Bruce's History Lessons - the Second Five Years (2006 - 2011)

By Bruce G. Kauffmann

Praise for Bruces History Lessons

If only history were taught the way Bruce Kauffmann writes about it, wed have a nation of history buffs. He zeroes in on pivotal moments, relates them in conversational language and connects yesterday to today with skill and insight. And his gift for brevity always leaves me wanting to know more. - Gayle Beck, The Repository, Canton, Ohio

Mr. Kauffmann - Just wanted to say how much I enjoy your articles. I have taught high school social studies for 33 years and the last several years I have used a lot of your articles in my class. - Craig Grow, Sullivan, IN

Mr. Kauffmann, Your History Lessons column is a must read for me. My husband and I both greatly enjoy the interesting nuggets of overlooked events, corrections of misconceptions, or how it came to be that you write about. Did you read Bruce today? is a common refrain over Sunday morning coffee. - Diane Pritchard, Champaign, IL

Dear Bruce, Thanks for the History Lessons that my mom has sent me. They are published in her Worcester, MA, Sunday paper. I have really enjoyed them and as a former educator, I think they make a great learning tool. You get a Gold Star!!!!!! - Ginny Decker, Alabama

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Nov 7, 2012
• ISBN: 9781475958805

Bruce G. Kauffmann

BRUCE G. KAUFFMANN is a historian, lecturer and newspaper columnist whose weekly column, Bruce’s History Lessons, is nationally syndicated. His first book, Bruce’s History Lessons – The First Five Years, was published in 2008. Mr. Kauffmann’s numerous writing awards include the Writer’s Guild of America’s 1991 Hal Terkel Memorial Award for General Excellence. Read his weekly history column on his website, www.historylessons.net.

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Copyright © 2012 by Bruce G. Kauffmann.

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ISBN: 978-1-4759-5878-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-5880-5 (ebk)

iUniverse rev. date: 10/31/2012

Contents

Introduction

Dedication

Author’s Note

Bruce’s History Lessons: Meet the Beetles!

Bruce’s History Lessons: Beer Cheer!

Bruce’s History Lessons: Betsy Ross: Did She or Didn’t She?

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Constitution and Power: My Two Cents

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Indispensable Baron von Steuben

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Iditarod

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Dreaded Dred Scott Decision

Bruce’s History Lessons: Neville Chamberlain: Appeaser

Bruce’s History Lessons: Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life)

Bruce’s History Lessons: President Reagan is Shot

Bruce’s History Lessons: Dirty Harry Runs For Mayor

Bruce’s History Lessons: Tom Jefferson: A Walking Anomaly

Bruce’s History Lessons: Stephen Pleasonton, Another Unsung Hero

Bruce’s History Lessons: Rupert Trimmingham Writes a Letter

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Crash of the Hindenburg

Bruce’s History Lessons: The 2nd Continental Congress in Crisis

Bruce’s History Lessons: L. Frank Baum: The Man Behind the Curtain

Bruce’s History Lessons: The End of the Model T Ford

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Inestimable Contribution of the D-Day Weatherman

Bruce’s History Lessons: Go Fly a Kite!

Bruce’s History Lessons: Texas v. Johnson: The Right to Burn the Flag

Bruce’s History Lessons: Ich Bin Ein Berliner!

Bruce’s History Lessons: America, France, Russia and July 4th

Bruce’s History Lessons: A Transfer of Presidential Power

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Legality of the Emancipation Proclamation

Bruce’s History Lessons: Charles and Di—The Fairy Tale Ends

Bruce’s History Lessons: Underwater and On Top of the World

Bruce’s History Lessons: Strike One—You’re out!

Bruce’s History Lessons: President Clinton Comes Clean

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Misunderstood Guillotine

Bruce’s History Lessons: Installing the Hot Line

Bruce’s History Lessons: BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! The Taxicab Battle

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Beginning of Camelot

Bruce’s History Lessons: Nixon’s Famous Checkers Speech

Bruce’s History Lessons: Teddy Ballgame Hits .406

Bruce’s History Lessons: Mr. Jefferson’s UVa!

Bruce’s History Lessons: Che!

