It is Thanksgiving. Yesterday Donald Trump’s legal team was in Gettysburg for an election fraud hearing. GOP state legislators hosted the event. The day included testimonies from Pennsylvanians who claimed to have witnessed voter fraud on November 3 and in...
Gettysburg
When “someone trying to attack American democracy heads to Gettysburg searching for a dramatic victory…”
Twitter is reporting that Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani will be in Gettysburg later today. Here is more from Jeremy Diamond of CNN. Nothing I can say here can top Yoni Appelbaum’s tweet: Or Paul’ Harvey’s tweet: UPDATE (11:22 EST):...
Trumpism will be the new “lost cause”
Yesterday in my Pennsylvania History class we were talking about the role that monuments have played at the Gettysburg National Military Park. We are reading Jim Weeks’s excellent book Gettysburg: Memory, Market, and an American Shrine. I gave a brief...
Did Abraham Lincoln infect his valet with smallpox?
Trump may not be the only president to spread a deadly disease. Here is Michael Rosenwald at The Washington Post: On his way home from delivering the Gettysburg Address in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln was overcome by a splitting headache....
Biden at Gettysburg
Joe Biden was in Gettysburg on Monday and he gave a pretty good speech. Watch: Let’s remember again that Lincoln’s call for unity and healing and the binding of wounds came after the Confederacy was all but defeated. Biden is...
Gettysburg College sends students home due to COVID-19 outbreak
Here is the Gettysburg Times: Many Gettysburg College students will be heading home soon, according to a letter President Bob Iuliano sent the college community on Friday. First-year students and “a cohort of other students” will be allowed to remain […]
Historian Manisha Sinha on a possible Trump “Gettysburg Address”
As we noted yesterday, Trump may accept the GOP nomination for president at Gettysburg battlefield. Manisha Sinha, a historian who is no stranger to followers of The Way of Improvement Leads Home blog and podcast, shares her thoughts at CNN....
Gettysburg Confederate monuments to get new panels to offer more historical context
Here is Nolan Simmons at Penn Live: Panels will soon be installed near each of 12 Confederate state monuments at Gettysburg National Military Park to offer visitors more context to understand when and under what circumstances they were erected. The...
“The world will little note, nor long remember what Trump says there”: Trump may accept the GOP nomination at Gettysburg
Civil War historians get ready. Here is Lauren Gambino at The Guardian: Donald Trump said on Monday that he is considering accepting the Republican presidential nomination later this month with a speech at the civil war battlefield of Gettysburg, one of...
When the Confederacy came (back) to Gettysburg
Some of you may recall my post last week about a friend of friends who visited the Gettysburg National Military Park on July 4, 2020 and encountered overt racism. You can read it here. We now have a video of...
What happened in Gettysburg this weekend?
Jimmy, a friend of friends who works in a local ministry to drug and alcohol abusers, was in Gettysburg this weekend. Here, in his own words, is what happened: Over the last 2.5 years, I have been in a...
What about the Gettysburg monuments? A local take.
Some of you have listened to Episode 70 of The Way of Improvement Leads Home Podcast featuring Gettysburg University historian Scott Hancock. In that episode, I talked with Scott about racial injustice in the wake of the George Floyd killing....
Gettysburg battlefield guides call for the protection of Confederate monuments
The York (PA) Daily Record is running an op-ed from Les Fowler, president of the Association of Licensed Battlefield Guides. Here is a taste of his piece: We are grateful that the National Park Service has made strong statements in support...
What about the Confederate monuments at Gettysburg?
Confederate statues are coming down all over the United States. But what should we do about these monuments at Civil War battlefields like Gettysburg National Military Park? Nolan Simmons of PennLive (Harrisburg Patriot-News) talked with some local historians, including two...
The Annual Battle of Gettysburg Reenactment Gives Way to Glenn Beck
According to this article at Penn Live, the 2020 reenactment at the Battle of Gettysburg has been canceled because Glenn Beck is hosting an event called “Restoring the Covenant on the Sacred Land of Gettysburg.” Beck’s event will “reflect on...
Battle of Gettysburg Reenactments Are Placed on Hold
Here is a taste of Priscilla Liguori‘s article at ABC 27 News (Harrisburg): The future of Gettysburg battle reenactments is uncertain. The committee that has put together the event for 25 years says it isn’t happening next year. Organizers say...
Pennsylvania History: The Final Exam!
For the past decade I have been teaching a course on Pennsylvania History at Messiah College. The class meets several requirements. Some history majors take it for a 300-level American history elective. Other history majors take it as part of...
Lincoln Impersonators Unite!
On Saturday, during a visit to Gettysburg with my Pennsylvania history class, I met Abraham Lincoln. It was actually George Buss, a former teacher who has been impersonating Lincoln for over thirty years. I though about George today when I...
A Saturday Morning in Gettysburg
It is a beautiful today in south-central Pennsylvania–a perfect day to spend some time on the Gettysburg battlefield. This morning we took ten students from my Pennsylvania history class to Gettysburg. We have been reading Jim Weeks’s book Gettysburg: Memory, Market,...
Out of the Zoo: “Gettysburg”
Annie Thorn is a first-year history major from Kalamazoo, Michigan and our intern here at The Way of Improvement Leads Home. As part of her internship she will be writing a weekly column for us titled “Out of the Zoo.” It will...