Give It Time (Podcast)

We begin with a few recommendations on books and resources to use in understanding Dante’s Divine Comedy. Then we switch gears, and get into the meat of the podcast. It seems we become substantially different people every seven to ten years, more or less. We may feel self-conscious or uncomfortable about the things we said, wrote, or believed when we were younger. Is it normal to feel this way? And is it better to preserve a record of one’s thought, or to renounce beliefs one no longer holds? We discuss both sides of the question.

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The New York City Draft Riots Of 1863

New York City, like all large cities, has experienced a number of riots in its long history.  But the Draft Riots of 1863 surpassed every other upheaval, before or since, in unadulterated ferocity. 

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Heroism During The Loss Of The “Stella”

It is at moments of unremitting extremity that we discover our true natures.  The tragic loss of the British ship Stella in 1899 provides an illustration of this principle.  The story appears in a 1962 volume of nautical lore entitled Women of the Sea by the maritime writer Edward R. Snow; but since the book has long been out of print, it will be retold here in abbreviated form, with Mr. Snow’s account as my primary source.

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Rights That Have Been Won, Do Not Automatically Remain Won (Podcast)

Rights and liberties that have been won by past generations will not remain won without active and forceful advocacy by successive generations. Why? Systems of power and control will inevitably regroup and counterattack, and seek to roll back the clock. This is happening all around us now. Those who are unwilling to assert their rights, and unwilling to protect what past generations earned, will find themselves stripped of their patrimony.

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Deep Memories Yield No Epitaphs

Chapter 23 of Moby-Dick is entitled “The Lee Shore.”  It offers some philosophical commentary on the need for travel and direct experience.  Melville reflects on the restless, roaming nature of a sailor named Bulkington: 

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Nowhere Is Rome Less Known Than At Rome

In a letter written to Giovanni Colonna in 1337 or 1341—scholars are uncertain of the precise date—Petrarch says as follows:

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The Audiobook Of The New Translation Of Frontinus’s “Stratagems” Is Now Available

Fortress of the Mind Publications is pleased to announce that the audiobook of the new translation of Frontinus’s Stratagems is now available. The link to Amazon Audible can be found here. The book is read by narrator Saethon Williams, whose expert audio renditions have featured in Quintus Curtius’s other translations. Besides Amazon Audible, the audiobook can be found at a number of retailers, library platforms, and streaming services:

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Press Your White Hairs With A Helmet

In book nine of the Aeneid, the Rutulian warrior Numanus Remulus makes a famous declamation, in which he speaks the following lines:

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