Ardent Patriot Research Articles

The Vietnam War (review)

Reviewed by: The Vietnam War William Thomas Allison The Vietnam War. By James E. Westheider. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-313-33755-0. Maps. Photographs. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xxiv, 217. $65.00. Greenwood Press is well known for its exceptional reference works and scholarly series. The American Soldiers’ Lives project of Greenwood’s Daily Life through History series wonderfully fits this tradition. The latest volume in the project, The Vietnam War, by James E. Westheider, is a well written, thoroughly researched book that both students and scholars will find useful as a resource on the day-to-day experience of the Vietnam War. Westheider, an Associate Professor of History at the University of Cincinnati-Clermont College, has written extensively on Vietnam, especially the African-American experience in the war, including Fighting on Two Fronts: African-Americans and the Vietnam War (1997) and The African-American Experience in Vietnam: Brothers in Arms (2008). The American Soldiers’ Lives project explores the very reasonable questions of what do soldiers go through in war and why do they do it. The hardships, the tedious boredom, and the extreme danger are sufficient to dissuade even the most ardent patriot, and yet draftees, volunteers, and professionals have served in conflicts across human history. Westheider pursues these questions in an organized and thorough manner that provides snapshots into a wide range of soldiers’ experiences in the Vietnam War. After a brief overview of the conflict, Westheider looks at recruitment, especially the draft, training for both enlisted personnel and officers, and the variety of duties and jobs performed in Vietnam. Life in [End Page 1331] the field and the combat experience gets due attention, with interesting discussions on food and nutrition, the USO, and the black market, among many other issues. Then, Westheider examines issues of concern to soldiers both during and after the war, including military justice, combat refusals, and returning home. Throughout the book, Westheider is mindful of race, ethnicity, and gender, and skillfully uses these as lenses to delineate among experiences. He also utilizes good context, showing how the same issue could be experienced differently depending upon the phase of the war in which it occurred. While the book primarily focuses on the American experience, the author does take advantage of recent work on the Vietnamese (both North and South) experience in the war, which for students provide much needed points of comparison for students. Westheider uses a range of sources, both primary and secondary, though some might find David Hackworth cited more than needed, in view of the great wealth of material on the Vietnam experience that is available. The strength of the book is its balance. Considering he offers multiple snapshots on so many issues, Westheider does a fine job of giving equal treatment to them across the book. Those looking for a good resource on the day-to-day experience of the Vietnam era soldier will find Westheider’s work most satisfactory and useful to their research. Undergraduate history majors will find this book particularly helpful. Good maps and appropriate photographs round out the book, and the bibliography, though not exhaustive, is suitable for a student resource. The cost of the book is prohibitive for classroom use, but make sure the library has a copy for reserve reading lists for courses on Vietnam and military history. William Thomas Allison Georgia Southern University Statesboro, Georgia Copyright © 2008 Society for Military History

Five Operas and a Symphony: Words and Music in Russian Culture (review)

