Category: Education

The Evolution and Influence of the “Annales” School on Modern Historiography

Nineteenth Century historiography was dominated by the Empirical Model espoused by German historian Leopold von Ranke in which history was a narrative based on documented facts. Historians wrote volumes on wars, battles, great men, leaders, political institutions, and the rise of nations. Very few works were produced on the poor working class or peasants – the faceless little people on whose backs great nations and economies were built.… Read More The Evolution and Influence of the “Annales” School on Modern Historiography

Keith Smith

Book Review: The Strange Career of Jim Crow “Historical Bible of the Civil Rights Movement”

During the tumultuous times of the American civil rights movement of the 1950s a work emerged that challenged and eventually helped transform the historical narrative on interracial relations in the South. C. Vann Woodward’s The Strange Career of Jim Crow was born of the author’s concern that at the time the current national discussion regarding race relations and segregation laws in the American South was “being conducted against a background of faulty or inadequate historical information.” With that in mind, in 1955 Woodward published what had begun as… Read More Book Review: The Strange Career of Jim Crow “Historical Bible of the Civil Rights Movement”

Keith Smith

Citizen Soldiers: Militia in the American Revolution

Although it was largely fought on Breed’s Hill, the battle became known as the Battle of Bunker Hill. The New Englanders who defended the earthen redoubt on Breed’s Hill overlooking Boston came from a variety of backgrounds. Many were farmers and tradesmen. Others were sailors or laborers. Men and boys of European, African, and Native American descent stood side by side, with sweat on their brows, as British cannonballs crashed into the dirt that protected them. They stared down at 2,000 redcoats advancing uphill towards the redoubt. Colonel William Prescott, wearing a red waistcoat, blue stockings, and a light-colored banyan, or robe, stood on the dirt wall and told the men to hold their fire. In the few hours that followed this scene of anticipation, the British forced the New Englanders to retreat from the redoubt, but only after the King’s troops suffered 226 killed and another 828 wounded.

The everyday men and boys who served in colonial militias during the Revolutionary War played a vital and often overlooked role in the conflict. They came from all walks of life and varied in age from teenagers to men in their sixties. Many were farmers and their sons, others were apprentices, tradesmen, or merchants. They came from a storied tradition going back to… Read More Citizen Soldiers: Militia in the American Revolution

Keith Smith

Could Trump Impeachment 1.0 Lead to Biden Impeachment 1.0 After 2022 Mid-Term Elections?

In late 2019 my students and I had the unique opportunity to witness in real time a fourth chapter in the history of U.S. presidential impeachments unfold. The first being the impeachment of Andrew Johnson (1868) followed by the almost impeachment of Richard Nixon (1974) and the salacious Bill Clinton affair (1998). Unlike the first three, which are pretty “cut and dry,” the first Trump impeachment had more to it. To help my students understand it better, I put together a timeline of events leading up to that historical event which, interestingly, centered on a phone call with the current president of Ukraine. At the time, I predicted to my students that if Joe Biden were to be elected President of the United States in the future, that he would likely face scrutiny over his actions in Ukraine as well. Trump impeachment 1.0 did not begin with a random phone call to Volodymyr Zelensky, it began with the 2014 Russian invasion of Crimea and the subsequent U.S. policy in Ukraine led by then Vice President Joe Biden. The timeline of events leading up to the Trump impeachment are inexorably linked with the earlier Biden family dealings in Ukraine – and they could lead to a Biden impeachment inquiry.… Read More Could Trump Impeachment 1.0 Lead to Biden Impeachment 1.0 After 2022 Mid-Term Elections?

Keith Smith

Guerrilla Warfare – Weak vs. Strong: Why do some insurgencies succeed while others fail?

The differences between conventional and unconventional warfare are numerous, however the most obvious is the fact that irregular/unconventional/guerrilla warfare pits a strategically more powerful conventional army against a weaker enemy force – weaker in personnel, materiel, technology, weaponry, etc. Historically, conventional armies have attempted to use their tried and true conventional warfighting methods such as the use of  massive firepower and operational maneuver, while a guerrilla force will avoid fighting in the open (because they know it will lead to its annihilation) and only engage in situations carefully selected to give them a tactical advantage.… Read More Guerrilla Warfare – Weak vs. Strong: Why do some insurgencies succeed while others fail?

Keith Smith

Vietnamization – A Slow Surrender: Brief Assessment of How U.S. Civil and Military Policy Changed After the 1968 Tet Offensive

The 1968 Tet Offensive had serious repercussions in the U.S. While it resulted in a tactical victory, it convinced many political elites who previously thought that progress was being made, to believe that the war could not be won at a cost acceptable to the American public. Due to flagging support for the war Johnson began a process of de-escalation that later became known as Vietnamization. After his election in 1968 President Richard Nixon continued the process of Vietnamization in which the U.S. reduced the number of forces in the South and strengthened South Vietnamese forces. The effort also focused on “winning hearts and minds” by providing security, building infrastructure, and funding social programs. What we might call nation building today. … Read More Vietnamization – A Slow Surrender: Brief Assessment of How U.S. Civil and Military Policy Changed After the 1968 Tet Offensive

Keith Smith

Holocaust History

One of the most significant yet little known events of the Holocaust took place on October 14, 1943 when the Jewish prisoners of the Sobibor death camp revolted, killed several of their SS and Ukrainian guards, and escaped. Approximately 250,000 innocent men, women, children, and infants were murdered at Sobibor between May 1942 and October 1943. Of the three hundred that escaped during the revolt only forty-seven survived the war. Aside from the perpetrators they are the only eyewitnesses to the horrors that took place inside Sobibor.… Read More Holocaust History

Keith Smith1 Comment

Judging the Past

The tendency in contemporary education to emphasize negative aspects of U.S. history has caused many young people to believe the only way forward is to destroy America’s remarkable past and restart with a new set of ideals. However, if they are given the opportunity to objectively examine all of the information and think for themselves, most will moderate their hostile attitude toward historical figures and American history. They will achieve a broader understanding of their country’s unique and complex history and be better equipped to confront the challenges that lie ahead. The purpose in writing these essays was to help my students to do that by providing a foundation or framework that will better help them understand historical figures and events of the past.… Read More Judging the Past

Keith Smith