Bruce’s History Lessons: John Brown’s Body

Bruce’s History Lessons: Reagan’s A Time for Choosing Speech

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Iranian Hostage Crisis

Bruce’s History Lessons: World War I—A Different Breed of War

Bruce’s History Lessons: Papa Joe Kennedy

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Real Trial of the Century

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Monroe Doctrine: America Emerges

Bruce’s History Lessons: Fritz Haber: Death Dealer, Nobel Laureate

Bruce’s History Lessons: Pest Control

Bruce’s History Lessons: George C. Scott and George S. Patton: Separated at Birth

Bruce’s History Lessons: Murder in the Cathedral

Bruce’s History Lessons: Time Magazine’s Man of the Year for 1928

Bruce’s History Lessons: Where There’s Smoke… There’s Cancer

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Military Industrial Complex

Bruce’s History Lessons: Yellow Fever!

Bruce’s History Lessons: Moscow’s Big Mac Attack

Bruce’s History Lessons: The French and Indian War: A Pyrrhic Victory

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Satanic Curses

Bruce’s History Lessons: Charles: Ruler of the World

Bruce’s History Lessons: Remember the Alamo!

Bruce’s History Lessons: Taft, Teddy’s Successor

Bruce’s History Lessons: The FBI’s Ten Most Wanted

Bruce’s History Lessons: The 1980 Olympic Boycott

Bruce’s History Lessons: Domestic Politics and the Birth of the U.S. Navy

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Committee of Public Safety

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Death of Franklin Roosevelt

Bruce’s History Lessons: The End of Slavery in the Nation’s Capital

Bruce’s History Lessons: James Monroe and the Era of Good Feelings

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Little Children Lead the Miracle March

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Deep Blue Computer Defeats Garry Kasparov

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Presidential Title Search

Bruce’s History Lessons: John F. Kennedy and How the Rich Get Richer

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Marshall Plan

Bruce’s History Lessons: Jeanette Rankin, The Pacifist, Suffragette Representative

Bruce’s History Lessons: An Invitation to Historic Immortality

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Bakke Decision and Affirmative Action

Bruce’s History Lessons: No Ordinary Picnic: The Beatles Meet!

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Battle of Britain

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Bill of Rights Fights

Bruce’s History Lessons: A Unanimous Supreme Court Decision

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Pickett Behind Pickett’s Charge

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Purple Badge of Courage

Bruce’s History Lessons: Dan Quayle For Veep!

Bruce’s History Lessons: Burning Down the House

Bruce’s History Lessons: John Locke and the Sovereignty of the People

Bruce’s History Lessons: Swimming’s Gold Fish

Bruce’s History Lessons: Winston and Clementine Wed

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Mouse that Roared

Bruce’s History Lessons: Handy Man and the Beginnings of the Blues

Bruce’s History Lessons: America’s Government: Filling in the Blanks

Bruce’s History Lessons: Roger Taney: Supreme Court Racist

Bruce’s History Lessons: Reach Out and Touch Someone: JFK Calls Coretta King

Bruce’s History Lessons: Barbed Wire

Bruce’s History Lessons: Colonial America Learns the Golden Rule

Bruce’s History Lessons: Kristallnacht—The Night of the Shattered Glass

Bruce’s History Lessons: Sherman Marches to the Sea

Bruce’s History Lessons: U.N. Security Council Resolution 242

Bruce’s History Lessons: Winston Churchill, The Last Lion, Turns 80

Bruce’s History Lessons: Gerald Ford’s Three Scandals

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Oh So Controversial Second Amendment

Bruce’s History Lessons: The King Meets Tricky Dick

Bruce’s History Lessons: Kwanzaa—Lighting the Lamp

Bruce’s History Lessons: George C. Marshall: The Architect of Victory

Bruce’s History Lessons: FDR’s Fireside Chats

Bruce’s History Lessons: Henry VIII, Founder of the Anglican Church

Bruce’s History Lessons: Stonewall Jackson: Preacher Man to the Slaves

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Supreme Court: The Early Years

Bruce’s History Lessons: Death Comes to a Good King

Bruce’s History Lessons: The 25th Amendment

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Marines at Iwo Jima

Bruce’s History Lessons: The First World Trade Center Attack

Bruce’s History Lessons: Sunday, Bloody Sunday!

