Dean Swift

Who were the ‘Sans-Culottes’?

The fashion for both men and women to wear trousers ending at the knee, or just below it, has been with us for five years or more. Some shops even name this article of clothing in memory of the French Revolution, though that upheaval took place at the end of the eighteenth century. The workers in 1789 preferred the wearing of these well-ventilated trousers because they hated the knee-breeches worn by the upper classes, whom they had been inspired to hate by the republicans. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2014-04-01T13:27:55+00:00 January 29th, 2014|French History, Today, World History|0 Comments

Friedrich W. Nietzsche

With a name tricky both to spell and to pronounce, this German philosopher was born in 1844, son of a sheep herder in Saxony. He was brought up a true Protestant, and became Professor of Classical Studies at Basle when he was only twenty-five. There he stayed for ten years, before a possibly syphilitic condition spoiled his health and his vocation as a teacher. Then he started writing, chasing sunshine in both France and Italy.

Of the several philosophical works he composed between 1873 and 1888 the best known are Thus Spake Zarathustra and Good and Evil. In 1889 he lost his reason and was cared for by his sister until his death. He had lost all faith in Christianity, despite his strong Christian upbringing, believing only in ‘The Will to Power’ (Schopenhaur) as the Source and Meaning of Life. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2014-04-01T13:27:40+00:00 January 27th, 2014|Austrian history, German History, Philosophy, World History|0 Comments

What was the ‘Mir’

It was a commune of 19^th century Russian peasants, dominating almost every aspect of rural life in that vast country. It is not generally known that the commune system was well established in the century before early 20^th century Communism, which must take its name from the communes. Land was owned by the community and re-distributed occasionally (a period of years) in order to take into account changes in ownerships due to death, wills, gifts etc.

The mir controlled rotation of crops, choice of cereals and common pasture for domesticated animals. When the ‘Emancipation of the Serfs’ came in 1861 the functions of the mir were naturally extended; the government needed it as an (unpaid) civil service used to collect redemption dues, state taxes and control of the system of passports. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2014-04-01T13:27:58+00:00 January 23rd, 2014|Russian history, World History|0 Comments

Field Marshal Montgomery (‘Monty’)

In practice, the nickname or epithet ‘Monty’ was not used when addressing Bernard Law Montgomery, except possibly by the few other soldiers senior to him in rank, and even then, with caution. He was born in 1887, and became a middle-sized, clip-toned, fiery exponent of the philosophy that insists that anything will be achieved by will-power. Montgomery rose so fast after leaving Sandhurst that he was appointed Lt. General, commander of the British Eighth Army in North Africa in August, 1942. He was a greyhound-like fifty-five.

Montgomery found his troops fed up, dispirited, low in morale. He adopted slightly unmilitary dress, favouring light fawn trousers of decidedly military cut, with a grey pullover peeping below a standard battle dress jacket. On his head he wore a distinctly peculiar beret, more like a Basque farmer’s headgear than a British general’s. On it he wore not one cap badge but two or perhaps three. The men loved it. He used to give them what he called ‘pep-talks’ which enthused them. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2014-04-01T13:27:47+00:00 January 22nd, 2014|British History, Dutch History, English History, German History, Russian history, US History, World History|0 Comments

The importance of Burgos and the Spanish Democracy

Burgos is one of the principal cities in Spain, it has a large population, a famous cathedral, biting arctic winds that freeze one to the marrow and, at the moment anyway, a town hall where the mayor and his councillors govern with an absolute majority awarded them by the voters of Burgos. Spain has been a democratic country since the death of Franco and the subsequent modelling of the Constitution. It is not a one-party state, nor is it a dictatorship. A democracy requires local or national government given a majority, absolute or minute to keep the peace, obey laws even if they hurt, because the assumption must be that if the people vote overwhelmingly for a party to govern them, they shouldn’t grumble. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2014-04-01T13:28:03+00:00 January 19th, 2014|Philosophy, Spanish History, Today|0 Comments

(Thomas) Woodrow Wilson

The twenty-seventh President of the United States was born in 1856 in Virginia, son of a Presbyterian minister. The family were slave-owners. Thirty-four years later Woodrow was made a professor at Princeton, one of the ‘Ivy League’ American universities of great prestige. He taught History and Political Science and in 1902 became president of the university.

Soon he was elected Governor of New Jersey, where he easily gained the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, promising a ‘New Freedom’ by destroying the trusts, decreasing taxes and tariffs, and beginning a severe revision of the financial system which was the life blood of ‘The American Way of Life’. He was the first Southerner to become President since A. Johnson, and the first Democrat. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2014-04-01T13:28:14+00:00 January 15th, 2014|A History of North America, Austrian history, British History, French History, German History, History of Japan, History of New Zealand, US History, World History|0 Comments

Guess who said (or wrote) these things?

Give us your answers in the form of a Comment

“I must have a drink of breakfast.”

“Somebody left the cork out of my lunch!”

“She’s all done up like a well-kept grave.”

“I exercise extreme self control. I never drink anything stronger than gin before breakfast.”

“If at first you don’t succeed, try again. Then quit.”

“I never vote for anyone. I always vote against.”

A female neighbour rushed out to the new green lawn where our subject was engaged in shooting singing birds with an air rifle. She remonstrated. He replied, “I’ll go on shooting them till they shit green!”

Our subject said he hated all children and small animals. When questioned, he responded: “Anyone who hates small dogs and children can’t be all bad.”

And also: “A woman drove me to drink but I never had the courtesy to thank her.”

You can treat the last two quotations as a clue.

By Dean Swift| 2014-01-14T12:31:14+00:00 January 14th, 2014|English Language, Humour, Philosophy, US History|2 Comments

Union general William T Sherman

This successful but invariably severe soldier with a Native American middle name – Tecumseh – was born in 1820, went into the Army in his teens, and rose so fast he was commanding a division at Shiloh in the American Civil War. The latter was a real blood-letting affair fought among family and friends between 1861 and 1865. The most important issue is thought to be the rights and wrongs of slavery, but many significant leaders in the North of the US rightly believed that most Southern States were determined on secession before and during the conflagration. This, in a new and blooming, hugely land-rich nation would have meant disaster. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2014-04-01T13:28:16+00:00 January 13th, 2014|A History of North America, Today, US History, World History|0 Comments

Transcontinental railroads in the USA

In previous posts we have seen how the two largest countries in the world, Russia and Canada, were to plan, construct and successfully manage transcontinental railways, a marvellous example of the skills, patience, endurance and sheer toughness of the human race. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2014-04-01T13:28:27+00:00 January 9th, 2014|A History of North America, US History|0 Comments

Burke, politician, essayist & long-lasting influence

Edmund Burke was born in Dublin in 1729. Educated in this city, it was not long before he quit ‘the bogs of Ireland’ and moved to London, where he got the job of being private secretary to Lord Rockingham in 1765, when Burke was 36. So far so slow, but the Irishman never wasted a moment of his long apprenticeship with Rockingham, which lasted until the latter’s death in 1872. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2014-04-01T13:28:23+00:00 January 7th, 2014|British History, English History, English Language, French History, History of Ireland, Philosophy, Today, US History, World History|0 Comments

admin

About Dean Swift