I just finished watching “The Free State of Jones.” For those unaware of the movie, here’s its logline: “Set during the Civil War, Free State of Jones tells the story of defiant Southern farmer, Newt Knight, and his extraordinary armed rebellion against the Confederacy. Banding together with other small farmers and local slaves, Knight launched an uprising that led Jones County, Mississippi to secede from the Confederacy, creating a Free State of Jones. Knight continued his struggle into Reconstruction, distinguishing him as a compelling, if controversial, figure of defiance long beyond the War.”
Thank you for the recommendation Tom. I hadn’t heard of it and it sounds very interesting, and timely. Maybe I will watch it tonight with my extra hour. We have been getting drenched here in Oregon and I was looking for a movie.
The notion of "The South will rise again" - we are all living the hell of it from the long arc of history that was never acknowledged in full, the sins of our father: slavery that has been whitewashed after the Civil War. The Confederacy was whitewashed into "our heritage" in the South. There is no other arc that is so direct between Germany nazism and America's Jim Crow era. The agents of the Confederacy were allowed to walk free, and since then, generations later, they have morphed into this Bible thumping Christo fascists that they always were ---the Republican Party is terrifying the rest of us, rearing its ugly fascist head of "The South will rise again"
Thanks Tom I will have to take a look. When did it come out? I just finished the last installment of Rachel Madow's "Ultra" The detail and documentation is mind bending. We were alive when that shit wae still simmering. How they got people's minds off that trial is beyond me. The narrative sounds almost exactly as it does today. Lindberg was known as an anti semite, but the America Firsters funded by Hitler and working for the NAZIs is something we heard about here and there, but Rachel lays it down in detail. Have you sat throught it yet?
she certainly does. and she's opened this vein of material relating to the kind of sway the Really Bad Guys had in that completely weird immediate postwar period during which a lot of guards were down (or didn't yet exist) and policy felt (I would think) like maybe it depended on something like a coin toss or a cabinet member's psychotic paranoia.
I think it's a vein that's going to be covered really extensively and that the results are going to be pretty interesting.
when I'd spend half of every summer in Detroit, I'd frequently pass by Coughlin's Church on Woodward. it was actually pretty nice, but that was in passing it in one direction or another as rapidly as possible. I do remember that, compared with those hideous mega-churches down south, it's actually pretty tasteful, having been built before Las Vegas became a thing that continues to blight most aspects of our supposedly "shared" culture.
Coughlin was the Rush Limbaugh of his day and appealed to essentially the same crowd. At his peak in this area he was mildly countered by a thriving Jewish community in Detroit. It was that thriving that Coughlin's followers hated. It didn't help that Henry Ford's antisemitism bolstered Coughlin's message, as Ford was one of the largest employers in this area and actually funded Coughlin's radio show early on. The Catholic Church was late to the party as usual in demanding Coughlin halt his divisive rhetoric.
I listened to “Ultra”. It was quite an eye opener for me. I knew a little of it but not the depth that she wrote about. I am going to start reading Rachel’s book “Prequel” as soon as I finish HCR’s newest book.
I know, it’s hard to keep up with everything I want to read. I listen to audiobooks on my long work commute and usually have another book I’m reading in my not so spare time.
I find the one very occasional drawback to the Kindle is that it's much easier to pay attention to something you might have started reading but forgot about for some reason.
You are our source of the real history, of so many critical junctures. Our history has indeed been rewritten, never included, or skewed as it happens (Fox and clones, currently). Republicans (Dems back then) have forever had the same agenda. I had never heard of this very important happening; it certainly wasn’t taught in my history classes. Our children deserve better. Those who stood up in their time deserve to be remembered and lauded for their courage. It matters today…. Thank you, TC
Never knew there was so much of it. Then along comes "alternative facts" to muddy the waters. What's a poor old human brain to do. Tune in to Rupert, of course.
Most of us aren't. The Lost Causers didn't want it known that there was a civil war in the Confederacy in the middle of the Civil War. That looks bad for them.
