Andrew Wehrman

Too nearly identical cavapoos running in a recently mowed green grass field. Spite (left) has a ball and a fluffy tail. Milo (right) does not.

Good news! Sprite’s brother Milo (right) is coming to visit us this weekend.

Someone needs to point at that copy of the Declaration of Independence he put up on the wall of the Oval Office and ask if he agrees "all men are created equal," or if he thinks that people from Somalia are inferior to people from Europe. Just make the racism plain.

Our black and white cavapoo Sprite holding a hammer in his mouth.

Good morning from Sprite who has decided to take on some light carpentry jobs for extra treats.

Fantastic! I hope you enjoyed it. I hope that some readers do pair it with Fenn’s Pox Americana, the book that helped inspire me to write The Contagion of Liberty.

You're being generous. He clearly said "ark" as in Noah, not arch, as we say in, you know, English.

I just read the most impressive undergraduate paper that I have ever seen, and it’s an absolute tragedy that I have to wonder if it’s AI wizardry or the genuine hard work of a brilliant student. 99% sure it’s brilliance, very different from the AI slop I usually get.

I like an em dash, but none in this paper that I noticed! It followed my directions well but in some creative and unexpected ways, lots of deep context and difficult sources. This is also a student who has performed very well in class otherwise but really took it to another level here.

I just read the most impressive undergraduate paper that I have ever seen, and it’s an absolute tragedy that I have to wonder if it’s AI wizardry or the genuine hard work of a brilliant student. 99% sure it’s brilliance, very different from the AI slop I usually get.

“Gen. Washington did not have to convince fearful colonists to protect themselves against #smallpox — they were the ones demanding it… violent insistence for freedom from disease ultimately helped American colonists achieve independence from Great Britain.”

#vaxed

Thanks, Sylvia!

My book The Contagion of Liberty, which, among other things, explains the enthusiasm early Americans had for public health and inoculations. Is coming soon to paperback and can be preordered for 40% off with code HHOL25 www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/...

Opinion | How America Used Egypt to Justify Racism and Slavery Charles Vanthournout writes about how ancient Egypt shaped slavery and liberation in the American South.

OPINION: " There was a reason pro-slavery businessmen and thinkers were energized by the prospect of an American Egypt: Many Southern planters imagined themselves as guardians of a hierarchical and aristocratic system, one grounded in landownership, tradition and honor," Charles Vanthournout writes.

Also missing from Ken Burns was Abigail Adams’ decision to have her family inoculated in Boston during that city’s general inoculation order of July 1776. But again, I think that would have made Washington’s decision less dramatic and more questionable. Why did it take him so long to order it?

But including the public demand for inoculation would diminish Washington’s characterization as a bold and creative decision maker. However, the full context is just as inspiring. Washington listened to the people and to his medical advisors, changed his mind, and supported public inoculations.

Ashbel Green (who is already in the documentary, voiced by Adam Arkin) described the scene of his family being inoculated alongside the troops in his home. It would have made for a cinematic moment if Burns had chosen to include it, and it would have shown demand for inoculation outside the military

After Washington made his decision to inoculate he traveled by sleigh to meet with local leaders of Morristown, NJ, who demanded the citizens of that town be inoculated as well. Washington agreed and citizens and soldiers alike inoculated together in private homes and churches.

Ken Burns’ documentary did mention Washington’s decision to inoculate the troops, but it missed a tremendous opportunity to talk about how inoculation, and public health generally, was being discussed as both a duty of government and a right of the people. It wasn’t just a smart tactical move.

Thinking about the mistake Burns made. He misinterpreted Washington’s order to inoculate new recruits to mean that they were the most likely carriers of smallpox, rather than the men who were most loudly demanding inoculation and the easiest to inoculate because they were not yet in encamped.

Ellis makes the inoculation order seem like the top-down decision of wise George Washington rather than what it really was: Washington changed his mind after being pressured to do so by his soldiers, officers, and medical staffers (and after his wife Martha sought inoculation for herself)

That’s *not* true—typed too quickly!

Ah, Burns does mention Washington’s inoculation of the Army, but the documentary made the odd claim that new recruits were carrying smallpox into the Army. That’s new true. New recruits were demanding to be inoculated because smallpox was already in the Army. #HATM

Overall I thought episode two of The American Revolution was better than episode one, which tried to cover 20 years of events. He could have spent less time on Bunker Hill though.

Ken Burns is definitely prepping us for Benedict Arnold’s traitor turn. He might have also mentioned that Arnold called for inoculating soldiers more than a year before Washington did and had his order rejected by General John Thomas (who died of smallpox).

Could be…although Martha Washington got inoculated in the episode 2 timeframe in May ‘76.

Glad to see smallpox (finally) play a major part in the last half hour or so of episode two. I would have liked to have seen more on the soldiers’ demand for inoculation, but it was good that they mentioned Washington was initially against inoculation—that’s often left out

Inoculation was uncommon in Virginia, but Virginia’s enslavers often did not inoculate their slaves even when they inoculated themselves and their white family members.

Agreed. When I teach the Revolution we don’t get to Lexington for 5 or six weeks. The Declaration is about the midpoint for me, but it’s in episode 2 of 6 for Burns. I think 1774 to Lexington, à la Mary Beth Norton, could have had its own episode.

Awesome! I’ll have to check it out

Ken Burns’ American Revolution on the left screen with a running chat by students on the right screen.

We had a pretty good turnout for night one of Ken Burns’ American Revolution at CMU. I showed it in an auditorium with a second big screen so that students in the room could participate in a live chat while we watched. It worked well!

I’m hoping (and expecting) to see scholars from more varied institutions in the course of the 12 hours! There is, of course, lots of great work being done on the Revolution all across the country in many different institutions.