"Civil War Monitor" reviews favorably "Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader."

The glowingly positive review is online at this link:

http://civilwarmonitor.com/book-shelf/loewen-sebesta-eds-the-confederate-and-neo-confederate-reader-2010

To quote from the review:

"For those of us that study and teach issues of Civil War memory, one of our great frustrations has been the lack of easily attainable primary source material to thoroughly discredit and dismantle the mythological claims of Confederate and neo-Confederate revisionists. Loewen and Sebesta’s exceptional new text The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader is the first collection of primary sources focused exclusively on such documents, as the authors note, that have somehow remained hidden “in plain sight” since the end of the Civil War. The book provides teachers and researchers alike with an invaluable archive of speeches, images, political papers, and memoirs that graphically reveal what the Confederacy and its post-war nostalgists actually believed about slavery, secession, race relations, and the whitewashing of the southern past."

Finished Reading Dr. Hayes-Bautista's "Cinco de Mayo"

I just finished reading "El Cinco de Mayo: An American Tradition," by Dr. Hayes-Bautista of UCLA. It is a good read. It provides some background of the history of Latinos in California as context for the development of Cinco de Mayo as a holiday in California.

Cinco de Mayo was developed in California, though over time it has been picked up by other regions.

Its origins come from the Civil War where Latinos saw fighting the Confederacy and the French invaders of Mexico as part of one common struggle for democracy and against slavery, for the republican form of government and against aristocracy and oligarchy and racism.

In the original Cinco de Mayo celebrations in the 19th century pictures of Lincoln and Juarez were carried in processions. The American flag and Mexican flag were always paraded together as symbolic of the struggle for freedom in both countries.

Hayes-Bautista also explains how the meaning of Cinco de Mayo was lost as subsequent immigrant groups adopted it as a popular holiday but weren't connected to its past tradition in the past when there wasn't a developed body of Latino intellectuals as today.

The concluding paragraph of the book is very interesting as Hayes-Bautista speculates what a future Cinco de Mayo might be like. I quote as follows:

"It is interesting to speculate about what form future celebrations of the holiday might take, should its true origins and heritage become better understood. Naturally, the blatantly commercial aspects will not disappear; by now, virtually no American holiday has escaped some degree of commercialization. But future celebrations might also include California mission-era songs, dances, and costumes; uniformed Civil War reenactments featuring the Native California Cavalry and the unofficial Latino militias; images of Abraham Lincoln, Benito Juarez, and Ignacio Zaragoza; and of course liberal displays of American and Mexican flags side by side. Likewise, there might be uniformed reenactors of the French Intervention, including the Californios and Latino immigrants who traveled to fight for freedom and democracy in Mexico. In addition to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," one might hear Mexican soldiers' songs of the 1860s, such as "Adios, Mama Carlota" or "Batalla del Cinco de Mayo.' It might be fitting as well to remember the Latinos who, in the same spirit, fought for the United States in the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and subsequent conflicts. As in the nineteenth century, there might be speeches and pageants recalling these historical events, reminding listeners of the motivating values they share, showing the continuing relevance of those events to modern-day issues."

Such a Cinco de Mayo would have revolutionary impact in Texas. Also, would the Jefferson Davis highway be able to persist in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas with such a historical consciousness amongst the Latinos in those states?

Article about Otto Scott titled "Fool as Biographer"

A blog about John Brown has published an essay about Otto Scott titled, "Fool as Biographer," referring to Otto Scott. It is online at:

http://abolitionist-john-brown.blogspot.com/2012/04/essay-fool-as-biographer-john-hendrix.html

I supplied them with the Otto Scott neo-Confederate articles.

"Politics and the History Curriculum" is now available for advance sales

The Palgrave Macmilian website has this listing which isn't very informative:

http://us.macmillan.com/politicsandthehistorycurriculum/KeithAErekson

Amazon has this listing which tells a little bit more:

http://www.amazon.com/Politics-History-Curriculum-Struggle-Standards/dp/1137008938/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332812307&sr=1-1

And this is the link at Barnes & Nobles:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/politics-and-the-history-curriculum-keith-a-erekson/1107885815

However, Keith Erekson's page is the most informative I have found so far:

http://www.keitherekson.com/books/politics-and-the-history-curriculum/

There is also this flyer for the book which describes the contents.

http://www.keitherekson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/PHC_Flyer.pdf

You will notice in the flyer that yours truly is the author of the chapter on the teaching of the Civil War and Reconstruction.

