Column Bruce Kauffmann
- Bruce’s History Lessons: Truman’s controversial decision to recognize Israel
- By Bruce Kauffmann/For the Appeal-Democrat
- This week (May 14) in 1948, at the direction of President Harry Truman, the United States recognized the existence of the newly formed nation of Israel, which had declared independence earlier that day. It was, Truman later stated, among the most imp... Full story
- Bruce's History Lessons: Suggested readings and spring cleaning
- By Bruce Kauffmann/For the Appeal-Democrat
- Time for my annual spring cleaning column, in which I address reader issues and answer frequently asked questions.
Issue No. 1: My one reader issue this year is still the same. I appreciate the volume of reader mail I get and I pride myself on answe... Full story
- ‘Bull’ Connor was unsuspecting champion of civil rights
- In 1963, Eugene "Bull" Connor was the public safety commissioner of Birmingham, Ala. Bull Connor was also the stereotypical red-faced, bull-necked, racist lawman who believed all blacks were genetically inferior. And Bull Connor was also, ironically,... Full story
- Bruce’s History Lessons: The Constitution and power to make war
- By Bruce Kauffmann/For the Appeal-Democrat
- One of the longest-standing and regularly recurring of our national political debates — a debate that, if anything, is even more intense today — is what powers the president and the Congress have with regard to America's involvement in wa... Full story
- Bruce's History Lessons: Alexis de Tocqueville's 'Democracy in America'
- By Bruce Kauffmann/For the Appeal-Democrat
- Alexis de Tocqueville, who died this week (April 16) in 1859, is best known for his seminal work "Democracy in America," which is not only the best book ever written about democracy, it is arguably the best book ever written about America. Having tra... Full story
- Bruce’s History Lessons: Civil War began this week
- By Bruce Kauffmann/For the Appeal-Democrat
- The Civil War began this week (April 12) in 1861 with the shelling of the Union fort, Fort Sumter, by Confederate troops in South Carolina.
Four years later that war ended with the total defeat of the Confederacy, and in the war's wake many historia... Full story
- Lister’s life-saving discovery
- By Bruce Kauffmann/For the Appeal-Democrat
- Joseph Lister, who was born this week (April 5) in1827, was an amazing physician but a poor salesman. In 1867, this unknown British doctor, having read an article on microorganisms by the French chemist Louis Pasteur, concluded that the same microorg... Full story
- Dubious ‘rationale’ for Vietnam War
- By Bruce Kauffmann/For the Appeal-Democrat
- This week (March 29) in 1973, the United States withdrew its last remaining combat troops from Vietnam, ending its military involvement in the Vietnam War.
It also ended what had been the United States' professed rationale for fighting in Vietnam. A... Full story
- Bruce's History Lessons: The ‘Thin Blue Line’
- By Bruce Kauffmann/For the Appeal-Democrat
- This week (March 21) in 1989 Randall Adams walked out of prison after serving 12 years of a life sentence for a murder he did not commit.
In 1977, Adams, a 28-year-old drifter, was hitchhiking in Dallas when he was picked up by David Harris, a 16-ye... Full story
- Bruce's History Lessons: Gorbachev's tightrope act
- By Bruce Kauffmann/For the Appeal-Democrat
- This week (March 11) in 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became the last general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. His six-year reign as Soviet leader was a fascinating high-wire act in which he precariously balanced between triumph and fa... Full story
- Bruce's History Lessons: Dred Scott decision ramifications
- By Bruce Kauffmann/For the Appeal-Democrat
- I have written before about the infamous Dred Scott decision, which the Supreme Court handed down this week (March 6) in 1857. In that case the slave Dred Scott sued for his freedom, arguing that because his travels with his owner took him into free ... Full story
- Bruce's History Lessons: Remember the Alamo!
- By Bruce Kauffmann/For the Appeal-Democrat
- This week (Feb. 23) in 1836 a seminal event in American history — and lore — occurred when a Mexican army under the command of General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna laid siege to the Alamo, a tiny mission in San Antonio, Texas. Losing their... Full story
- Bruce's History Lessons: The near-assassination of FDR
- By Bruce Kauffmann/For the Appeal-Democrat
- Regular readers know that I enjoy occasionally indulging in a historic "What if … ?" That is, how would history have been different if such-and-such an event had occurred, or had produced a different outcome.
A classic "What if … ?" oc... Full story
- Bruce's History Lessons: Justice Marshall’s ruling gave Supreme Court legitimacy
- By Bruce Kauffmann/For the Appeal-Democrat
- "My gift of John Marshall to the people of the United States was the proudest act of my life."
– John Adams
This week (Feb. 4) in 1801, John Marshall was sworn in as chief justice of the Supreme Court.
Marshall would serve for 34 years whil... Full story
- Frost traveled the right path with ‘The Road Not Taken’
- By Bruce Kauffmann/For the Appeal-Democrat
- "The surest thing there is is we are riders,
And though none too successful at it, guiders."