Bruce’s History Lessons: Abe Lincoln: Inventor

Bruce’s History Lessons: Eleanor and Franklin Wed

Bruce’s History Lessons: Death of a Statesman

Bruce’s History Lessons: NATO and the Single British Soldier

Bruce’s History Lessons: Hammerin’ Hank Aaron

Bruce’s History Lessons: America’s Dictionary

Bruce’s History Lessons: Sooner or Later: The Oklahoma Land Rush

Bruce’s History Lessons: What Happens Next, Ike Asked

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Nazi Book Burnings

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Assassination Attempt on Pope John Paul II

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Spirit of St. Louis

Bruce’s History Lessons: John Trumbull, Revolutionary Artist

Bruce’s History Lessons: Tear Down this Wall!

Bruce’s History Lessons: Keystone Cops: The Watergate Break-In

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Curious Will and Testament of John Smithson

Bruce’s History Lessons: Churchill’s Most Difficult Decision

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Butterfly Effect

Bruce’s History Lessons: God Bless the Child

Bruce’s History Lessons: William Jennings Bryan—The Great Commoner

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Defeat of the Spanish Armada

Bruce’s History Lessons: Lenny Bruce—Comedy’s Martyr

Bruce’s History Lessons: Woodstock: Three Days of…

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Marlboro Man

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Fog of War and the Battle of Brooklyn

Bruce’s History Lessons: Ho, Ho, Ho

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Daisy Ad and the 1964 Presidential Campaign

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Battle of Antietam: Close but no Cigar

Bruce’s History Lessons: A Long Lost Soldier Returns Home

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Catch

Bruce’s History Lessons: George Mason’s Invaluable Contributions to America

Bruce’s History Lessons: Marie Antoinette Shakes the hot hand

Bruce’s History Lessons: You Say Grenada… .

Bruce’s History Lessons: Martin Luther Posts His Theses

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Most Important Presidential Election in American History

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Unknown Soldier

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Warren Commission

Bruce’s History Lessons: Pope Urban II’s Historic Speech

Bruce’s History Lessons: Armed Liberty Astride our Capitol

Bruce’s History Lessons: The King of Peace

Bruce’s History Lessons: Two Oft Neglected, Constitutional Amendments

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Death of The Japanese Hitler, Hideki Tojo

Bruce’s History Lessons: Ellis Island and the Land of the Free

Bruce’s History Lessons: Tom Paine’s Common Sense

Bruce’s History Lessons: Dr. Naismith Invents Basketball

Bruce’s History Lessons: President Bucket Brigade

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Six Wives of Henry VIII

Bruce’s History Lessons: FDR’s Court Packing Scheme

Bruce’s History Lessons: For King and Country

Bruce’s History Lessons: Deng: The Man Who Changed China

Bruce’s History Lessons: Marbury v. Madison

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Wright Sister

Bruce’s History Lessons: Ben Harrison: Our 2³rd President

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Compensation Act of 1816

Bruce’s History Lessons: Star Wars

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Road to War

Bruce’s History Lessons: Pontius Pilate’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Passover

Bruce’s History Lessons: The First Statue of Abe Lincoln

Bruce’s History Lessons: Armageddon in The Cola Wars

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Sad Story of Grant’s Tomb

Bruce’s History Lessons: World Wars and World Cups

Bruce’s History Lessons: Our National Cemetery

Bruce’s History Lessons: Plessy v. Ferguson

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Five Miracles that Brought Forth America

Bruce’s History Lessons: Madison’s Original Sixteen Amendments

Bruce’s History Lessons: Smoot-Hawley and the Great Depression

Bruce’s History Lessons: The G.I. Bill of Rights

Bruce’s History Lessons: Happy Birthday to an Old World Country

Bruce’s History Lessons: King Henry Anne-uls A Marriage

Bruce’s History Lessons: What If? Hiram Ulysses Grant Gets a New Name

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Helsinki Accords

Bruce’s History Lesson: Columbus Sets Sail

Bruce’s History Lessons: Joseph Kennedy: Fortunate Son

Bruce’s History Lessons: Richard III: Evil or Unfairly Portrayed?