The following are the book blurbs by distinguished scholars:

"What's the matter with Texas? Outsiders too often dismiss it as an overgrown and ignorant child, shrouded in right-wing politics and fundamentalist religion. But that view is itself a gross caricature, as this close study of history and myth-making in Texas demonstrates. Rooting their story firmly in the social and political history of the Lone Star State, Keith A. Erekson and his colleagues bust a few big myths themselves. Read this book if you want to understand why Texans continue to contest their shared past, and why the rest of us should stop condescending to them." --Jonathan Zimmerman, professor of Education and History, New York University

"In these behind-the-scene essays, history educators and all citizens interested in history education will find chilling accounts of how the conservative Christian right played power politics to ensure that young Texans learn a largely white-washed U.S. history while remaining uneducated about world history. The essays in this important book give voice to teachers and history professors who were steamrollered by the Texas Board of Education."--Gary Nash, Professor Emeritus, Department of History, UCLA; Director, National Center for History in the Schools

"Politics and the History Curriculum offers the most comprehensive, thought-provoking, and timely examination yet of the ongoing controversy over history standards in Texas and across the nation. As an historian and textbook author, I especially appreciate the range and analytical quality of the essays collected here. This book is a must-read for any teacher, administrator, or citizen engaged with these issues." --Daniel Czitrom, co-author, Out of Many: A History of the American People

The book is to be released June 2012.

Former Sons of Confederate Veterans Commander-in-Chief accused of defrauding investors, Updated

Ron Wilson, one time columnist for the Council of Conservative Citizens and former Commander-in-Chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans is accused of defrauding investors according to two news articles at the Independent Mail of Anderson, SC in an article titled, "Attorney general: Ron Wilson defrauded silver customers."

The articles are online at:

http://www.independentmail.com/news/2012/mar/14/attorney-general-ron-wilson-defrauded-silver-custo/

And another is online at:

http://www.independentmail.com/news/2012/mar/15/confederate-history-buffs-shocked-silver-fraud-all/

Quoting from the first article:

Former Anderson County Council member Ron Wilson told securities investigators he had at least $16.9 million of his customers’ silver in a Delaware depository, according to a complaint from the state attorney general.

But the complaint says the depository had no records of Wilson, his company or the silver.

The complaint says that Wilson and his company, Atlantic Bullion & Coin, collected millions of dollars from customers who thought they were buying silver but when customers wanted to cash out there was no silver in their accounts or the accounts had been altered.

A Complaint has been filed by the Attorney General's office. According to the article:

Five violations of the state’s security laws are alleged in the complaint, including making false claims under oath and the fraudulent sale of securities.

And

State Senior Assistant Attorney General Tracy Meyers requested Monday that prosecutors or a state grand jury take up a case against Wilson, according to a criminal referral request provided by the state attorney general’s office.

Evidently this isn't a new problem with Ron Wilson, the article reports:

Wilson kept selling the investments in South Carolina, and 24 other states, after agreeing in writing in 1996 to stop selling securities or similar investments because he was not a licensed broker or agent, according to state documents he signed.

The 1996 consent order signed by Wilson says he and any successors or representatives “are prohibited from making or causing to be made to any person or entity in South Carolina any offers or sales of securities by means of any false or fraudulent sales practices.”

In the second article one of the United Daughters of the Confederacy officer quips, "There is no silver lining in this." I always love a good humorist. Good for her.

Wilson used to run full page ads for his firm "Atlantic Bullion and Coin" in neo-Confederate publications.

It will be interesting what Wilson will say to his defrauded customers. Will he claim that an evil cabal of DC empire builders stole it, or it was a frame up by Obama and his minions?

The interesting thing about people in these right wing organizations is that they seem to be the targets of people selling investments. When they aren't being sold something as an investment to evade the New World Order or some imagined nemesis, they are being sold various quack health remedies. Some conspiracy is suppressing some health remedy and the persons advocating the conspiracy advocate some thing or food that you can purchase to cure what ails you. (Update: One website I am monitoring is selling a machine which generates electricity without inputs, essentially a perpetual motion machine, and also offering to sell gold wholesale.)