— Robert Frost, Riders
America's most famous poet, who died this week (Jan. 29) in 1963, lived an eventful life. Robert Frost won four Pulitzer Priz... Full story
- Bruce's History Lessons: Churchill’s boot from office was ‘blessing in disguise’
- By Bruce Kauffmann/For the Appeal-Democrat
- "It may be a blessing in disguise." — Winston Churchill's wife, Clementine, commenting on his election defeat in 1945, right after winning World War II.
"If so, it is well disguised." — Churchill's response.
My candidate for Man of the ... Full story
- Bruce's History Lessons: Rock and roll’s Pearl of a girl
- By Bruce Kauffmann/For the Appeal-Democrat
- I will not make a habit of writing about rock & roll history, but it is indelibly part of our cultural history, and this week (Jan. 19) in 1943 marks the birthday of my choice for the greatest white female singer of rock, blues and soul who ever ... Full story
- Bruce's History Lessons: Caesar crosses the Rubicon
- By Bruce Kauffmann/For the Appeal-Democrat
- This week (Jan. 10 by the Roman calendar) in 49 BC, Roman proconsul Julius Cesar and his army crossed the Rubicon River, which marked the boundary between the Roman province of Gaul and Italy proper. In doing so, Caesar defied the Roman Senate, which... Full story
- Bruce's History Lessons: The black soldier in the Civil War
- By Bruce Kauffmann/For the Appeal-Democrat
- "Hello, Massa. Bottom rail on top this time."– Black Union soldier spotting his former master in chains in a Union prison camp
As I have written before, a chief aim of President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which Lincoln officiall... Full story
- Benjamin Rush – founding father, renowned physician
- By Bruce Kauffmann/For the Appeal-Democrat
- In my ongoing attempts to showcase great men who either are unknown or underrated, I present Dr. Benjamin Rush, who was born this week (Dec. 24) in 1745. Dr. Rush is a "two-fer" — not only underrated as one of America's Founding Fathers, but al... Full story
- Bruce's History Lesson: Why Valley Forge?
- By Bruce Kauffmann/For the Appeal-Democrat
- This week (Dec. 19) in 1777, George Washington led his beleaguered Continental Army into winter's quarters in Valley Forge, Pa., where they would endure the harshest winter in memory with little food, clothing or shelter. The stories about "Blood on ... Full story
- Bruce's History Lessons: Bush versus Gore – redux
- By Bruce Kauffmann/For the Appeal-Democrat
- This week (Dec. 12) in the year 2000 the Supreme Court's ruling in Bush v. Gore resulted in George W. Bush receiving Florida's 25 electoral votes, which made him, not Al Gore, president.
Gore's supporters were outraged. Naturally they argued that th... Full story
- Bruce's History Lessons: John Quincy Adams and repeal of the gag rule
- By Bruce Kauffmann/For the Appeal-Democrat
- In a column he penned on the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy, columnist George F. Will wrote, somewhat churlishly (I thought), but quite accurately, that the Kennedy family was not the greatest in the history of its home state, Massachusetts, because that ... Full story
- Bruce's History Lessons: The Warren Commission
- By Bruce Kauffmann/For the Appeal-Democrat
- This week (Nov. 29) in 1963, one week after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas by Lee Harvey Oswald, Kennedy's successor, Lyndon Johnson, appointed a commission to investigate his death, with a focus on whether or not the assassinat... Full story
- Bruce's History Lessons: Pilgrim's progress in 1621
- By Bruce Kauffmann/For the Appeal-Democrat
- Have you ever wondered why the Native-Americans (Indians) helped make possible the Pilgrims' celebration of their first Thanksgiving in 1621? Why were the Indians so cooperative, especially since — just 15 years earlier — they had been so... Full story
- The ‘dueling decrees’
- By Bruce Kauffmann/For the Appeal-Democrat
- It's an overused metaphor bordering on cliché, but in 1806 the fledgling United States found itself between the proverbial "rock" — the island home of Great Britain — and "a hard place" — the expansionist empire of France und... Full story
- Bruce's History Lessons: President who?
- By Bruce Kauffmann/For the Appeal-Democrat
- You say nothing beats experience? Then how do you explain the fact that this week (Nov. 6) in 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected president?
After all, one candidate vying against Lincoln for the Republican nomination that year was William Seward, the ... Full story
- Martin Luther and modern loot
- By Bruce Kauffmann/For the Appeal-Democrat
- This week (Oct. 31) in 1517, a German monk named Martin Luther posted his famous 95 theses on a church door in Wittenberg, Germany, to protest several practices of the established Roman Catholic Church that Luther believed violated traditional Cathol... Full story
- Sarah Hale – trailblazer
- By Bruce Kauffmann/For the Appeal-Democrat
- Despite running on the schmaltziest campaign slogan ever — "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" — William Henry Harrison won the presidency in 1840 with a shrewd campaign in which, for the first time ever, his Whig Party actively cultivated the sup... Full story
- Bruce's History Lesson: Pope John Paul II was 1st non-Italian in 5 centuries
- This week (Oct. 16) in 1978, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla was elected by his fellow cardinals as the youngest pope in 132 years, the first non-Italian pope in 455 years, and — being a native of Poland — the first Slavic pope in history. He took... Full story