Bruce’s History Lessons: De Gaulle’s Eternal Myth: The Liberation of France

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Ripper

Bruce’s History Lessons: Busing Comes to Beantown

Bruce’s History Lessons: A Preventable Presidential Death

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Monday Night Football Phenomenon

Bruce’s History Lessons: Happy Birthday, Ferdinand Foch

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Proclamation of 1763

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Cuban Missile Crisis: A Soviet Victory

Bruce’s History Lessons: Jefferson’s Foresight and the Louisiana Purchase

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Camp David Accords

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Trial and Tribulations of Susan Anthony

Bruce’s History Lessons: From Germany’s Ashes Hitler Rises

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Gettysburg Address: Lincoln Picks our Pocket

Bruce’s History Lessons: On the Origin of the Species

Bruce’s History Lessons: America’s Darkest Day

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Failed Attack on Pearl Harbor

Bruce’s History Lessons: A Chase Catches His Prize

Bruce’s History Lessons: Can You Drive Fifty-Five?

Bruce’s History Lessons: Woodrow’s World

Bruce’s History Lessons: The God That Failed

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom

Bruce’s History Lessons: The (Curt) Flood-gates Open

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Trial and Execution of England’s Charles I

Bruce’s History Lessons: Walk, Don’t Walk

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Bombing of Dresden

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Controversial Election of 1800

Bruce’s History Lessons: Miracle on Ice

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Eleventh Amendment

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Hypocritical Confederate Constitution

Bruce’s History Lessons: The My Lai Massacre

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Quartering Act

Bruce’s History Lessons: Christianity’s Co-Creator

Bruce’s History Lessons: And the War Came

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Propaganda Shot Heard ’Round the World

Bruce’s History Lesson: The Birth of the Universe

Bruce’s History Lessons: A Soldier of Misfortune

Bruce’s History Lessons: Lindbergh’s America First Campaign

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Monuments Men

Bruce’s History Lessons: 1968—The Year that Will Live in Infamy

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Committee of Five and the Chosen One

Bruce’s History Lessons: Ride, Sally Ride

Bruce’s History Lessons: The United Nations is Born

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Road to Gettysburg

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Five First Amendment Freedoms

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Capital Bargain

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Seneca Falls Conference

Bruce’s History Lessons: Churchill Gets the Boot

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Gulf of Tonkin Incident(s)

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Mother’s Cross

Bruce’s History Lesson: Ronald Reagan Runs for President

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Woman Who Raised Emmett Till

Bruce’s History Lessons: Abe Lincoln: Protector of Slavery

Bruce’s History Lessons: Building the Pentagon

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Political Fallout of the Battle of Antietam

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Iron Man Sits

Bruce’s History Lessons: Sam Adams: The Man of the Revolution

Bruce’s History Lessons: Churchill’s Munich Speech

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Mysterious Story of the White House Cornerstone

Bruce’s History Lessons: Borked!

Bruce’s History Lessons: John and Abigail Adams—Dearest Friends

Bruce’s History Lessons: Dewey Defeats Truman!

Bruce’s History Lessons: Veterans Day and the Siege of Lille

Bruce’s History Lessons: America Rejects The Treaty of Versailles

Bruce’s History Lessons: D.B. Cooper’s Perfect Crime?

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Brady Bill Blocks a Bunch of Bad Guys

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Bank Panic and the Great Depression

Bruce’s History Lessons: Madison Keeps a Campaign Promise

Bruce’s History Lessons: G.I. Elvis

Bruce’s History Lessons: From the Emancipation Proclamation to Andersonville

Bruce’s History Lessons: The Leader of Room 40’s Oddballs, Misfits and Boffins

Bruce’s History Lessons: Alexander Hamilton’s Country

Introduction

This is the second five-year collection of my once-a-week nationally syndicated newspaper column on American and world history. The first, (i)Bruce’s History Lessons—The First Five Years (2001-2006)(i), which came out in December of 2008, included my columns published from January of 2001 to January of 2006, and this second book takes up where the first left off, beginning in late January of 2006 to early January of 2011.