One thing that has to be asked is why it took 16 years for the South Carolina Attorney General's office to realize that Ron Wilson was violated an agreement to desist from selling securities. Lots of people suffering heavy losses.

Update:

I will update this as information becomes available.

More on this scandal:


http://www2.wspa.com/news/2012/mar/15/16/anderson-co-councilman-accused-running-scam-25-sta-ar-3411539/

http://www.wyff4.com/news/30676173/detail.html

Secret Service hauling off boxes of records.
http://www2.wspa.com/news/2012/mar/16/20/anderson-co-councilman-accused-running-scam-25-sta-ar-3411539/

Another article on the scamming.

http://thewilliamstonjournal.com/2012/03/15/sc-attorney-general-files-complaing-against-wilson-atlantic-bullion/#more-3122

Legislature decides to close barn door after horses have left department.

http://www.independentmail.com/news/2012/mar/17/anderson-legislators-react-investigation-ron-wilso/

Class-action suit: Lawyer conned by Wilson thinking of class action suit.

http://www.independentmail.com/news/2012/mar/16/class-action-lawsuit-proposed-against-ron-wilson/

4th and Final Installment on the article on the Museum of (for) the Confederacy published on Black Commentator

The 4th and final installment of of a series of articles on the Museum of(for) the Confederacy (MOC) is now online at:

http://www.blackcommentator.com/462/462_museum_confederacy_4_sebesta_guest_share.html

This article revisits critically the exhibit Before Freedom Came and the book associated with it. It recounts a visit by a distinguished person with museum expertise to the MOC. It examines how trivia and artifacts are used to obscure the story of the Confederacy. It examines how the MOC has co-opted the history profession.

This last installment also asks that the history profession in the future not accept awards from the MOC and those who have received repudiate them. Whether many or even a few historians in the future repudiate or refuse an award from the MOC isn't so important as the fact from now on when a historian accepts or retains an award from the MOC this historian is taking a stand and revealing their identity.

All the previous installments can be seen at:

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2011/11/moc.html

The Museum of the Confederacy as a shrine and creator of Confederate identity

The third installment of my 4-part article on the Museum of the Confederacy has been published.

The URL for the guest copy which is free is:

http://www.blackcommentator.com/461/461_museum_confederacy_3_sebesta_guest_share.html

The 1st installment covered the take over of the MOC by pro-Confederates and how the MOC works with neo-Confederate organizations. The 2nd installment covers how the MOC glorifies Confederate leaders. The 3rd installment covers how the MOC creates Confederate identification amongst its supporters, visitors, and others by being a shrine and reliquary.

The links to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd installments are in this blog posting:

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2011/11/moc.html

In the above blog posting I will have links to all four installments after they all come out. I expect the 4th installment to be published fairly soon. The installment is with the publisher.

The 4th installment discusses the exhibit and book "Before Freedom Came" and shows how the book and show is deeply flawed and how it avoids connecting slavery to the Confederacy. It shows how the MOC represents itself differently to different audiences acting professional before professional audiences and being neo-Confederate acting towards other audiences.

It discusses how the MOC tries to co-opt the history profession and is rather successful in doing so, and ends with a call for previous winners of the MOC awards to repudiate them and for historians in the future to reject them.

Frum Forum understands what neo-Confederacy is all about.

Very interesting article at:

http://www.frumforum.com/its-hamilton-vs-jefferson-all-over-again

More and more people are beginning to grasp what a neo-Confederate historical consciousness is about. The following is from the article:

Now we have fielded a Republican Congress which is determined to burn down the Hamiltonian Republic that has emerged since the war and return to a “simpler” time. Along the way they would damage (or even destroy) the benefits we’ve gained from our reluctant capitalism. If you want to know what a Neo-Confederate political model looks like in a modern country, try to find a good public school for your kids in Mexico.

We may not think that’s what we voted for. No one can say out loud that they are fighting for the Confederate way of life, and some who embrace it may not even recognize it. You can get some hints at what’s going on if you probe Ron Paul’s fans for their thoughts on Lincoln. The weird AM radio and Tea Party rhetoric of fighting “socialism” sounds absurd, but only if you take it literally. We want to relive a fleeting moment of Jeffersonian simplicity.

The rebellion against the Neo-Confederate Revolution must start inside the Republican Party. If we fail to manage the complexity of our age, there are horrors that await. Jefferson’s world is gone, but we can still have a banana republic if we so insist.

