History Video Blog

History Video Blog #39

admin — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 19:56:49 +0000

Many of my early history teachers suggested that the Protestant Reformation (or reformations, if you prefer) was hell on art. When I became interested in the Reformation era as an undergraduate I encountered Zwingli’s theology that excluded any ecclesiological adornments that were not specifically found in the New Testament. His practical approach resulted in plain church buildings that must have seemed to a sixteenth-century person a remarkable contrast to Roman and Eastern counterparts. The Zurich reformer’s influence bolstered my initial idea that the heirs of that Reformation are deficient in their appreciation for, and production of, beauty. But my hasty generalization about the artlessness of the Reformation was completely challenged when one of my professor’s required Roland Bainton’s magisterial biography of Martin Luther, Here I Stand, as reading in a class in the History of Christianity. This 1950 biography was filled with marvelous woodcuts from the 1500s that sparked curiosity about both kitsch and artistic genius in the era, and opened the world of Dürer, Holbein the Younger, and Cranach the Elder to me. These brilliant artists not only chronicled the era, but played a role themselves in the making of history.

This video is another experiment in wysiwyg storytelling. I have tried to use separate takes to show the illustrations in books I own. I wanted to convey the same feeling you would have if you sat down next to me and I showed you my favorite paintings from these books. At one point in the video my mind wandered–I was so interested in the back cover of one of the books–and the camera gave an extended view of the gold tablecloth! I decided to keep that in because it seemed just like what might happen in reality if we were really having coffee and talking about our favorite art.

In the sequel to this clip I will focus in on my personal favorite of the Reformation artists, Hans Holbein the Younger. Please forgive me if you find HVB #39 a little quirky and rambling for your taste. That’s very much the way I am in real life. I hope to use my experience with this video to do a better job of telling the stories of artists in history. I sort of feel like Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Act V):

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber’d here
While these visions did appear.

Click here to view the embedded video.

History Video Blog #38

admin — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 06:00:30 +0000

William Phillips was a young attorney who came to early Leavenworth for idealistic reasons. He was vehemently and courageously opposed to slavery and determined to make Kansas a free state. In early Leavenworth he was greatly outnumbered by slavery-sympathizers, who were capable of any kind of violent mischief when drunk on the cheap booze that flowed through early Leavenworth saloons.

Phillips had crossed the pro-slave party by crying foul to territorial Governor Reeder about the first election to the territorial legislature because the number of votes cast in Leavenworth was more than six times the actual number of legitimate voters. The extra votes were cast by ruffians from across the river in Missouri who were actually egged on by U. S. Senator David Rice Atchison, who challenged them to stuff the ballot boxes in Kansas, and justified the illegal act by claiming the property (presumably slaves) of Missouri’s citizens was being threatened within a few miles of their homes and it was their duty to vote in the Kansas election. Atchison said if they failed and the institution died, they would deserve their fate for lack of willingness to do their duty.

Pro-slavery sympathizers formed vigilance committees that accused Phillips of murder (he happened to be present when one man shot another in a public place). At first they rattled their sabers and told him to get out of town, but Phillips stood firm. He sent his wife and young child away, but he stayed on in Leavenworth until one night a vigilance committee took matters into their own hands…

Click here to view the embedded video.

History Video Blog #37

admin — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 13:07:40 +0000

You need to know that this video is a great example of Wysiwyg history on location. I debated whether or not to post this segment, but decided to go ahead with it. When we were shooting the video we had no idea the wind was going to play a factor in the quality of the audio. In the end, because it is an on-location video, I thought that the parts that are easily understood are worth the hassle with the whistling wind. So here is the story of the finest of the early Kansas hotels–the Planter’s House.

Click here to view the embedded video.

History Video Blog #36

admin — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 19:23:00 +0000

William Tecumseh Sherman is famous for his March to the Sea that both angered and broke the will of the Confederacy during the Civil War. The quotable Sherman is equally famous, perhaps, for saying, “War is hell!” But not many know that Sherman once tried his hand at a career in law. He was admitted to the Kansas Bar in the antebellum territorial days when the interpretation of the law was as shaky as the volatile political atmosphere. Joining in a partnership in Leavenworth, Sherman dodged the law by saving a fugitive slave and held high ideals for his future as an attorney. But he hadn’t reckoned on a scatterbrained, Latin-and precedent-spouting prosecuting attorney, a confused old judge at the end of his career, and a prize pig torn between two sloppers. Sherman is fortunate to have kept his sanity in the weird, wonderful, and sometimes dangerous place known as Leavenworth, Kansas Territory!

This video is dedicated to all my friends who went to law school.

Click here to view the embedded video.

