The Plague

Time and again our species has experienced the devastation of plague. The Black Plague of the mid 14th century killed perhaps a third of all Europeans in 4 years. Yet, very soon after the plague burned out Europeans experienced the flowering of the Renaissance, the great historic turn that launched our modern world. So the great achievements in Florence and other cities showed that people are resilient, and will thrive, even after a time when people believed that the world might be ending. The plague returned over and over again, with deadly effect - though not on the scale of 1347 to 1351 - until 1665. Yet people soldiered on and kept, as our politicos and news mavens say,"moving forward" with enough confidence to make our world. Let's hope we can do the same.

Mobilizing for war

In 1941, US auto manufacturers made 5 million cars. In 1942, they made none. Know why? Because FDR moved immediately to mobilize the massive industrial capacity of the country for war. Instead of Impalas and Fairlanes, companies made tanks, planes, ships, guns, jeeps, and all the material to fight a world war. The country planted victory gardens in back yards, and gas was rationed. By the end of 1944 we were producing (according to Doris Kearns Goodwin) a tank every 4 minutes, a plane every seven minutes and a ship every day. Our allies - especially Britain and Russia - received a large share of their weapons of war and support vehicles (especially trucks in the case of Russia) from American factories. The US built 300,000 airplanes of all types. By comparison, Germany produced 94,000 planes. Do we need this kind of mobilization of our resources today to deal with COVID-19?

Citizens Education

In the 1818 Report of the Commissioners for the University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson first described the purpose of primary and secondary education –“ to develop the reasoning faculties of our youth, enlarge their minds, cultivate their morals, and instill into them the precepts of virtue and order … to form them to habits of reflection and correct action, rendering them examples of virtue to others and of happiness within themselves. “ Due in large part to Jefferson's efforts, the University of Virginia was chartered on January 25, 1819. Jefferson helped recruit and interview faculty, designed the curriculum, oversaw the building designs - even made a list of 7000 books to house in the library. Jefferson proclaimed that "Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people" and to this end he founded UVa. As most have read, Jefferson's epitaph includes his role in founding the University of Virginia, but not his 8 years as president.

1917 - a crucial year

Ads for the film "1917" present a compelling story. It's but one small event, monumental to the characters of course, in a terrible war. Before you go and see it, a few things to know about 1917. By that time, the war had caused millions of dead and wounded. Trench warfare made the war in France and Belgium brutal, and deadly. The French were so depleted that they were incapable of much offensive action. Britain's blockade of German ports was causing great suffering among the German population. Austria Hungary and Russia were nearly exhausted. The US entered the war in April but did not send large numbers of troops for 8 months. The Russian Revolution overthrew the Czar and replaced him with a republic in spring, but Russia stayed in the war. In October, the Bolshevik communists overthrew the republican government of Russia, and took Russia out of the war. The Germans now were free to move a half million troops to the Western front, and planned a great breakthrough offensive in France for early 1918. So keep that in mind as you watch the two soldiers carry out their mission to save 1600 soldiers. The war was folly, and set the stage for the even more catastrophic World War II, which ended 75 years ago this year.

Founding generation wisdom

In November of 1787-1788, the debate over ratification of the new Constitution was in full swing. Influential men such as Patrick Henry, John Hancock, Sam Adams and Richard Henry Lee opposed the new form of government, and said so in speeches (Henry) and anonymous essays that appeared in newspapers. To counter the opposition, John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton joined forces to write responses to criticisms. Both sides signed essays with Roman pseudonyms like Brutus, Cato, Agrippa, Candidus. Jay, Madison and Hamilton signed their work "Publius", after one of the founders of the Roman republic. The Publius essays come down to us as the very influential Federalist Papers. Objections and supporting arguments were based in principle, setting a high tone for this high stakes exercise. In the end, Publius had published 85 essays, the so-called Anti-Federalists at least as many - plus two thundering speeches by Patrick Henry. Reading this exchange, articulate and engaging, makes me wish for some of that in our fractious political environment. But in 1788 it was understood you had to give your reasons, to persuade, not merely toss off personal attacks and specious claims. It was the Age of Reason. In the end, Publius was successful. The Constitution was ratified, but only by a few votes in the big states. It probably helped that the revered George Washington had been president of the Constitutional Convention, lending at least his tacit support to the new government structure.

The Kurdish people

The area known as Kurdistan is home to at least 30 million ethnic Kurds. It is the largest ethnic group that does not have its own country. Their ancestral lands are located in Iraq, Syria and Turkey. The Turks regard them as a serious threat and have been in conflict with them since before the creation of modern Turkey in the 1920s. After the breakup of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire at the end of World War I, the allies agreed to the Treaty of Sevres. It's purpose was to determine what would happen to the lands of the defeated Ottomans, and included a promise of a homeland for the Kurds. But resistance by the Turks led to the Treaty of Lausanne which extinguished the promise of a Kurdish state. One of the great Kurds in history was the Crusades-era Sultan Saladin, who fought effectively against Christian Crusaders, including Richard the Lionheart.

Manzikert 1071 and the Crusades

The Battle of Manzikert was fought on this date in 1071. The Seljuk Turks defeated the armies of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire). I know you're thinking - SO WHAT?!! This defeat in what is today eastern Turkey created a much higher threat to Europe, especially the east. In reaction, Pope Urban II proclaimed in 1096 the First Crusade and set in motion 200 years of war between Christian Europe and Islamic forces. The Pope called upon the monarchs and nobles of western Europe to gather their forces and take Jerusalem back from Muslim overlords. (Jerusalem had been conquered by Muslim armies in the mid - 600s and had been occupied every since). So this fairly obscure battle, a serious defeat for the Byzantine (Roman) forces, motivated western Europe to challenge Islam militarily. By 1099, the armies of the West reconquered Jerusalem and occupied it and the surrounding territory for nearly 100 years. But Saladin retook Jerusalem in 1187 sparking the unsuccessful Third Crusade, starring Richard the Lionheart. For the next century, several more expeditions attempted to take back Jerusalem, including the Fourth Crusade which actually successfully attacked the Byzantine capital of Constantinople - largest and richest city in the western world - in 1204. If you travel to Venice, look at the lions on top of the columns in front of St. Mark's basilica, as they are trophies brought back from Constantinople to Venice by the Crusaders.