Related post.

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2011/08/michael-lind-on-tea-party-caucus-in.html

A Mexican Immigrant's Badge of Honor

Great story at the New York Times at this link.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/a-mexican-immigrants-act-of-honor/

It is about a Mexican immigrant to the then Arizona territory who was a successful business person and was loyal to the United States of America even though the Confederate sympathizers confiscated all his property when he refused to pledge loyalty to the Confederacy.

I think it will be a great story for Cinco de Mayo.

See my earlier blog on Cinco de Mayo here:

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2012/02/cinco-de-mayo-as-anti-confederate.html

The hysterical stupidity of the Council of Conservative Citizens

I use the term "hysterical stupidity" to mean those who might otherwise have intelligence, are stupid because some hysteria they have over some topic. The hysterical are not thinking.

This comes to mind with a posting on the Council of Conservative Citizens website at http://cofcc.org/2012/02/black-history-month-myth-of-the-day-ice-cream/

They are upset that it is asserted that Augustus Jackson was the inventor of ice cream as part of African American history month.

I am focusing on this posting since as an engineer and a person who reads about the history of technological innovation I am better qualified to comment on it.

Most importantly, I am focusing on this, since it is simple and straightforward and clearly shows the credibility of http://www.cofcc.org/ postings in general. I am sure that most of the other postings are of the same nature as this posting.

Before I go forward, for those unfamiliar with the history of science and technology, I would like to explain that many technological innovations are not discrete events, but often the accumulation of many incremental changes leading to a working technology. Often the "inventor" is the person who contributes the critical development which led to the technology either being much more affordable or effective or available. Edison made many lightbulbs, but it wasn't until he figured to use a tungsten filament in an inert atmosphere that they really were practical. This was nice, but until someone figured out how to mass produce the delicate glass envelops blowing them from molten glass and systems to handle them without them breaking would light bulbs be practical.

Many people besides the Wright brothers were making flying machines while they were working on theirs. Did the Wright brothers invent the airplane or were they the first ones to figure out that you needed a gasoline engine to supply the power without excessive weight? Many hands go into technological development and there are many inventors.

So back to the stupidity of the post about ice cream.

First as an argument the CofCC says, "The practice of eating chilled desserts containing flavored ice dates back thousands of years to Mesopotamia royalty." Well that is true, I know Roman emperors had flavored ice. However, flavored ice isn't ice cream any more than oil or pitch is gasoline or polyethylene plastic.

Then further is the argument, "A reference book on the English in 1744 states “it is a chilled dessert made from cream, milk, and fruit.” Matching the modern definition of ice cream." Well modern ice cream is a frozen dessert so it doesn't match. Many things are chilled, but that is very different than frozen.

However, doing some research I found that cream and fruit was being frozen back in the 18th century, I didn't find much about the texture or form of this frozen cream.

Further ice cream isn't merely a frozen block of cream. It isn't a popsicle you make in your freezer. It has a very specific texture with air blended in and the components with small crystals. It has added ingredients to ensure it has this texture.

For ice cream to be commonly consumed it would have to have a practical method of manufacture.

It seems that Augustus Jackson was an innovator in the manufacturing process of ice cream.

It turns out that there is no myth that Jackson invented ice cream, it is understood that he developed a critical improvement in its manufacture. So the Council of Conservative Citizens is debunking a myth they made up. Or they searched the Internet to find some confused website which misrepresented Jackson's accomplishment and seized upon it to be aggrieved.

I found that this is the information you generally find on the Internet.

http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/IceCream/IceCreamHistory.htm

1832 - African-American, Augustus Jackson, is credited for the modern method of manufacturing, (not discovering) ice cream, and the multiple ice cream recipes he developed around 1832. He uniquely used ice mixed with salt to lower and control the temperature of his special mix of ingredients. Unfortunately he never applied for a patent. He left his position as a cook/chef at the White House, moved to Philadelphia and created several popular ice cream flavors and methods of manufacturing ice cream. He distributed it in tin cans to Philadelphia’s many ice cream parlors. Today Jackson is called the "father of ice cream."

Jackson made the manufacture of ice cream practical and isn't called the inventor but the "father of ice cream."

However, the complexity of technological development isn't of interest to the members of the Council of Conservative Citizens, but instead they are hysterical over the idea that their could be any historical claim that would contradict their racism.