History Video Blog #35

admin — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 02:44:11 +0000

Leavenworth, first city of Kansas, was incorporated on June 13, 1854, just two weeks after Kansas Territory was declared open for settlement. We continue our series about Leavenworth with a discussion about the early newspapers of Kansas, the establishment of Leavenworth, and the debate about what to name the town. And before our video was invaded by a speeding train, we talked about Leavenworth’s famous connection to Susan B. Anthony!

Click here to view the embedded video.

History Video Blog #34

admin — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 01:56:13 +0000

I had told followers of HVB that I was plannning to begin on-location blogs from historical sites. This video is the introduction to a series I will do in Leavenworth, Kansas. Leavenworth is the First City of Kansas, incorporated in 1854, and home to a wide variety of colorful characters from the history of the Old West. The town is more widely known for its prisons, but the town played an important role in the growth of the United States. It is also probably most important for its relationship to Ft. Leavenworth, the oldest military base west of the Mississippi River, home of the Command and General Staff College, founded by William Tecumseh Sherman and the “Intellectual Center of the U.S. Army.”

In this vlog, I am standing in a valley near Five Mile Creek, in Leavenworth. The cars on the road on your right in the video are driving on a modern road that follows the historic Ft. Leavenworth-Ft. Scott Military Road constructed in the nineteenth century. The creek at this point is five miles from the original flagstaff of the old fort and empties into the Missouri river several kilometers to the northeast of where I am standing. In subsequent vlogs I will introduce you to the good, the bad, and the ugly of the early days of a frontier boom town. Here we will meet abolitionists, border ruffians, buffalo soldiers, pony express riders, foreign military officers, psychopathic criminals, and I am saving a surprise in two well-known literati who may have discussed their thoughts about writing and their future dreams over whiskey and cigars in a local saloon. Stay curious!

(By the way, the thumbnail picture is of Fred Harvey, the Ray Kroc of the 19th century, a restauranteur who established “Harvey Houses” at rail stations throughout the country. Maybe you remember Judy Garland, who strarred in the 1946 movie The Harvey Girls? I loved the the Oscar-winning “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe,” as Judy belted it out!)

Click to play this video.

Change for change’s sake

admin — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 20:18:10 +0000

Hey friends, thanks for your interest in my little history site. I appreciate all the support and encouragement; I really, really do. With the circus that is the internet, there are plenty of other places to spend your time. I really want this site to be nourishing–really feeding your mind and your soul–and feeding a genuine curiosity that will change the world. Not just a voyeurism that serves up empty calories. (Hope I am not mixing my metaphors too much!)

History is like that. It is good for the mind and good for the soul.

I also like to change things up a bit from time to time, and I wanted all the fans of the site to be in on the new stuff. First, you will notice that the font family for the site has changed from Arial to Trebuchet MS. After pondering the change way too long, I decided to take the plunge. Tell me if you prefer it to the old look. I also change the banner from all uppercase to upper- and lowercase bold italic. It give the home page more of a dynamic look. I had long struggled with the way the all-uppercase banner seemed to “shout” at readers. So loud was the banner that the only site name that actually looked good in it was the old blog title “The Raft,” which was a really cool name for a blog, but didn’t either brand this site nor relate to the actual content. By fooling around with the code I was able to reduce the size of the font in the banner and thus was able to consider other titles for the blog site. For now, I have chosen “modernera.us” to match the site’s URL and hopefully help readers and lurkers to easily remember the address and to spread the word more easily.

You will also note a change on the video blogs on this site. The generic Viddler logo has been replaced with a new History Video Blog logo featuring the portrait of the Site Muse, French philosopher Gabriel Marcel (who was a champion of genuine curiosity), with “HVB” for History Video Blog superimposed in a sort of electric peacock color. I hope it inspires, rather than distracts, you.

The last feature is one I am nervous about, so I really care what my readers think. I just installed a nice little tool on this site called Snap Shots that enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, interactive excerpts of Wikipedia articles, MySpace profiles, IMDb profiles andAmazon products, display inline videos, RSS, MP3s, photos, stock charts and more. When your cursor rolls over a link on this site, a “cloud” appears with a “snapshot” preview of the linked site. Some subscribers to Snap shot also use icons that appear superscripted following the links, but I thought that was too distracting and decided to stick with the linked text alone. those who use the icons think it is easier for readers to find the link, but I am not convinced of that. Seems like a surer way to market Snap Shots, but I am not sure how it helps the blogging experience. What do you think?

Anyway, sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times they let you “look ahead,” before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.

Should you decide all this snap-shottiness is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out. My readers’ having the ability to opt out of this function helps me to feel a little better about the experiment. Please tell me what you think of this and all other changes. I really listen to you, my friends!

Stay curious, my friends!

