Author: Ian

Harriet Taylor Mill (1807)

Harriet Taylor Mill was a philosopher and women’s rights advocate who is largely remembered for the influence she had on her second husband, John Stuart Mill, one of the preeminent thinkers of the 19th century. The two met while Harriet was still married. Two years after her first husband died, Harriet and John married following a 20-year friendship. She read and commented on all of his material, and he considered her an equal collaborator. What essays did Harriet write during their marriage? Discuss

Caesar Rodney (1728)

Rodney was a key American Revolutionary leader. As a member of the Continental Congress, when he heard of the deadlock on the vote for independence, he rode 80 miles through a thunderstorm to arrive in Philadelphia “in his boots and spurs” on July 2, 1776—just in time to cast the decisive vote in favor of independence. The wording of the Declaration of Independence was approved two days later, and Rodney became a signatory on August 2. Soon after, he was elected president of what? Discuss

William II Becomes King of the Netherlands (1840)

William served in the Peninsular War, was wounded at Waterloo, and led the Dutch army in the Belgian revolution after his father failed to approve his conciliation efforts. Called to the throne upon his father’s abdication in 1840, William was immediately confronted with a financial crisis, which was solved by raising a “voluntary loan” among the people. A conservative leader, he resisted constitutional revision until the revolutionary spirit of 1848 induced him to grant what desired reforms? Discuss

The Phoenix Program

Coordinated with South Vietnam’s security network during the Vietnam War, the Phoenix Program was a military and intelligence program designed by the US Central Intelligence Agency to “neutralize”—via capture or assassination—the insurgency’s civilian support infrastructure, which included between 70,000 and 100,000 civilians in 1967. Although some saw it as a success, the program is widely criticized as an “assassination campaign.” How many people were “neutralized” during the program? Discuss

Wenceslaus III of Bohemia (1289)

Wenceslaus III was king of Bohemia and of Hungary. Unable to assert his authority in Hungary, even with the help of his father, Wenceslaus II, he relinquished his claim to Duke Otto of Bavaria in 1305. He attempted to assert his hereditary claim to the Polish crown but was assassinated while marching to Poland. After an interregnum, John of Luxemburg, who married Wenceslaus’s sister, was elected king of Bohemia. Wenceslaus III was the last member of what dynasty? Discuss

H.L. Mencken

Often regarded as one of the most influential American writers of the early 20th century, H.L. Mencken was a journalist, satirist, social critic, and cynic known as the “Sage of Baltimore,” for the city where he lived his entire life. Perhaps best remembered for his satirical reporting on the Scopes evolution trial, which he dubbed the “Monkey trial,” Mencken was frequently critical of myriad groups. Why did the Arkansas legislature pass a motion in 1931 to pray for Mencken’s soul? Discuss

Joshua Lockwood Logan III (1908)

Logan was an American stage and film director and writer. He studied in Moscow under Constantin Stanislavsky and began to direct and act on Broadway and work on Hollywood films in the 1930s. He served as an intelligence officer in WWII, after which he directed a series of hit plays and musicals, including South Pacific, which he cowrote with Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Why, when it won a Pulitzer Prize in 1950, were only Rodgers and Hammerstein initially listed as awardees? Discuss