Also, revealing the true facts of the history of ice cream wouldn't be of interest, it would just be a reason to look for and seize upon other rationalizations for their hysterical racism.

I had this blog posting when the Council of Conservative Citizens were calling the Carthaginians Greeks in some pompous historical exposition. They edited the posting after my posting.

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2009/03/council-of-illiterate-conservative.html

Cinco de Mayo as an anti-Confederate holiday.

The following video on YouTube is a fascinating lecture by Dr. David Hayes-Bautista of the University of California - Los Angeles about Cinco de Mayo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hyJMiu07NY

Dr. David Hayes-Bautista is the author of "Cinco de Mayo: An American Holiday." As Dr. Hayes-Bautista has explained in journal articles, Cinco de Mayo was started in California during the Civil War as a pro-Union and pro-Mexican Republic holiday. His book is part of a growing transnational view of the Civil War.

The book is going to be released May 2012 and can be pre-ordered online at online book dealers.

Starting this year Cinco de Mayo is going to be redefined as a anti-Confederate holiday.

Dr. Hayes-Bautista is very prominent and influential individual.

Letter from former slave to former master, hilarious must read.

You absolutely must read this letter from a former slave to a former master. The link is here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/9057501/Letter-from-a-Civil-War-slave-to-his-master-150-years-on.html

This is another link with additional information about the Jourdan family.

http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/01/to-my-old-master.html

The original source of the letter.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38479/38479-h/38479-h.htm#Page_265

This is from a book, "The Freedman's Book," edited by L. Marcia Child and published by Ticknor and Fields, Boston, 1865.

The former master Colonel Anderson is asking for his former slave to come back and work for him saying that he would treat him better than anyone.

Though the reply by the former slave, Jourdan, is written in the most respectful way in a 19th century which had more formalities than we do today, it is a rather stinging criticism of how the former master treated the former slave. The letter is both a very informative description of the issues of slavery and emancipation, yet the writer has a subtle wit and it is riotous fun to read and yet also sad upon reflection.

Some excerpts:


Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin’s to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable.

Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.

Jourdan describes how they are well treated and have a good situation and are respected. The current situation is contrasted to the former situation. He also asks for wages for the many years him and his wife worked for the former slave master. He certainly must have known that he wasn't going to be paid any money for his former exploitation.

Then the letter turns to the rape of former slaves at the Anderson's.

In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve and die, if it come to that than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters.

Finally it ends with this last sentence.

Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.

Sons of Confederate Veterans rewrite the Great Hanging in Gainesville

It really is an example of the appalling things that the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) does.

The link to the story in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram is here:

http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/02/02/3708484/mobs-dont-lynch-people-tensions.html

Crack pottery and www.lewrockwell.com

I was somewhat startled recently to see that www.lewrockwell.com is promoting Immanuel Velikovsky. For those of you who are unfamiliar with crackpot astronomy, Immanual Velikovsky wrote books in the middle of the 20th century in which planets moved to different orbits and the events in the ancient world were supposed to be driven by these astrophysical events.

I do remember vaguely in commentary that Velikovsky was unfairly treated in his time. However, his ideas are just lunacy. I am not going to waste time refuting them by giving a lengthy explanation.

I think it is interesting is how this article and others on www.lewrockwell.com show what type of person the www.lewrockwell.com reader is.

Any regular reader of www.lewrockwell.com will also notice the various health articles of dubious merit. Such as this one. http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north373.html

In this article the reader is told that there is this miracle box that can cure arthritis, cancer, etc. but was suppressed by the FDA.

What these articles, Velikovsky and the medical articles, have in common is an anti-authoritarianism unhinged from reason. The elites, experts, those in charge are supposed to be covering up the truth or somehow wrong headed for fun and profit. It is an appeal to vanity since it supposes that the reader and the author are members of the select few who know the truth and are smarter than the elites, experts, and those in charge.

It is true that the scientific community and medical community have made mistakes in the past and I am sure will make mistakes in the future. Theories have been erroneously rejected in the past due to opinion rather than reason. Science is a human enterprise. However, because continental drift as a theory was rejected initially doesn't mean someone elses' theory that the earth is hollow is right. (Yes there is such a theory.)

However, if you believed the earth was hollow and most of your article was about claiming that the government paid astronomers and NASA were persecuting you, I think you would have a fairly good chance of getting published on www.lewrockwell.com.

