Any History Buffs?

[Feral Phoenician]

Ain't that the truth!? Even in the early 20th century, doctors prescribed heroin to put in the bottles of "fussy babies". Geez, even as late as around 1890 physicians in England were testing to see whether a menstruating woman could cause cows to give sour milk simply by touching one.

I doubt that Zachary Taylor thought himself immortal, but likely just thought that doctors were quacks.

 

[kmoney]

if you have any interest in learning about China's historicity, I strongly recommend Kissinger's On China

Thanks for the recommendation. I might try to read about China eventually, but once I'm done with this WWII book I have a couple other things on the docket first.



In Inferno I read an interesting passage that isn't very flattering to MacArthur. Driven by ego and against most other military leaders he lead a campaign to free the Phillipines but their 'liberty' involved a lot of death and destruction for them.

 

[Totton Linnet]

Who was maddest MacArthur or Patton?

 

[patrick jane]

Who was maddest MacArthur or Patton?

Churchill

 

[Totton Linnet]

....it was his American mother

 

[patrick jane]

There were also more serious matters occurring on July 7th in the past.

In 1937, Imperial Japanese forces conducted a "false flag operation" known as the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. Japan would use this as a pretext to invade China. This would set off a drastic series of events that would include The Rape of Nanking (Nanjing), in which hundreds of thousands of Chinese would be butchered, often in the most ghastly of ways.

It also led to a little known event called "World War Two" (Pacific Theatre).

Also on this day, in 1863 AD, the USA (Union) instituted conscription (the draft). This would lead to rioting in major US cities, catastrophic property damage, and lynchings of Free Blacks. But, for a measly $300 (1863, guys), a man could buy his way out of conscription. The Martin Scorsese film "Gangs of New York" depicts the NYC draft riots.

Surprisingly there were no blacks in Gangs of New York, were there?

 

[Feral Phoenician]

Surprisingly there were no blacks in Gangs of New York, were there?

There were, but they had very minor roles. In one scene, a mob lynches a Black man.

 

[Feral Phoenician]

Thanks for the recommendation. I might try to read about China eventually, but once I'm done with this WWII book I have a couple other things on the docket first.



In Inferno I read an interesting passage that isn't very flattering to MacArthur. Driven by ego and against most other military leaders he lead a campaign to free the Phillipines but their 'liberty' involved a lot of death and destruction for them.

It's been speculated that a number of civilian deaths in the Liberation of the Philippines were blamed on the Japanese, but in reality were caused by US actions.

The Japanese General, Tomoyuki Yamashita, at his war crimes tribunal, brought this up. His execution was incredibly controversial then, and even more so now.

 

[Feral Phoenician]

Who was maddest MacArthur or Patton?

True story; there is a photograph of them together in France, 1918. Patton was a 1st Lieutenant, MacArthur a Captain. A shell from a German howitzer had just exploded in the area, and Patton and MacArthur paid it no attention, while men around them were running for cover.

Patton believed he was reincarnated Carthaginian general that died during the Punic Wars. It even influenced some of his decisions during Operation Torch (conquest of Vichy French North Africa in 1942-1943).

MacArthur's mother was so distraught that Douglas was a boy, that she dressed him up as a little girl (dresses and even long, curled hair) until he started going to grade school.

 

[kmoney]

It's been speculated that a number of civilian deaths in the Liberation of the Philippines were blamed on the Japanese, but in reality were caused by US actions.

The Japanese General, Tomoyuki Yamashita, at his war crimes tribunal, brought this up. His execution was incredibly controversial then, and even more so now.

I just finished Inferno. Great book. Extraordinary and terrible time. Here is part of the last chapter:

Among citizens of modern democracies to whom serious hardship and collective peril are unknown, the tribulations that hundreds of millions endured between 1939 and 1945 are almost beyond comprehension. Almost all those who participated, nations and individuals alike, made moral compromises. It is impossible to dignify the struggle as an unalloyed contest between good and evil, or rationally to celebrate an experience, and even an outcome, which imposed such misery upon so many. Allied victory did not bring universal peace, prosperity, justice or freedom; it brought merely a portion of those things to some fraction of those who had taken part. All that seems certain is that Allied victory saved the world from a much worse fate that would have followed the triumph of Germany and Japan. With this knowledge, seekers after virtue and truth must be content.

Russia suffered 27 million deaths. China 15 million. Staggering numbers.

One somewhat humorous story from after the war:

The vanquished emerged in some unlikely places and guises: a U-boat flying a white flag sailed up New Hampshire's Piscataqua River, where bewildered state police received its captain and crew.

I can just imagine the look on their faces when the sub appeared.

 

[Ktoyou]

At one time, have read most of the books on the "War between the States", or "War if Northern Aggression" I like Randal "Civil War and Reconstruction",