I publish this second book for the same reason I published the first—in answer to the countless reader queries as to where they can find my past columns in one place. I was very gratified by the response to the first book and pleasantly surprised that so many parents who home school their children bought the book as a way to introduce their children to our American heritage and our nation’s place in the world. In addition, I was, and continue to be, equally gratified by the countless emails I get from teachers in the schools within the circulation area of the newspapers that carry my column. In one way or another these teacher emails all say the same thing—that they appreciate a column that is short (just 450 words), is both educational and entertaining, and is written in a style that makes the content accessible to students of all ages. Or as a former educator, Ginny Decker, wrote to me from Alabama, Dear Bruce, Just wanted to say thanks for the History Lessons that my mom has been sending me down here in AL. They are published in her Worcester, MA, Sunday paper and I have really enjoyed them. As a former educator, I think they make a great learning tool, so keep up the good work. You get a Gold Star!!!!!!

And finally, I am just as pleased and gratified by the response to the column from my general readership. Most of the emails I get say, in so many words, what Sanjiv Avashia writes below—that if they had been taught history in high school and college the way I write about it in my column, they would have enjoyed it more and learned more: "Hello Bruce, I would like to let you know that I am immensely enjoying your short essays on history lessons in my hometown newspaper The News-Gazette in Champaign, IL. I strongly believe that we can learn a lot by understanding the history of our civilization. As I am getting older, I regret the fact that I didn’t develop interest in history during my school and college years in India. I am now trying to catch up. Your short, simple-to-read essays are appealing to anyone (including immigrants like myself) who would like to learn about history. Thank you for educating people like me, and can you inform me where can I find a collection of your essays in print or an electronic format?"

Regards, Sanjiv Avashia

That, in a nutshell, is the primary reason I write the column.

It is my belief that history is not names and dates and places to be memorized. History is about good and bad people who make decisions or pursue paths that can affect the lives of millions, and sometimes affect the entire world. Abe Lincoln, who I believe is the greatest president America has ever had (George Washington is the greatest American but he wasn’t president when he performed his most valuable service to our nation), once said, I confess that I do not control events; rather events have plainly controlled me.

For once in my life I must disagree with Lincoln. It is my belief that people shape our history far more often than events or impersonal forces do, and Lincoln himself is proof of that. If anyone but Lincoln became president in 1861 the Union North would have lost the Civil War. If anyone but Winston Churchill became British prime minister in May of 1940, Nazi Germany would have won World War II.

History is also about ordinary people who become world famous and extraordinary people that no one remembers, and there is no predicting either. And history is about good people who become evil and evil people who are redeemed—and in both cases the stories are usually fascinating.

And there are all kinds of histories. There is the so-called conventional history of politics and wars and national and international affairs, but there is also sports history, musical history, legal history, scientific history, literary history and more—and I write about them all in this book. I write about Elvis being inducted into the army. I write about the origins of Mickey Mouse. I write about the disastrous introduction of New Coke by the Coca Cola Bottling Co. I write about the citizens of Enterprise, Alabama, who erected a statue to the boll weevil in gratitude for that insect’s disastrous effect on their economy. I write about baseball icon Cal Ripken’s decision to finally end his streak of games played, and the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team’s Miracle on Ice during the 1980 Winter Olympics. I even write about the Soviet reaction to the grand opening of the first McDonald’s fast food restaurant in Moscow

Finally, and most important, history is about teaching us lessons. George Santayana’s famous phrase that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it has become a cliché, but cliché’s become clichés because they are so manifestly true. We need to stay connected to our past in order to understand our future, and it horrifies me when I read, which I do often, of this or that study revealing that the average high school—and even college—student has no idea who James Madison is, or which countries were on the winning side of World War II, or what are the three branches of the federal government.

I also believe that the lessons of history have never been so important to learn as they are today. If there is one certainty in life it is that human behavior has not changed over the centuries. Pride, lust, envy, power, religious fanaticism, revenge, but also kindness, selflessness, courage, dedication, patriotism—they still govern our affairs as they have since the beginnings of time. To that end, I often write about, and consider myself fairly knowledgeable about, the creation of the United States government and our Constitution, which, given today’s passionate national debate over the role, size and cost of government, is a topic that all American would do well to study more. What our Founders thought about the role that government should play in our lives is an important lesson for all of us, now more than ever.

