General Lee’s Farewell Address
(Richmond Dispatch, 1896)
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When General Marshall listed the numerous advantages that the U.S. Army enjoyed during the war (you can read it here), he included on his list the Willys Jeep. The Jeep and the Two and Half-Ton truck, he believed, contributed mightily to the mobility of American Forces in most theaters. The two articles attached herein go into some detail about the strengths of the Jeep, but concentrated primarily on the improvements made in the vehicle as Jeep prepared for its launch in the civilian market place.
“Soldiers respect for this weapon traces to two things. It fires .45 caliber slugs as a cyclical rate of 600 to 700 per minute. An enemy struck by a carbine or riffle bullet can keep coming – as Japs have shown. A man struck by a Tommy Gun slug is stopped dead in his tracks. A burst of fire can cut a man in two.”
“Soldiers respect for this weapon traces to two things. It fires .45 caliber slugs as a cyclical rate of 600 to 700 per minute. An enemy struck by a carbine or riffle bullet can keep coming – as Japs have shown. A man struck by a Tommy Gun slug is stopped dead in his tracks. A burst of fire can cut a man in two.”
These are the letters written between April seventh and ninth, 1865, by Union General Ulysses S. Grant (1822 – 1885) and his Confederate counterpart, General Robert E. Lee (1807 – 1870), that established the terms of surrender and cleared the way for that famous meeting near Appomattox Courthouse.
Newsweek reporter Vera Clay was not slow in accepting the U.S. Army’s invitation to don the khaki uniform and learn what goes into the training of a WAAC. In the company of fourteen other women reporters, she took the train to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, and for the next six days, the group began to learn about all things WAAC.
An article from 1947 concerning the ugly war fought by the visionaries who brought Israel back to life.
Click here to read a 1917 article that predicted America’s unique bond with Israel.
Katherine Dunham (1909 – 2006) was an African-American dancer and choreographer, producer, anthropologist, author and Civil Rights activist – enjoying throughout the decades one of the most successful dance careers a dancer could ever hope for. Attached is a profusely illustrated review of her 1945 production, Tropical Revue. It implies that much of the audience came away recognizing her originality and genius – while others simply thought she was a burlesque artist.
Ernest Boyd (1887 – 1946), all-around swell guy and significant literary figure in 1920s New York, took a hard look at German Expressionism and its wide influence on other Teutonic arts in the early Twenties. He paid particular attention to the German critic Hermann Bahr (1863 – 1934), who coined the term, Expressionism, and had much to say about the movement.
“In 1934, Adolf Hitler boasted: ‘In my Ordensburgen a virile youth will be developed from whom the world will recoil in terror – a violent, dominating, intrepid, brutal youth indifferent to pain and knowing no tenderness or weakness.'”
Nice.
German-born reporter Johannes Steel (1908 – 1988) was not an amateur when it came to identifying Fascists, he could spot them a mile away. In 1946, with Asian and European Fascism soundly defeated, he turned his attention to his adopted homeland and wrote this article concerning his disturbing observations.
Click here to read about Christian Nationalism.
“Government movies are now having their greatest boom in history. The boom is tied to the war, but many capital observers believe that it will continue into the post war era, and that the large-scale production of films by the Government telling the people what’s what and how to do it is here to stay.”
Literary critic Philip Guedallia (1889 – 1944) reluctantly concluded that the contributions of Rudyard Kipling (1865 – 1936) to the world of letters were genuine – and, no matter what you think of him, his writing will be around for a good while.
“He sharpened the English language to a knife-edge, and with it he has cut brilliant patterns on the surface of our prose literature.”
Artist Tristan Tzara (1896 – 1963) reported from Berlin for the editors at Vanity Fair on what’s new in German art. With tremendous enthusiasm he explained everything that was going on throughout all the German studios – he did not hold back – every name brand is included: Schwitters, Klee, Kandinsky, Lehmbruck, Gropius and the Bauhaus.
In this column, art critic Clive Bell (1881 – 1964) explained why neither Britain or America would have been capable of producing a writer like Marcel Proust (1871 – 1922).
Once upon a time there was a short-lived organization in New York City created to lampoon works of art hailed by the critics as worthy creations. They called themselves The Academy of Misapplied Art and they held their exhibits in the lobby of the Light House for the Blind. Attached herein is the N.Y. Times review of their 1913 exhibit intended to make light of the European Cubists.
As America was gearing up to fight another world war, the brass caps were reminded how incapable they were at identifying and isolating the mental incompetents during the last war, and they swore this war would be different. Numerous military and civilian psychiatrists were convened, and it was concluded that of the millions of men called, at least 15 percent would likely be off-their-rockers.
Writing Prohibition’s obituary during the Winter of 1933, Bertrand Russel (1872 – 1970) came away thinking that the best thing that could ever be said about Prohibition was that it served to put an end to that line of Victorian thinking that held up women as morally superior to men.