History Video Blog #33

admin — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 04:22:54 +0000

The Medici were a family of farmers who originally came from a town called Cafaggiolo, about fifteen miles north of Florence. We don’t know if they came into a little money, or if they were ruined in farming, but they moved to Florence about the time it became a republic and within a hundred years they were one of the richest families in the city and they were bankers–their business was to lend money. Each generation of Medici became even richer. But in 1389 was born Cosimo de’ Medici, who not only became wealthier than his father, he came to control the city itself. Cosimo was 40 when his father died, and Cosimo was so feared by the other powerful ruling family of Florence, the Albizzi, that they arranged to have Cosimo arrested for trying to put himself above others in the city and mismanagement of the defense of the city, a crime that could have cost him his life, except that he ransomed himself by paying an enormous amount and went into exile for a year.

Click here to view the embedded video.

History Video Blog #32

admin — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:02:22 +0000

Florence is a city in Italy on the River Arno about 170 miles north of Rome in Tuscany, Northern Italy. it was an important city in the Middle Ages and it is considered the center of the Italian Renaissance, a “rebirth” of the arts and architecture after the constrictive days of the Middle Ages (or so Renaissance people thought). That rebirth was made possible because Florence was also a center of banking and trade, and its wealthy patrons made the burgeoning of the arts possible. It was the richest city of its time, and home to one of the wealthiest families in Europe, the de’ Medici family.

Florence was a city-state that began as a republic ruled by a council called the signoria, appointed by a ruler that was elected every two months. It was a republic beginning in 1115 and it soon came to dominate most of Tuscany (there was no nation of Italy until the nineteenth century), despite frequent coups and political unrest. The Medici family and the papacy together finally destroyed the republic completely in the 16th century and made it a kingdom controlled by the de’ Medici family for decades and decades. The Medici man who made all this possible was named Cosimo.

Click here to view the embedded video.

More trials of Blogging

admin — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:03:15 +0000

There is always something new at ModernEra.us. Those of you who follow my Blog will notice a new format that requires a little more of you when you want to comment. The comment format is an experiment with a system that organizes all comments as content stored off-line rather than on my website. The same system tracks my comments on the blogs of other writers and stores them in one place. There are some glitches I have run into already. For example, the system balks at my wanting the option of approving comments before publication. When I ticked the box that would specify that protocol, I lost many past comments and those that remained became like “ghosts.” What I mean by that last comment: sometimes when one would read an entry “Joe’s” comment would appear, and the next time I accessed the entry, “Joe’s” comment was gone! Also, the system invites innocent commentators a “sign up” offer that would permit he or she to become a tracked commentator in the system. if that bugs you, please accept my apologies. I haven’t decided for sure if I am going to keep the system.

There are some up sides: The offline administration of comments is easier overall, security is as good as before but without captcha requirements because the comments are stored and filtered elsewhere. Also, the system allows me to offer replies to comments that show up after the comment I am replying to. I couldn’t do that before. But I saw one of my replies appear on Twitter, and I was talking about castration! I need to be careful. Hey, I keep calling this thing a system, but it has a name: Disqus–a shibboleth, the word is pronounced “discuss”. Bear with me, and check out disqus.com to see if you would like to use it on your own blog.

In other news: On March 3, the visitors on my blog site surpassed 3500 since History Video Blogs appeared on Kansas Day, January 29. March 4 was my record high one-day visitor total. On that day 195 people viewed at least one entry. The day was not, however, a record day for comments, which means that loads of you readers are still “lurking.” I love you, but this is sort of like coming into my office, picking up books off the shelf, reading my diplomas on the wall, but not speaking to me. You are always welcome to look around my site, but please tell me what you think from time to time!

Last week I set up a fan site for the History Video Blogs on Facebook. I was stunned that 74 people have actually become fans! Thank you so much, and I will find a way to encourage and reward all of you who have become fans. And please, send along your suggestions for making this low-budget high-tech project bloom. So many of you have made wonderful contributions already.

Click here to view the embedded video.

History VB Interactive #3

admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:25:12 +0000

We have our first two winners in the skype History Buddy Contest! In this video we read the best comments and announce the winners.

By the way, this is an ongoing contest. Next week we will review the best comments of the week and award another CD and face time. For more details about the contest go to http://www.modernera.us/wordpress/skype-history-buddy-contest/

Click here to view the embedded video.

History Video Blog #31

admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 07:33:56 +0000

Well, I played a trick on you last time. You haven’t missed the 2010 game if you are viewing this before Wednesday night, March 3. But this top five game was played when KU was ranked higher than K-State in the top five–the first time that had happened and the last before 2010.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The year was 1958. the great Tex Winter was the K-State coach who had the dream. Watch the video to find out how his dream played out.