In an interview I was once asked to describe the main characters in my history column in three words. I replied, Heroes and villains. The interviewer than asked me to describe the main goal of my history column in 20 words or less. I replied, You do not have to love history to enjoy my column. You just have to love good stories.

If you love good stories, I think you will enjoy this book. And if you enjoy this book, you will also enjoy my first book, which you can find on my website at www.historylessons.net. You can even sign up—at no cost—on that website to get my weekly history column. Anything I can do to help better educate Americans about our shared heritage I am happy to do. I think it’s that important.

Dedication

For my wife Judy, my daughters Remy and Joanna, and all the underpaid, overworked history teachers out there who are passionate about what they do.

Author’s Note

As I mentioned in my first book, I once had lunch with a well-known columnist for The Washington Post, and in the course of our lunch he was on the phone a half-dozen times with his research assistant and his several editors discussing the language, the fact-checking, the nuances and the possible repercussions of his upcoming column. Granted, his column expresses a usually partisan opinion on often hot-button current events, and he often takes public figures to task, so he has a real interest in getting his facts right. My column, on the other hand is about the past and most of the people who populate it are long dead. Still, I try to vet my column with anyone who has an expertise on the topic I am writing about, and I owe special thanks to my friend and editor Lois Douthitt for her careful review of my writing. But other than those folks, I’m on my own. I am my own fact checker and editor—and this is a second career, forcing me to research and write the column evenings, weekends and vacation days. As a result, I have made mistakes of fact in the past and will continue to in the future. There may even be a few in this book. If so, I apologize. As I say in my introduction, my approach to history is not dates, or figures, or statistics or arcane facts, but rather the people, good and bad, who are shaped by, but mostly shape, the larger forces of history. I hope that you will read the columns in this book in that spirit.

Bruce’s History Lessons:

Meet the Beetles!

The first Volkswagen Beetles arrived on American shores from Germany this week (Jan. 17) in 1949 and before long they had revolutionized the relationship many Americans had with their cars. A nation that had always thought big when it came to their automobiles began to—as a popular Volkswagen ad campaign put it—think small.

The Volkswagen was the brainchild of—of all people—Adolf Hitler, who had long dreamed of a "volks wagen—a people’s car"—that Germans could drive along the autobahns he was building across the Fatherland. Hitler, whose preferred name for the car was Kraft durch Freude, literally the strength through joy car, envisioned an automobile that was simple to drive and maintain, affordable (approximately 100 Reich Marks), got good gas mileage (Germany faced chronic fuel shortages), sat five people and could get up to about 60 mph. Hitler, who by some reports actually doodled a model of the car on a piece of paper while sitting in a beer hall in Munich in 1932, even envisioned a savings plan that would make it easy for ordinary Germans—Jews excepted, of course—to afford this people’s car.

As it turned out, Hitler’s ideas meshed perfectly with those of Germany’s leading car designer, Ferdinand Porsche, who, after meeting with Hitler to discuss plans for a prototype, immediately began designing a small car with the distinctive round, yet boxy shape and rear-mounted engine that later became so prevalent not only in Germany, but also in America and around the world. The shape of the car literally became its logo, and in a world of large, square, fin-tailed, chrome filled behemoths rolling off Detroit’s assembly line, the Volkswagen became instantly recognizable.

And instantly cool. As Detroit’s Big Three smugly built overpriced cars with little or no quality control, many Americans—especially young Americans—began turning to this reliable, affordable, simple-to-drive car. The 1960s was its heyday, for that was when the flower-child Woodstock Generation of baby boomers came of driving age, and Volkswagens—especially Volkswagen buses decorated with peace symbols and psychedelic colors and shapes—became a part of the landscape. A generation that prized freedom above all now had a vehicle that not only gave them freedom to move, but also freedom to… . um, engage in many other activities. To the everlasting anguish and dismay of their beleaguered parents.

Those beleaguered parents, of course, were members of the World War II greatest generation that had defeated Mr. Volkswagen and had destroyed his dream of creating a third German Reich that would dominate Europe for a thousand years.

In that sense, it might be said that Hitler, through his volks wagen, exacted a tiny measure of revenge for that defeat.

Bruce’s History Lessons:

Beer Cheer!

Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

—Benjamin Franklin

"You can’t be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline—it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer."

—Frank Zappa

This week (Jan. 24) in 1935 the world changed forever. That is when the Krueger Brewing Company, partnering with the American Can Company, delivered the first canned beer to thirsty beer drinkers in Richmond, Va. Two thousand cans of Krueger’s Finest and Krueger’s Cream Ale were soon traveling down the throats of those grateful denizens of Richmond, eventually reaching their livers, bladders, and then toilets throughout the city. As Archie Bunker once observed, you don’t buy beer, you rent it.

Of course beer drinkers had been drinking beer for centuries, including draught beer in saloons and even bottled beer, but beer in cans had many distinct advantages over bottles. Cans chilled the beer faster; cans also were cheaper and disposable so there was no deposit on cans as there was on bottles. Also, cans didn’t break and were lighter. As a result, beer was more affordable and accessible—cans made beer more democratic!

Credit the American Can Company, which finally solved the problem of making a pressurized can, while also inventing a special coating that prevented the beer from chemically reacting to the tin that is a key ingredient in cans.

But also credit Krueger’s for taking a chance on canned beer. Although those Richmond beer drinkers generally gave those cans of Krueger’s a thumbs-up, sales started out slow. But Krueger’s stayed the course and after several months sales skyrocketed, cutting into the market share of The Big Three, Pabst, Schlitz and Anheuser-Busch. Soon those three brewmeisters also were producing canned beer, and by 1936 some 200 million cans of beer had been sold.

Interestingly, while the beer can itself has not changed dramatically, its top has. The original Krueger’s can had a flat top with no opening, necessitating development of a device to puncture the lid—today’s can opener or church key.

Next came the more convenient pull tab, which you yanked to open the can. Alas, pull tabs were an environmental nightmare. Pets died ingesting them, people cut their feet on them, and roadsides and beaches were littered with them.

That led to the stay tab, which worked like a pull tab but stayed on the can. Today stay tabs or twist tops are on most beer cans.

Leading us to our current state of bliss. As a wise and happy man once said, Beer is the reason I get up in the afternoon.

Bruce’s History Lessons:

Betsy Ross: Did She or Didn’t She?

This week (Jan. 30) in 1836 Elizabeth Ross, a three-time widow, died in the city she had lived in most of her life, Philadelphia, which happens to be the city that birthed not only the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, but also the flag that symbolized the nation formed by those two documents. And Elizabeth Betsy Ross, according to legend, also happens to be the maker of that flag.

But legend and fact are two different things, and the controversy over whether Betsy actually did sew our first Old Glory continues to this day. Since most historians require documented proof before they subscribe to a theory, and since there is no irrefutable documentation that Betsy designed the flag, there can be no definitive ending to this story. But it’s an interesting story all the same, and if I had to come down on one side, I would say she did design our first flag.

As the story goes, in June of 1776, George Washington, Robert Morris and George Ross, the uncle of Betsy’s first husband, visited Betsy, a professional upholsterer and seamstress, at her Philadelphia shop and asked her to design a national flag. These three men, who served on the Flag Committee established by the Continental Congress, showed Betsy a rough sketch of an American flag, to which Betsy made several alterations, including changing the proposed six-pointed star to the five-pointed star we have today. Betsy then retired to her sewing room where she made the famous flag.

And where did this story originate? From Betsy Ross’s grandson, William Canby, who told a meeting of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania that as an 11-year-old boy he was told this story by Grandma Betsy herself, just before she died. What’s more, sworn testimony by Betsy’s daughter and other family members supported Canby’s claim, meaning that if the story is false, Betsy Ross herself was lying. Given that this God-fearing Quaker woman had absolutely no reason to lie, the story seems credible.

Also, choosing her to sew the flag was entirely plausible. She was a known seamstress who had previously sewed flags for the Pennsylvania State Navy, and not only had she prayed in the same church as George Washington—her pew was right next to his—but also she had previously sewn buttons for him. And of course her late husband’s uncle, George Ross, being an admirer of Betsy’s talents, a friend of Washington’s and a member of the Flag Committee, likely would have recommended her.