Five Operas and a Symphony: Words and Music in Culture. By Boris Gasparov. (Russian Literature and Thought.) New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005. [xxii, 268 p. ISBN 0-300-10650-5. $45.] Index, bibliographical reference, examples. Boris Gasparov begins his book with assertion that is subservient literature (p. xxi). Music acts express and affirm literature's intellectual and aesthetic underpinnings (p. xvii). In light of this posited hierarchy, may come as a surprise that Gasparov wants to view as a formative cultural force, show cultural trends and patterns in characteristic features of music (p. xxi). In this book he attempts explore relationship between and its message. To this end, he offers a reading of six musical works, covering a hundred-year period beginning in late 183Os, revealing how each work reflects cultural and social trends of its time. What gives its unique identity? In chapter 1, Sound and Discourse: On National Musical Style, Gasparov sets up and explores dichotomy between European (read: German) and musical traditions, former personified by Wagner, latter by Musorgsky. musical language, according him, seems have a single meta-source, the chorale, though this genre remains undefined. Gasparov argues that parallel European and lines of development offer alternative path[s] into modernity. The Wagnerian line leads the expressionist style and, eventually, atonality; Russian chorale line, shedding its garbs of national uniqueness and assuming universality, culminates in the loosening of harmonic functions by Debussy ... extending of tonal harmonies by Shostakovich, and ... Stravinsky's bitonality (pp. 7-8). As these quotations attest, author's view of development of and its history is rather simplistic and conventional. In chapter 2, Gasparov traces Glinka's transformation between premiere of A Life for Tsar (1836) and Ruslan and Ludmila (1842). The triumph of composer's first opera and prospects that followed eventually gave way disappointment with his career, problems in personal life, and discontent with creative plans, leading him abandon high aristocratic society for brotherhood of close friends by 1840 (pp. 23-24, 27). To Gasparov, Glinka's personal crisis reflects larger crisis experienced by society during reign of Nicholas. The 183Os, with their conflation of populism, Romantic exaltation, and ardent patriotism (p. 27) realized at level of 'national idea' (p. 54), yielded 184Os-an epoch that turned out be introspective, self-searching, withdrawn into a private space, creating a culture of tight friendly circles (p. 55). Nothing reflected this cultural transformation better than Glinka's Ruslan. Glinka's second opera was conceived in late 183Os in the vein of imperial Omnihumanity' and promised to conquer world by absorbing it (p. 35). But by 1840, having composed some of most diverse and colorful pages of his score, Glinka simply turns his back on [the] deceptive magnificence (p. 44) of this cosmopolitanism, as he does (symbolically) on decade of 183Os. Gasparov believes that characters in opera mirror this change in attitude. Unlike their counterparts in Pushkin's Ruslan and Ludmila, Glinka's characters are transformed by their experiences-they undergo a musical metamorphosis from being stock operatic characters flesh-and-blood people. Gasparov finds little that is specifically in of Ludmila's cavatina. Because of its Italianate sound, her personality [is] thoroughly polished and conventionalized (p. 45). However, when we meet Ludmila again in fourth act, her is no longer Italianate or fully operatic; is now of romans-a high-art song genre that presented a fusion of generic sentimental features with some nationalistic musical element and formed part of domestic making (p. …

N Guilty Men

“[B]etter that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer,” said English jurist William Blackstone. The ratio 10:1 has become known as the “Blackstone ratio.” Lawyers “are indoctrinated” with it “early in law school.” “Schoolboys are taught” it. In the fantasies of legal academics, jurors think about Blackstone routinely. But why ten? Other eminent legal authorities through the ages have put their weight behind other numbers. “One” has appeared on Geraldo. “'It's better for four guilty men to go free than one innocent man to be imprisoned,”' says basketball coach George Raveling. However, “[i] t's better to turn five guilty men loose than it is to convict one innocent one,” according to Mississippi's former state executioner, roadside fruit stand operator Thomas Berry Bruce, who ought to know. “[I]t is better to let nine guilty men free than to convict one innocent man,” counters Madison, Wisconsin, lawyer Bruce Rosen. Justice Benjamin Cardozo certainly believed in five for execution, and allegedly favored ten for imprisonment, which is a bit counterintuitive. Benjamin Franklin thought “[t]hat it is better a hundred guilty persons should escape than one innocent person should suffer.” Mario Puzo's Don Clericuzio heard about letting a hundred guilty men go free and, “[s]truck almost dumb by the beauty of the concept . . . became an ardent patriot.” Denver radio talk show host Mike Rosen claims to have heard it argued “in the abstract, that it's better that 1000 guilty men go free than one innocent man be imprisoned,” and says of the American judicial system, “Well, we got our wish.” Or, perhaps, the recommended number of guilty men should be merely “a few,” “some,” “several,” “many” (particularly, more than eight), “a considerable amount,” or even “a goodly number.” Not all commentators weigh the importance of acquitting the guilty against the value of the conviction of one innocent man. A Georgia circuit court held in 1877 that it was “better that some guilty ones should escape than that many innocent persons should be subjected to the expense and disgrace attendant upon being arrested upon a criminal charge.” Moreover, in Judge Henry J. Friendly's opinion, “most Americans would agree it is better to allow a considerable number of guilty persons to go free than to convict any appreciable number of innocent men.” It is unclear whether a “considerable” number is greater or less than an “appreciable” one. n guilty men, then. The travels and metamorphoses of n through all lands and eras are the stuff that epic miniseries are made of n is the father of criminal law. This is its story.

