for Truth in an Information War – Matti Friedmn at The Free Press.
The Price of Flour Shows the Hunger Crisis in Gaza – Amit Segal at The Free Press.
Faith
The Cost of Courageous Preaching – Greg Morse at Desiring God.
The Simple, But Precious, Faith of Our Fathers – Daniel Darling at One Little Word.
American Stuff
Remembering the American Civil War – Jeremy Black at The Critic Magazine.
Elite Units of the Civil War – Christopher Miskimon at Warfare History Network.
The Battle of the Crater: From Military Breakthrough to Strategic Nightmare – Jason Clark at This Is the Day.
The Girl in the Middle: A Recovered History of the American West by Martha Sandweiss – review by Megan Kate Nelson at Emerging Civil War.
Poetry
“On Summer,” poem by George Moses Horton – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.
“The Panther,” poem by Rainer Maria Rilke – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.
Culture
Classified Report on Hillary Clinton, Loretta Lynch, and James Comey Finally Released – Matt Taibbi at Racket News.
Explaining Russiagate: Why the December 9th, 2016 Meeting Mattered – Matt Taibbi at Racket News.
Fact-Checking Glenn Kessler – Matt Taibbi at Racket News.
In Brutal Document Release, the Russia Hoax is Finally Exposed – Matt Taibbi at Racket News.
The End of an Era: Conventional Wisdom is Dead – Matt Taibbi at Racket News.
Hoax on Hoax? Ex-CIA Official Susan Miller Was Not an Author of Key Intelligence Community Assessment, as Claimed – Matt Taibbi at Racket News.
Patel found thousands of sensitive Trump–Russia probe docs inside 'burn bags' in secret room at FBI – Brooke Singman at Fox News.
New Whistleblower Report Drops as Pressure Mounts in Russia Case – Matt Taibbi at Racket News.
Newly Declassified Appendix to Durham Report Sheds Additional Light on Clinton Campaign Plan to Falsely Tie Trump to Russia and FBI’s Failure to Investigate – News release by U.S. Senator Charles Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
No Doubt Left: Russiagate Was a Cover-Up – Matt Taibbi at Racket News.
Shout to the Lord – John Wilds & Steffany Gretzinger
Top illustration: Man Reading, 19th century German lithograph after T. von Pichler.
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