“The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of past centuries.” — René Descartes
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1en9uW2uCqTladnmAlmLOVW_QaSr0kbMd/view?usp=drivesdk Blaise Picchi and David close the series by turning from Grant the general to Grant the president, following him out of the field and into an office no framework had prepared him for. They trace three defining episodes of the administration: the Enforcement Acts and the federal war on the Klan, where troops and... Continue Reading →
Blaise Picchi and David turn from Grant the man to Grant the general, tracing the constitutional arguments over states’ rights that set the stage for war before moving through three of the conflict’s defining battles: Vicksburg, Cold Harbor, and Appomattox Courthouse. Along the way they weigh strategy against sacrifice, from the long siege that split... Continue Reading →
Blaise Picchi and David dive into Ulysses Grant's life and experiences in this episode they pick up his story at the very beginning traveling through his childhood and West Point years eventually ending in the home he built with his own hands, Hardscrabble.
The future is not ours to share in. We were only meant to lead something else to it.
“The cavalry charge had been made in the teeth of a very real enemy.”
“You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out.”
In this episode, I sit down with Blaise Picchi to explore the final five weeks in the life of Giuseppe Zangara. From his obscure and difficult life to the chaotic moment in Miami when he fired into a crowd attempting to assassinate President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, we trace the events that culminated in a tragedy... Continue Reading →
Michael and David aim to read William Manchester's Churchill series, Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and Plutarch's Lives. Cal plans to revisit The Odyssey to prepare for the new movie, along with tackling War and Peace and Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy.
Caius is a man, men are mortal, and therefore Caius is a mortal.
"You must know him as the North River captain and know that it is only the exercise of his own judgment which was wanting to perfect his character."
Brains and Brawn 