Battle of the Java Sea March 4, 2020PermalinkSandy CreedToday's AMITEuropean History Lead: Melancholy gripped the Allies in December, 1941. Japanese forces were everywhere victorious in Southeast Asia. It was time to take a stand. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: Thailand, Malaya, Wake Island, Hong Kong, Manila, each were attacked by the Japanese and each fell just as quickly. On the 3rd of January, Churchill and Roosevelt formed a joint command with the Dutch and Australians, the purpose of which was to slow down the Japanese assault. The aim was to stop the enemy at the so-called Malay Barrier, an imaginary line stretching from Singapore at the base of the Malayan Peninsula down along the archipelago that is today known as Indonesia to the west coast of New Guinea. Read more →
Lucrezia Borgia I February 7, 2020PermalinkSandy CreedToday's AMITEuropean History Lead: Lucrezia Borgia was either one of the most immoral women in history or she was a pawn in the never-ending game of late Italian Renaissance family intrigue. Or maybe she was both. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: At the heart of late Italian Renaissance brilliance, culture, and corruption was the family Borgia. This clan, whose members exploited an already decayed Catholic moral structure and who defined the era's worldliness and ambition, originated in Spain. Read more →
A House Divided: (50) The Martyr of Harper’s Ferry – II December 14, 2019PermalinkSandy CreedToday's AMITAmerican History, American Politics, Civil War Lead: One hundred and fifty years ago the Republic was facing its greatest crisis. This continuing series examines the American Civil War. It is A House Divided. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: After capturing the Federal Armory in Harper’s Ferry in October, 1859, John Brown awaited the arrival of the authorities. They came in form of a detachment of marines commanded by Col. Robert E. Lee of Virginia. They stormed the engine house, captured a slightly wounded Brown and in less than 40 hours his grand illusion had fallen apart. Download [1.00 B]
A House Divided: (49) The Martyr of Harper’s Ferry – I December 13, 2019PermalinkSandy CreedToday's AMITAmerican History, American Politics, Civil War Lead: One hundred and fifty years ago the Republic was facing its greatest crisis. This continuing series examines the American Civil War. It is A House Divided. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: He was a murderer whose grand scheme included a vast destruction of white southerners in a slave uprising, but in the white hot discourse that was the national conversation in America of the 1850s, he became for many opposed to slavery a martyr to the cause. Download [1.00 B]
The Raft of the Medusa, Art Driving Politics November 15, 2019PermalinkSandy CreedToday's AMITFrench History Lead: Theodore Gericault (Tay aw DAWR ZHAY ree KOH), The Raft of the Medusa (1818-1819), depicted a human tragedy of epic proportions. It was a political embarrassment to the post-Napoleonic French monarchy. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: Gericault’s painting, approximately 16 X 23 ft., hangs in the Louvre. It portrays the horrific experience of some of the survivors of the French frigate Medusa, which ran aground off the West African coast of Senegal in July 1816. The painting depicts suffering survivors on a drifting raft at sea. Medusa, carrying 400 passengers, was the flagship of a small fleet commissioned take back possession of the port of Saint-Louis after a period of occupation by the British. Read more →
Baroque Culture Part II September 21, 2019PermalinkSandy CreedToday's AMITEuropean History Lead: One of the great influences of the seventeenth century “Baroque” style was the ecumenical council held by the Roman Catholic Church between 1545-1563 – known as the Council of Trent. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: The Baroque era with its rich style, elaborate ornamentation and dramatic design ran from 1600 about to 1750. It began in Italy, spread throughout Europe and across the Atlantic to the Americas. One of the historical events which influenced the artisans of the period was the Counter-Reformation - that is the reaction and the reforms within the Roman Catholic Church in response to the Protestant Reformation. To counter Protestant success, Pope Paul III convoked an ecumenical council in 1545 in the northern Italian town of Trent hard against the Austrian border. Read more →
Baroque Culture I September 20, 2019PermalinkSandy CreedToday's AMITEuropean History Lead: Some of the west’s greatest artists emerged from the Baroque Era – Caravaggio, Vermeer, and Rubens, Bernini, and the composers – Vivaldi, Pachelbel, Bach and Handel. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: “Baroque” refers to a style in the arts as well as to the period when the style was most valued, about 1600 to 1750. As in other historical periods, the descriptive term, baroque, period or style, was not used until much later when scholars chose the name from the Spanish or Portuguese word for an irregularly shaped pearl. That makes perfect sense because the Baroque style in painting, sculpture and architecture, like that odd shaped pearl, was exquisitely beautiful but features bold and curving forms and over-the-top ornamentation. Later the term was also used to refer to literature and music of the same period which followed closely after the Renaissance. Read more →
Agincourt II September 7, 2019PermalinkSandy CreedToday's AMITBritish History, French History Lead: Trapped by a huge French Army, the common soldiers of English King Henry V surprised even themselves with a stunning victory at Agincourt. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: Essayist John Keegan writes that it is often not the great strategy of generals that decides the outcome of battle, but rather the actions of ordinary soldiers and the accidents of circumstance. This was certainly proven at Agincourt in October 1415. The English were in northern France pursuing their young King Henry V’s claim to the French throne, and they were blocked just short of the English-held port of Calais by as many as 25,000 French armored knights and infantry. Instead of surrendering, Henry turned to fight at the tiny village of Agincourt. Read more →