Contributing chapter to a book to be published by Palgrave Macmillan

I contributed a chapter on the new and notorious Texas teaching standards for the Civil War and Reconstruction content in those standards for a book to be published by Palgrave Macmillan. The title is, "Politics and the History Curriculum: The Struggle over Standards in Texas and the Nation."

You can read about the book at this web page:

http://www.keitherekson.com/books/politics-and-the-history-curriculum/

The book is being released June 19, 2012. It can be ordered in advance at Amazon and Barnes & Nobles.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/politics-and-the-history-curriculum-keith-a-erekson/1107885815?ean=9781137008930&itm=8&usri=erekson

http://www.amazon.com/Politics-History-Curriculum-Struggle-Standards/dp/1137008938/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323817458&sr=1-3

My chapter is titled, "Neo-Confederate Ideology in the Texas History Standards."

You can download a flyer at this link:

http://www.keitherekson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/PHC_Flyer.pdf

With this chapter I hope to raise the issue of how the Civil War and Reconstruction is taught in our history classes in the schools and further influence on how these two topics are taught. It will also allow me to reach out to a new audience of the teachers of America.

One of the more interesting suggestions I made in the chapter is to teach the history of Cinco de Mayo as part of the history of the Civil War. As David Bautista-Hayes has shown in his academic articles and in his forthcoming book about Cinco de Mayo, it is an American holiday invented in California and an anti-Confederate holiday. Its history is interwoven as part of the history of the Civil War when the Civil War is viewed from a transnational perspective.

The book is titled, "Cinco de Mayo: An American Tradition," and can be pre-ordered at:

http://www.amazon.com/El-Cinco-Mayo-American-Tradition/dp/0520272137/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325966969&sr=1-2

Kevin Levine and company rages

Kevin Levine feels that he has a good rebuttal to my article on the Museum of the Confederacy at http://www.blackcommentator.com/. (You can read the installments as they are published by going to this blog posting. http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2011/11/moc.html).

He also feels he has an adequate response to this posting about his attacks on my essay. http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2011/11/white-paternalism-of-kevin-levine.html.

His rebuttals are blogged and can be read at this link. http://cwmemory.com/2011/12/06/a-response-to-edward-sebesta/

So I am reviewing his rebuttal.

Levin says in the beginning, "I admit that characterizing Sebesta's essay as a 'rant' was a poor choice of words, but I maintain it is a poorly researched essay."

First thing, Levine declared that he couldn't bring himself to read the essay. So I am not sure how he knows that it is poorly researched or even knows what my arguments are. Second, not all four installments are published.

However, there is a third aspect to this specific criticism of the essay and his criticisms of the essay in general. He doesn't discuss or mention anything in the contents of the essay. The essay is bad because he doesn't like its conclusions. Kevin Levine avoids discussing the contents of the installments and I don't think he has mentioned even a single thing about the contents.

Then of course Levin likes to engage in name calling, and then as moderator allow posted more rabid name calling that might be a little unseemly if he did it himself.

The other revealing aspect of this post is Levine's establishmentarianism. In an article in the New York Times, reporter Edward Rothstein states that the Museum of the Confederacy (MOC) is changing because the president of the MOC says so. Is Rothstein even aware of my research sources? What was his research to come to his conclusions? I am not sure how anything in the article refutes the evidence in my essay. Or course these questions are irrelevant to Levine, the point is that an authority figure has an opinion that is different to mine.

Later in the essay, Levine says "In addition, while Sebesta is fond of quoting his favorite 'neo-Confederate' sources he never comes to term with the fact that the scholarly community has embraced the MOC." Levine needs to remember Carlyle's statement, "Every new idea starts with a minority of precisely one."

So it isn't about the evidence, it is about what the current conventional wisdom is, and how can Ed Sebesta think evidence is superior to conventional wisdom or the established authorities.

Kevin Levine's and Brook D. Simpson's comments are a gift since they are unabashed, unveiled, and explicit expressions of certain attitudes amongst some Civil War enthusiasts.