But it is so critical to those of us still doing battle, if only in our hearts and minds. May the violence part not be necessary, but the truth needs to shine to show the way.
WOW!!! I've always believed that the obscenely wealthy land- and slave-owners in the South encouraged racism, so that the (majority) poor Whites would identify with them, and thus join forces against the Black slaves. You are telling the story of poor Whites who were smart enough to realize where their REAL power lay! Very exciting. (Where can I view this movie?)
Eric Foner advisee here. The story goes that the director went to see him and said what he wanted to do. Foner gave him a reading list and told him to come back when he had finished. He did. Foner gave him another list and told him to come back when he had finished. He did. Foner then said, "Now I know you're serious."
The seriousness is certainly there. One can see in the nearly-endless list of "Executive Producers" in the credits that the writer-director knocked on every door he could find to get the support to do this. Interestingly main finance appears to have come from a Chinese production company (that was in Hong Kong at least before the communist takeover).
I would also say cheers to McConaughey for attaching himself to it - that would definitely qualify as a "non-commercial idea" when the screenplay landed on his desk, so he did it out of personal belief in the story. I'd be interested to know when he came aboard, if he did so to add "seriousness" to the "door knocking."
Good movie, and the things we should see more of. They’re doing a series in Bass Reeves. I hope it’s good. And we need to see more things on guys like Eugene Bullard and Eddie Carter. They are every bit of our mythology as are Hyatt Earp, Alvin York, and Dan Daley.
Thank you for the recommendation Tom. I hadn’t heard of it and it sounds very interesting, and timely. Maybe I will watch it tonight with my extra hour. We have been getting drenched here in Oregon and I was looking for a movie.
The notion of "The South will rise again" - we are all living the hell of it from the long arc of history that was never acknowledged in full, the sins of our father: slavery that has been whitewashed after the Civil War. The Confederacy was whitewashed into "our heritage" in the South. There is no other arc that is so direct between Germany nazism and America's Jim Crow era. The agents of the Confederacy were allowed to walk free, and since then, generations later, they have morphed into this Bible thumping Christo fascists that they always were ---the Republican Party is terrifying the rest of us, rearing its ugly fascist head of "The South will rise again"
Having been raised in the South, I can attest to this
Thanks Tom I will have to take a look. When did it come out? I just finished the last installment of Rachel Madow's "Ultra" The detail and documentation is mind bending. We were alive when that shit wae still simmering. How they got people's minds off that trial is beyond me. The narrative sounds almost exactly as it does today. Lindberg was known as an anti semite, but the America Firsters funded by Hitler and working for the NAZIs is something we heard about here and there, but Rachel lays it down in detail. Have you sat throught it yet?
It came out in 2016.
That is fresh. We can talk later about Ultra. Have you gotten to it yet?
Yes. I've just gotten her book "Prequel" which goes into the whole thing in greater detail.
Great, i'll have to get it too. The footnotes will be mind bending. I have heard a lot about Father Couglin, but never how it all fit together.
Yeah, she brings it all together.
she certainly does. and she's opened this vein of material relating to the kind of sway the Really Bad Guys had in that completely weird immediate postwar period during which a lot of guards were down (or didn't yet exist) and policy felt (I would think) like maybe it depended on something like a coin toss or a cabinet member's psychotic paranoia.
I think it's a vein that's going to be covered really extensively and that the results are going to be pretty interesting.
when I'd spend half of every summer in Detroit, I'd frequently pass by Coughlin's Church on Woodward. it was actually pretty nice, but that was in passing it in one direction or another as rapidly as possible. I do remember that, compared with those hideous mega-churches down south, it's actually pretty tasteful, having been built before Las Vegas became a thing that continues to blight most aspects of our supposedly "shared" culture.
Walt Disney might have had a bit to do with that too.
Coughlin was the Rush Limbaugh of his day and appealed to essentially the same crowd. At his peak in this area he was mildly countered by a thriving Jewish community in Detroit. It was that thriving that Coughlin's followers hated. It didn't help that Henry Ford's antisemitism bolstered Coughlin's message, as Ford was one of the largest employers in this area and actually funded Coughlin's radio show early on. The Catholic Church was late to the party as usual in demanding Coughlin halt his divisive rhetoric.
