Dean Swift

Sales of General History in book form – news!

Jeremy Taylor alias Dean Swift

Sales of Volume I and II of General History in book form are advancing sedately on line. Wherever you live in the world you can contact www.amazon.com or www.amazon.co.uk or www.amazon.es etcetera and if you are a member simply click on ‘All’, then ‘books’, then key these words = General History Dean Swift and both volumes will appear on your screen with details of cost and so on. If you are not a member of Amazon join them by opening your account, which requires only your address, your electronic mail address, certain financial details and a short personal codename. Volume III should appear on Amazon after Christmas.

Best wishes, Jeremy Taylor (Dean Swift is a pen-name). The seventeenth century Bishop Jeremy Taylor is an ancestor, and I did not write Holy Living and Holy Dying, though I would not have minded doing so . . .

By Dean Swift| 2014-09-07T10:37:25+00:00 September 7th, 2014|English Language|0 Comments

A brief history of Russia

Peter the Great, a portrait made in 1838 / en.wikipedia.org

Russia is a vast area of land occupying most of eastern Europe and much of northern Asia. So little is known about this country that Winston Churchill said of it in 1939 “I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia: it is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” But we do know that it has boundaries to the north with the Arctic Ocean; to the west with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, the Ukraine (including the Crimean Peninsula) and the Black Sea. Latvia, Estonia, Belarus and the Ukraine were Soviet Republics when the USSR existed (Finland was Russian in the nineteenth century). Russia has borders to the south with Georgia, Azerbaijan,the Caspian Sea, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and North Korea. As might be expected, closeness to all these except the Caspian Sea has meant trouble of one kind or another. To the east there are the seas of Okhotsk and Bering. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2014-09-04T10:58:29+00:00 September 3rd, 2014|Russian history, World History|0 Comments

The Métis & the Red River Rebellion

The Grave of Louis Riel,one of the founders of Manitoba / tourismerial.com

Among the first Canadians were the oddly named Métis – having a mixture of pure Native American blood with white, mostly French and Scottish. It was a robust race of independent mien, believing themselves a separate and special people, which they were. Their culture was also a mixture of aboriginal skills and manners and customs inherited from the French.

They lived an almost nomadic life which depended greatly on buffalo hunting and the uncomplicated industries that go with it, such as the curing and selling of skins as clothing for the Canadian winter. Newly arrived settlers were put off the métis by their semi-military organisation. Immigrants learned to leave them alone. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2014-09-01T08:01:53+00:00 September 1st, 2014|A History of North America, French History, Scottish history|2 Comments

After devastation, the Reconstruction of the United States

/ history.martinez.com

The American Civil War had left most states, especially in the South, in chaos and sad decline. American boys from North and South had killed each other, most of them not knowing exactly why – except that they knew, as all soldiers do, that politicians must be held responsible for the insane slaughter. The South was punchdrunk and reeling from physical and economic devastation, but those southerners left were moving, by the early Seventies of the 19^th century towards recovery, by dint of hard work and guts. The North, except for her sons, had lost little in comparison, as few incursions into northern states during the war had occurred. In the South the ranches and adjacent lands had been burned, the cattle herds decimated or worse, towns had been destroyed wholesale by soldiers hardly controlled by senior officers who often turned a blind eye. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2014-08-29T08:59:23+00:00 August 29th, 2014|A History of North America, US History, World History|0 Comments

More about THE BOOK

The first (and second) volume of General History in print – some news

With a book presentation on September 13 at midday, held in the famous Orchid Gardens of Sitio Litre, a beautiful old house in Puerto de la Cruz on the island of Tenerife, the first volume of articles taken from the General-History website is launched. Copies can be bought directly online by going to www.amazon.co.uk , opening ‘All’, clicking on ‘Books’, keying General History Dean Swift, and up will come details of how to order it. Becoming a subscriber with Amazon is easy and does not require a computer wizard. Even I could do it! The second volume is already up with Volume I on Amazon. The third volume will have to wait for publishing until Christmas this year, or maybe a little later. Don’t forget that ‘Dean Swift’ is one of Jeremy Taylor’s pen-names. Happy learning! Happy reading!