PİO BAROJA VE BİLGİ AĞACI

Pio Baroja is a famous Spanish writer, who was an ardent patriot and who harshly criticised the corrupt system in his country. He wrote numerous essays, critiques, plays, travel notes, memoirs, stories, and especially novels till his death in 1956. Baroja’s The Tree of Knowledge in which he narrates some parts of his life, his study period as a medical student and the years when he practised as a doctor, has a crucial place in terms of the ongoing instabilities in the country. This paper discusses Baroja’s reaction to the bad governance causing social, economic and political problems in Spain during his youth, and its reflection on his writing.

The Case of General Grigorenko.

Pyotr Grigorievich Grigorenko was the perfect realization of the Bolshevik dream. Emerging from the humblest soil of Czarist Russia, he rose to the highest precincts of Soviet power. An ardent patriot, a committed communist and effective leader, he became a Major General in the Red Army, exercised a deep and seminal influence on Soviet military theory, and was showered with medals, honors and promotions through five loyal decades of his Soviet life. In the early nineteen-sixties, at the height of his career, he turned dissident. Arrested, he was psychiatrically examined, declared mentally ill, and committed to prison hospitals for the criminally insane. Two years ago, after reaching the West, he asked for a second opinion on his psychiatric condition. This is a report on the examinations and the findings.

The Outer Banks of North Carolina (review)

Book Reviews331 any degree of accuracy. The Colonel was an ardent patriot to whom Davis and his Cabinet were arch-traitors. Therefore he may merely have given vent to the oft-repeated popular boast to hang the Southern President to a sour apple tree without reaUy meaning anything by it. In this lies the chief weakness of Mr. Jones' account: His own portrayal of Dahlgren is so favorable that the criminal intent attributed to die young leader simply does not ring true. Of course, aU these are matters of honest differences of opinion. None of this criticism can detract from what remains a spellbinding and absorbing contribution to the lore of the Civü War. Hans L. Trefousse Brooklyn, New York. The Outer Banks of North Carolina. By David Stick. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 1958. Pp. xiii, 352. $6.00.) ?? this excellent volume David Stick has given us the history of the string of islands which stretch for 175 miles along the east coast of North Carolina. The story begins with the early attempts of the English to establish a colony on Roanoke Island, under the leadership of Sir Walter Raleigh in the 1580's, and ends with a description of this modem resort and recreational area as it is today. One feels that the author has enjoyed the ten years of research which he has given to the coUection and organization of materials for this volume. His notes meticulously comprise "chapter by chapter in narrative form, the sources which have proven most productive in preparing this book." Mr. Stick shows rare ability in piecing together seemingly unrelated historical facts, placing eachin its proper setting and giving us a highly readable story. He has also added a comprehensive index and several excellent maps which provide invaluable aids for the student of North Carolina history. The reader wül find a wealtii of material on the Outer Banks operations during the Civü War, and aU such discussions are scrupulously annotated. FoUowing detaüed accounts of the early batties of the war, Mr. Stick summarizes his more local reference as foUows: For aU practical purposes, however, the capture of Harteras Inlet, Roanoke Island, and Fort Macon had brought an end to organized Confederate resistance on the Banks and in die Sounds. It had done more than that, even, for with Federal forces in firm command of diese inlets and sounds, diey had effectively blocked off the basic maritime supply route to the rest of northeastern Carolina and had tighdy shut the back door to Norfolk and ChesapeakeBay. The occupation of die Outer Banks area by Federal troops presented few problems, owing to the predorninant sympathies of the Outer Bankers for the Union cause. As soon as the battle of Harteras Inlet was over and die forts secured by Federal troops, residents of nearby communities appeared, expressed 332civil war history their happiness at the results, and offered to take die oath of allegiance to the United States. . . . Whedier the Union sentiment . . . was of the genuine, inbred type or simply an expedient to make the best of changing conditions, die fact is diat many of die Bankers did side widi die North. Regarding the postwar period, the author states: As in other wars which have come to the Banks, the area soon made the return to normalcy. Because there had been proportionately little slave ownership on the Banks before the war, the Outer Bankers had comparatively little difficulty in adjusting to die new order. Some of die former slaves remained in die area, and like die free colored people who had lived tiiere for many years, they soon were living side by side witii the white people, . . . accepted as members of the Banks community, not quite on an equal plane, but so close to it diat it took a keen observer to teU the difference. The author's survey of the Outer Banks concludes widi a capsule history of each community, and witii further attention to special points of interest. Far from the guns of the Civü War but not without their lingering echoes, the last chapter ("The Banks Today") offers an exceUent guide to present-day visitors who are responsively aware...