Just getting ready to read "Prequel".
Our MSM was engrossed with the orange turd, as I recall.
I listened to “Ultra”. It was quite an eye opener for me. I knew a little of it but not the depth that she wrote about. I am going to start reading Rachel’s book “Prequel” as soon as I finish HCR’s newest book.
Too much to read. I have just started Heather's book. Tom just gave me two very interesting books he wrote about Viet Nam.
I know, it’s hard to keep up with everything I want to read. I listen to audiobooks on my long work commute and usually have another book I’m reading in my not so spare time.
I find the one very occasional drawback to the Kindle is that it's much easier to pay attention to something you might have started reading but forgot about for some reason.
before now, it was utter chaos keeping track.
I just finished HCR's. 👍
You are our source of the real history, of so many critical junctures. Our history has indeed been rewritten, never included, or skewed as it happens (Fox and clones, currently). Republicans (Dems back then) have forever had the same agenda. I had never heard of this very important happening; it certainly wasn’t taught in my history classes. Our children deserve better. Those who stood up in their time deserve to be remembered and lauded for their courage. It matters today…. Thank you, TC
We deserve better. TC is always better.
Flattery will get you *everywhere*, Alec. :-)
I think I just got the Eddie Haskell award :-)
Wish he had a bull horn, we must be it
Alternate history, a euphemism for the events of importance left out in the consensus-based telling among the dominant authors of a preferred tale.
Never knew there was so much of it. Then along comes "alternative facts" to muddy the waters. What's a poor old human brain to do. Tune in to Rupert, of course.
Will do Tom. I think Heather went into this a while back.
She did.
Right. That is where I heard about it. She went deep into the Rutherford B. Hayes stuff.
It thought it quite a good movie.
Yeah, the attitude toward it is changing.
Thanks for the recommendation. I'm not aware of this piece of history.
Most of us aren't. The Lost Causers didn't want it known that there was a civil war in the Confederacy in the middle of the Civil War. That looks bad for them.
But it is so critical to those of us still doing battle, if only in our hearts and minds. May the violence part not be necessary, but the truth needs to shine to show the way.
WOW!!! I've always believed that the obscenely wealthy land- and slave-owners in the South encouraged racism, so that the (majority) poor Whites would identify with them, and thus join forces against the Black slaves. You are telling the story of poor Whites who were smart enough to realize where their REAL power lay! Very exciting. (Where can I view this movie?)
Google it. And your library might have it.
Good idea! Thanks.
Eric Foner advisee here. The story goes that the director went to see him and said what he wanted to do. Foner gave him a reading list and told him to come back when he had finished. He did. Foner gave him another list and told him to come back when he had finished. He did. Foner then said, "Now I know you're serious."
The seriousness is certainly there. One can see in the nearly-endless list of "Executive Producers" in the credits that the writer-director knocked on every door he could find to get the support to do this. Interestingly main finance appears to have come from a Chinese production company (that was in Hong Kong at least before the communist takeover).
I would also say cheers to McConaughey for attaching himself to it - that would definitely qualify as a "non-commercial idea" when the screenplay landed on his desk, so he did it out of personal belief in the story. I'd be interested to know when he came aboard, if he did so to add "seriousness" to the "door knocking."
I vaguely remember a high school teacher mentioning the war within the war, but that was it. But I wonder how he knew?
My American. History teacher in HS talked about these different Southern groups. I've read, over the years, other books that mention
some, but no real deep dive.
Wow. This is real internet.
No Kardashian in sight
😹
Thanks; just watched this and it was well done and informative. I passed on a recommendation to relatives who live on the gulf coast of Mississippi.
Good movie, and the things we should see more of. They’re doing a series in Bass Reeves. I hope it’s good. And we need to see more things on guys like Eugene Bullard and Eddie Carter. They are every bit of our mythology as are Hyatt Earp, Alvin York, and Dan Daley.