By Dean Swift| 2014-09-06T16:28:09+00:00 August 28th, 2014|English Language|0 Comments

Once upon a time . . .the Law of Fratricide

Mehmed III rid himself of 19 brothers / crowland.uw.hu

For those of you who are not entirely confident (very few indeed I should judge) in the English language there are a number of useful words that end in -cide. Parricide, patricide, matricide, fratricide and genocide are a few of them. These mean respectively the killing of one’s parents, father, mother, brother and the attempt made to kill a nation’s whole population. You can probably think of nasty examples of each. In a recent post mention is made of one of the Ottoman Sultans – Mehmed I, a.k.a. The Conquerer. This charmer made a Law which said, “To whichever of my sons the Sultunate may be granted, it is proper for him to put to death his brothers, to preserve the order of the world”. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2014-08-28T17:27:14+00:00 August 25th, 2014|English Language, History of Turkey|0 Comments

Hohenstaufen (1138 – 1254) and Hohenzollern (1417 – 1918)

Brandenberg – old and new / en-wikipedia.org

The Hohenstaufen dynasty was named after the castle of Staufen (long ruined) in north-eastern Swabia. From 1338 to 1254 its leader were crowned as Holy Roman Emperor, beginning with Conrad III and finishing with Conrad IV, but the dynasty reached its apogee with Frederick I known as Barbarossa (12^th century) and Frederick II (13^th century). They were kings of a small region then called Germany, and of Sicily as well. Their period is best known for developing courtly culture and some chivalry. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2014-08-25T09:27:38+00:00 August 25th, 2014|German History|0 Comments

The Ottoman Dynasty (and a warning about names)

Suleyman I the Magnificent / bbc.co.uk

History students must not confuse the word ‘Ottoman’ with ‘Ottonian’, though it is easy to do so. The latter is another name for an ancient German royal dynasty – the Liudolfinger – founded in the 9^th century This family ruled Germany from roughly 920 A.D. To 1024. The kings were Henry I, Otto I, Otto II, Otto III, (this is where the generic name ‘Ottonian’ comes from), and Henry II known as ‘The Holy’. They organised the eastern Frankish kingdom into ‘the German kingdom’ – though this of course did not signify the whole of Germany as we know it. The Ottonians followed the policy of support for churchmen, as an antidote to the pretensions of the nobles. Above all they established the principle that the country could and should not be divided merely by aristocratic inheritance. The Ottonians, though they did not last long, were a Good Thing, as their support to the Church encouraged great achievement in art/architecture and literature; so much so that this improvement was known as ‘The Ottonian Renaissance’.

The Ottoman Dynasty:- (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2014-08-22T09:07:21+00:00 August 22nd, 2014|History of Turkey|0 Comments

Names to confuse you (they have another meaning)

Cherry blossom / derwentvalleyphotography.wordpress.com

English is a rich language not only because of an immense vocabulary, but also because many words in daily use have another, purely historical meaning. Take for example: (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2014-08-20T16:51:23+00:00 August 20th, 2014|English Language, World History|0 Comments

The Anglo-Dutch Wars, Maarten & Cornelis Tromp, Michiel de Ruyter & Robert Blake

Ruyter causing havoc in the river Thames / badassoftheweek.com

In the seventeenth century two dominating naval powers emerged, following the reduction of the great Spanish Empire and her navy. They were Holland and Britain: commercial and colonial rivalries caused a lot of trouble at sea between these two. Four naval wars were fought at intervals between the Dutch Republic and Britain from 1652 to 1784.

Historians mostly agree that the first three of these, fought in the second half of the seventeenth century had little positive result. Certainly they did nothing to give supremacy to either nation, but the fourth, fought towards the end of the eighteenth century (1780 – 84), just before ‘curtain up’ in the French Revolution, was badly lost by the Dutch, ending their claim to commercial domination. All these wars did however give a major chance to certain men to behave heroically. Four stand out – one English, the other three Dutch. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2014-08-18T18:01:44+00:00 August 18th, 2014|Dutch History, History of the Low Countries|0 Comments

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About Dean Swift