“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 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.”
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.
"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."
"Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."
"Let me die in this old uniform in which I fought my battles. May God forgive me for ever having put on another."
Montgomery's fate assisting me to sing! Where num'rous heroes met the angel Death. The laurel yet shall grace his bust; but, oh! America must wear sad cypress now. Nor strive to have her injuries redress'd. Oh had but Carleton suffer'd in his stead! Had half idolitrous Canadia bled!
Brains and Brawn 