PRESENT BUT ABSENT: MARATHON IN THE TRADITION OF WESTERN MILITARY THOUGHT

The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, 2011

2016

Jeff: On November 6, the small town of Gettysburg will be swarmed by runners during the first ever Gettysburg Battlefield Marathon. The event has provoked heated discussion from many in the Civil War community, bringing up many questions regarding the use of our most hallowed grounds for recreational use. In this post, Matt and I will engage in a back and forth conversation about the concerns and advantages of the race. I’d like to begin by noting that the views that we each express in this piece may not necessarily be our own and that we may merely be bringing them up to contribute to the conversation surrounding the marathon.

Marathon: The Day After, eds. K. Buraselis and E. Koulakiotis, 2013

Using first- and second-hand accounts from contemporaries of the Massacre, this paper argues that the Boston Massacre was not a massacre at all. Rather, it was more like a skirmish or battle, since the arguments in favor of the ‘massacre’ view are either based on moot points or are dismissive of key facts, as are the arguments against the ‘battle’ view. In contrast, the ‘battle’ view is supported by the argument that the fight at Gray’s Rope-Walk was the catalyst for the plans causing the Massacre, as well as the precursor to the Massacre itself. The ‘battle’ view is also supported by the reality and legitimacy of threats perceived by both parties. Ultimately, this amounts to a revised, more nuanced, and more objective view of an historical event which has been seen in a very un-objective, distinctly American light throughout the nation’s history, and which has tended to idealize both the Massacre and the subsequent War for American Independence. In reality, however, human nature, both at its noblest and at its most depraved, may be seen in full display on both sides of the conflict.

HUMANITAS/Society for Humanistic Psychology Newsletter, 2014

A brief reverie on diversity, discord, horror, and possibility . . .

The Public Historian, 2023

The closing public plenary at the May 2022 virtual conference of the National Council on Public History (NCPH) and the second in a series of five annual scholarly roundtables considering the origins and legacies of the American Revolution, dialogues which will contribute to larger discussions during NPS's commemorations of the American Revolution's 250th anniversary about its changing interpretation and its continuing relevance to the American people. These discussions will be used by NPS staff in their interpretive work with the public regardless of their geographic location or primary interpretive focus, by NCPH members as they prepare themselves and their students for the 250th commemorations, and by members of the public as they consider the relevance of the Revolution to their own lives. The American Revolutionary War was a seminal event that created new identities, new borders, and new realities for the British, French, African, and Indigenous inhabitants of North America. While the war was foundational in the formation of what became modern American identity, its repercussions go well beyond the citizens of the new republic. The events of 1776 to 1783 not only divided the continent between American and British interests, they also divided families and communities between "Patriots" who supported the Congressional Army and "Loyalists" who supported the British Crown. The establishment of the US-British (later Canadian) border not only defined the territories of the new United States -- without any consideration of Indigenous rights or interests -- it also divided the peoples of North America into American citizens or British subjects, while imposing a new settler-colonial construct upon Indigenous nations.