Levine's first hysterical denunciation after I had the first installment published is online here: http://cwmemory.com/2011/09/15/calling-out-edward-sebesta-and-calling-on-james-loewen/

The free guest links to all four installments of the article are in the blog posting:

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2011/11/moc.html

The white paternalism of Kevin Levine

Kevin Levine over at http://www.cwmemory.com/ had a hysterical post when he found out that I had started to published a series on the MOC at http://www.blackcommentator.com/. He was so upset that he said some interesting things.

One was:

"The post includes a link to a 4-part essay that was published at the Black Commentator. I am going to leave it to you to read through as I simply do not have the patience to do it. It is an incredibly incoherent rant ... "

This is typical of Levine when he is upset with things he just engages in slander of whomever he is upset with. Levine might be upset with the paper, he might disagree with it, but it isn't incoherent, it isn't a rant. I had editorial review of the paper by a well published university professor before publishing it.

What is interesting is Levine's attitude toward http://www.blackcommentator.com/. Does he think they would publish a rant? Does he think they would published an incoherent paper? They have an editorial board of distinguished academics, and they have editors. I didn't just upload the paper to the website. It was submitted and reviewed by an editor before being published. It is interesting how Levine was, without pause or thought or inquiry, dismissed the competency of Black Commentator. It is revealing of his attitude towards African American scholarship.

Then there is this really revealing commentary by Levine:

"What I find most disturbing about Sebesta’s rant is that it will make the MOC’s job of reaching out to the African American community that much more difficult. They have come so far in broadening their interpretation over the past few decades and getting involved in the community around Richmond."

Are African Americans children that Ed Sebesta is leading astray? Apparently Levine thinks so. I think that African Americans can critically read essays just like anyone else. Perhaps the essay will make it more difficult for the MOC to reach out to the African American community because the article will have alerted the African American community as to what the agenda of the MOC is.

The free guest links to all four installments are at this blog posting:

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2011/11/moc.html

League of the South hypocrisy

This is a post of the League of the South (LOS) which really shows their hypocrisy.

http://lsrebellion.blogspot.com/2011/11/four-aarp-members-accused-of-plotting.html

It is a complaint that neo-Confederates are considered potentially violent.

However, what "Old Rebel," the LOS blogger doesn't tell you is that leaders in the LOS, like LOS president Michael Hill endorsed a book, "Heiland" written by one of the founding LOS board members Franklin Sanders. The story is about a group of rebels which overthrows the government by murdering all the people in the city. These rebels are considered the heroes in the story. Former LOS board member Rev. Steve Wilkins also endorsed the book.

http://www.amazon.com/Heiland-Franklin-Sanders/dp/0961712430/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320989245&sr=1-1

Then there was an article in Chronicles magazine in which Michael Hill considered the IRA terrorists the equivalent to a medieval Scottish clan.

So it seems these four would be terrorists are somewhat representative of neo-Confederate ideology.

League of the South Rubbish

There are some posts of the League of the South blog which show really what a lot of rubbish they talk.

For example there is this post:

http://lsrebellion.blogspot.com/2011/11/texas-board-rejects-confederate-flag.html

The LOS blogger is trying to say that the Texas NAACP is hypocritical because of what a former Dallas NAACP head had said. What the LOS doesn't tell you is that Lee Alcorn, the former head of the Dallas NAACP who said these things, got kicked out of the NAACP by the NAACP shortly after making these comments for making these comments.

Then there this issue of confusing an ideology with the idea of culture. Is Maoism the same as being Chinese. Is Maoism a culture or an ideology? If I decided to reject Bolshevik symbols, does that mean I am anti-Russian? Of course it doesn't. Neo-Confederacy is an ideology.

The League of the South is composed of ranters that have a weak grasp of the facts if any grasp of the facts.

MOC

I am going to have this blog post to hold links to all four installments. That way I will have just one short link to direct people to all four installments of the article on the Museum of the Confederacy. http://www.blackcommentator.com/ is a pay site and these links provided in this blog posting as follows are free.

1st installment:

http://www.blackcommentator.com/441/441_museum_confederacy_sebesta_guest_share.html

2nd installment:
http://www.blackcommentator.com/443/443_museum_confederacy_2_sebesta_guest_share.html

3rd installment:

http://www.blackcommentator.com/461/461_museum_confederacy_3_sebesta_guest_share.html

4th installment:

http://www.blackcommentator.com/462/462_museum_confederacy_4_sebesta_guest_share.html

All the links to all the Black Commentator essays can be found at this blog posting.

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2013/08/bc.html