True story or not, Betsy’s tale was believed by enough people in 1887—when the evidence was much fresher than it is today—that her home was designated a national historical landmark. Which it remains today.

Bruce’s History Lessons:

The Constitution and Power: My Two Cents

Since government power and the Constitution are on everyone’s mind these days, and since the Constitution greatly interests me, I thought this week I would add my two cents.

First, the Constitution did not establish a democracy, it established a republic. In a democracy the people rule, which means that our elected representatives would have to do whatever the majority of their constituents wanted them to do on a particular issue. That could—and, in fact, before the Constitution was ratified, it did—threaten the rights of the many minority groups within the 13 states. Protecting minority rights is one reason the Founders created the Constitution.

By contrast, in a republic, elected representatives are tasked with balancing what the majority wants against their own best judgments

as experienced legislators. The Founders had a healthy skepticism about the people’s willingness to subjugate their own self interests for the good of the whole so they created auxiliary protections (James Madison’s words) against pure democratic government.

Second, the Founders did not create a Constitution designed to keep government small. They created a Constitution designed to keep government (i)limited(i), which is a very different thing. As to those responsibilities that the Constitution assigned to the national government—foreign policy and national defense, for example—the Founders wanted the government to be big enough—to have enough power—to meet those responsibilities. But the Constitution also (i)limits(i) the government’s responsibilities; it gives it a finite number of (i)enumerated(i) powers and responsibilities, and the list is not long. All other powers (there are specific exceptions) are supposed to belong to the states.

Speaking of which, one reason the balance of power between the national government and state governments has shifted so decidedly to the former is that the Founders’ original constitutional architecture has been altered. The Founders created

a system in which each branch of government was chosen by, and therefore was beholden to, a different and often competing set of interests. That was the whole theory behind checks and balances. Presidents were elected by an independent Electoral College, congressmen were elected by the people, and

senators—at least until 1913—were appointed by state legislators.

That meant senators were beholden to the interests of their states, but in 1913 the 17th Amendment required that senators also be elected by the people, which has significantly reduced the influence the states have in the national government.

Finally, despite what others might say, the Constitution was created for one reason only—to preserve individual liberty. Therefore the question before us today is: have the government’s powers and responsibilities grown far beyond what the Founders intended—I believe they clearly have—and if so, does this benefit or threaten liberty?

Bruce’s History Lessons:

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

"All American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since."

—Ernest Hemingway

The closest we have to The Great American Novel was published this week (Feb. 18) in 1885. Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain’s sequel to his popular book Tom Sawyer, is the story of Huck, a young boy from Missouri who runs away from his drunken, abusive father and rides a raft down the Mississippi River with a runaway slave named Jim. For Huck and Jim the journey down the mighty Mississippi is one adventure after another as they meet many memorable characters, both good and bad.

Huckleberry Finn’s genius, however, is both in the themes it explores and the distinctly American voice in which Twain (real name Samuel Clemens) does his exploring. Whereas his contemporaries, especially those in the Eastern cultural centers of New York and Boston, were still writing in the more formal language championed by European writers, Twain’s prose is plainer and more colloquial, allowing him to better portray the frontier spirit of the then-American West. It was this free-form, authentic prose style, especially Twain’s ability to capture the dialects of his disparate characters, that would profoundly influence later writers such as Hemingway and William Faulkner.

But the book’s unsparing look at the human condition is what has ensured its place atop the pantheon of American literature. Much of Huckleberry Finn is a social satire that uses biting humor to expose the cruelty, ignorance, greed and hypocrisy of the human race. In particular the book examines the emotional dilemma Huck experiences over his growing bond with Jim—who becomes his protector and his friend—and his knowledge that he is breaking the law by helping Jim escape slavery. Throughout the book Huck struggles with his conscience, but in the end decides that even if it means eternal damnation he will not betray his friend.

That said, since its publication, and including the present day, the book has had its share of detractors, most of whom decry what they perceive as Twain’s racism. The book uses the N-word hundreds of times and through today’s cultural prism the portrait of Jim may look less than enlightened.

As a result, for years Huckleberry Finn was banned from libraries and classrooms across the land. But Twain, who vehemently opposed both slavery and the oppression of African-Americans, believed that realism was the best way to tell his story. Huck