The Patriotic Sermons of Christian Ludewig Hahnzog, Germany 1785

Previous articleNext article No AccessNotesThe Patriotic Sermons of Christian Ludewig Hahnzog, Germany 1785Dagobert de LevieDagobert de Levie Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Modern History Volume 26, Number 1Mar., 1954 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/237661 Copyright 1954 The University of Chicago PressPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Russian scientists and philosophers

February 27 1946 marked the tenth anniversary of the death of the phy siologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, one of the greatest of all Russian scientists, ardent patriot and educator of scientific workers. Pavlov was born in Ryazan in 1849 and acquired his early education in a theological seminary. After being graduated from the University of St. Pe tersburg (1875) and then the Military Medical Academy (1879) he spent the rest of his life studying one of the most important branches of natural scien ces ? the physiology of animals and, particularly, the physiology of the human body. Pavlov had the happy knack of so planning his moves and his scientific methods when engaging in the study of some new subject as to make nature herself disclose its secrets to man, to make nature answer the questions posed by the experimenter of her own accord, as it were. In modern science, as in war, you cannot hope for success if you make a frontal attack. The path to the truth is usually obstructed by a whole series of obstacles, of which the principal one is the rooted prejudices of the past. If you desire to make some discovery in natural science you must seek for untrodden paths, sometimes round-about ones. You must make a flanking attack on your objective. You must be a scientific investigator in the full sense of the term. Pavlov was just such a skilful investigator of nature. Nothing could long escape his keen eye. Pavlov loved the painstaking labour of the scientific worker, and he took joy in the keen delight which every new discovery brings. Pavlov was a true knight of science. He regarded scientific knowledge as an ennobling power, and he dedicated the vast store of scientific ideas that he amassed to his people, the great Russian people with whom he felt closely bound. It is for this reason that the Soviet people pay such homage to his memory.

Idealism, Realism, and the Social Order

vigorous and sincere advocate of 'ioo per cent Americanism and ardent patriotism happened to attend a mass meeting in New York City addressed by admirers of the Russian communist and soviet regime. He did not hear a single sentence or phrase from the platform with which he could even faintly sympathize. All that was said by the speakers at the meeting was, from his viewpoint, shallow, paradoxical, false, and absurd. He wondered how intelligent men could believe such things. But in spite of himself he was profoundly stirred and greatly impressed by the faith, idealism, enthusiasm, exaltation, and zeal of the orators and their audience. Five thousand men and women spiritually and morally united, revealing a passion for righteousness, ready to make any sacrifice in behalf of a noble cause-noble in their eyes-assuredly the spectacle carried a significant lesson which upholders of the existing politico-social-economic order could not ignore or belittle. Why, asked the citizen in the throng who was not of it, do not American citizens, young and old, exhibit like enthusiasm and fervor in defending their institutions and fundamental laws? Why, asks another moderately liberal thinker, not the present order worthy of as much ardent support as the radicals are willing and anxious to give to their untested doctrines and plans? A campaign, says the same writer, as often lost by reason of the vacillation, weakness, halfheartedness, of the defense as by reason of the force, dash, and perseverance of the attack. The existing order, we are told, is being insidiously undermined by admissions, apologies, silences, perfunctory pleas, and failures to issue or accept challenges in its behalf. The upholders of this

English Opera

The most ardent patriot could hardly contend that the history of English Opera has been a glorious record; but the most captious critic must admit that that record has at least been intensely English. It has been a continuous—no, a very discontinuous—record of amateurishness and “muddling through somehow,” and it is well known that these are the characteristics of our English attitude to life in general. Our national temperament does not incline us to be positively proud of them, but we are certainly well contented with them, and there seems every probability that we shall continue for the rest of our national existence to take them for granted as our instinctive guiding principles, if indeed we are ever conscious of proceeding on principles at all.