Category Archives: Uncategorized

Part V: Citizenship in Postwar America

This is the fifth essay in a series devoted to examining citizenship and the American citizen, the rights, duties, and norms of which have become ever more contentious since the divisive Sixties. They have become especially relevant in recent years … Continue reading

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Part IV: Citizenship  in a Totalitarian State: Nazi Germany

This is the fourth essay in a series devoted to examining citizenship and the American citizen, the rights, duties, and norms of which have become ever more contentious beginning in the divisive Sixties. They have become especially relevant in recent … Continue reading

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Part III: Citizenship in a Revolutionary State, 18th Century Revolutionary France

This is the third essay in a series devoted to examining citizenship and the American citizen, the rights, duties, and norms of which have become ever more contentious beginning in the divisive Sixties. They have become especially relevant in recent … Continue reading

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Part II: Citizenship in Ancient Rome

This is the second essay in a series devoted to examining citizenship and the American citizen, the rights, duties, and norms of which have become ever more contentious beginning in the divisive Sixties. They have become especially relevant in recent … Continue reading

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Citizenship and the American Citizen, Part I: Ancient Greece

(Note: To skip the historical case studies and jump to the new American citizen in the 1960s, go to: https://zilianblog.com/2017/09/30/part-vi-citizenship-and-the-new-american-citizen-in-the-divisive-sixties/ ) As a human body is only as healthy as its individual cells, so a civilization or modern state is … Continue reading

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“Summer of Love” but Not for All

(This essay was originally published as “Summer of Love wasn’t for all” in the Newport Daily News on August 26, 2017.) The dissonant and divisive Sixties were a time when just about every code of behavior in American society was … Continue reading

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July 10, 1777: Patriot Raid Captures British General Prescott

(This essay, abridged, was originally published as “An Enterprise Against the Enemy,” by the Newport Daily News on July 8, 2017.) Two hundred forty years ago, a band of American soldiers, led by Lt. Col. William Barton, conducted a daring … Continue reading

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America the Unexceptional

(This essay was originally published as “American Exceptionalism seems to be in retreat,” by the Newport Daily News on June 10, 2017.) With his recent statement of intent to withdraw the United States from the Paris Accord on climate change, … Continue reading

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Memorial Day: A Time to Honor and Remember

Healthy civilizations remember and honor those who have died serving them. These memorial occasions are also opportune times to reflect on the civilization’s creed—its fundamental values and beliefs. Almost 2450 years ago, Pericles, the great statesman of ancient Athens, did … Continue reading

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Is America Going the Way of Norse Greenland?

(This essay was originally published on April 30, 2017, on the History News Network [online] http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/165689) Civilizations which make bad decisions about the environment they occupy, cannot sustain themselves over the long run. By appointing Scott Pruitt, a known environmental … Continue reading

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