So About John A. Macdonald

So it came to light recently that following this interesting trend in tearing down statues in the United States, some bright minded people have decided the best thing to do is try to remove the name of our first PM from some schools for reasons which seem rather far fetched. Felipe Pareja, who put forward the motion claims: "it might be difficult for Indigenous students and teachers to go to a school named after someone who he says was complicit in the genocide of Indigenous people."

Felipe Pajera is clearly not a historian.

The Dark Tower

Well having dipped my toes into the world of Stephen King's Dark Tower in dead tree format, I decided to jump in and see the film version on the big screen. I came away both impressed, and disappointed. Why you may ask? Well join me now as we journey through Keystone Earth and out onto the many spokes of the Dark Tower, and through many worlds.

Jake Chambers dreams of a Tower which a sinister Man in Black hopes to destroy, he also dreams of a mysterious gunslinger who fights him. This leads to him being seen as crazy, but soon those dreams become all too real and he is caught up in a plot to save all worlds from being consumed by darkness and fire...

Terrorism By Any Other Name

I was deeply saddened to read of the events taking place in Charlottesville Virginia this weekend. The violence and simply shocking outpouring of hatred by the radical right white supremacists seems like something out of another age, and the events leading up to the terrorist attack of that day can only have belonged in another era. Surely we in the West are more enlightened?

Of course not.

From nebulous cloud

It is disturbing to note a rise in hate crimes and racist violence, the outright terror attack this weekend is something else.

We have seen this kind of tactic used in foreign terrorist attacks. Now we see someone, of a different ideology, driving a vehicle with deliberate intent into a crowd of ideological enemies and mowing down more then twenty before fleeing. Thankfully the assailant was arrested, and the violence in Virginia has ceased. But will it end here?

I am sad to say I think it will not. That is by and large because of the simple lack of response from Mr. Trump regarding these events, and then his broad blanket condemnation of violence and bigotry from "many sides", and his subsequent refusal to even condemn the racists and Nazis directly until  two days later. It screams of a pathetic dog whistle attempt to keep the radical right on his side, and that is simple moral cowardice.

What gave me cheer was seeing that despite the violence and rhetoric, the Nazis are condemned broadly by both political parties, and society at large. I think that means that we are truly moving away from that particular mistake of the past, but I hope that their hate and radicalism doesn't simply become attached to another cause in the future.

Let us hope and pray for a brighter future.

House of the Proud (A Shattered Nation Novel)

In a stunning sequel to the epic alternate history novel Shattered Nation, Jeffery Brooks spins an intriguing tale of political intrigue, racial tensions, and geopolitical rivalries. I can happily say that I enjoyed this book just as much as his previous works, the first of which I reviewed in order to pave the way for this review. The book is a fascinating look at a world changed by the vortex around Atlanta in 1864 and set in the not too distant future of 1867.

As a note, there are slight spoilers for the previous installment, Shattered Nation, as I'm writing this I am assuming readers will be familiar with that book and so feel no compunction about some spoilers. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend you do.

So join me now as I examine a world where the United States is a shattered nation, bordering a House of the Proud.

                                                            Credit to BiblePic.com

Shattered Nation: An Alternate History Novel of the American Civil War

Just recently I finished re-reading a book I picked up a few years back by fellow alternatehistory.com member Anaxagoras, otherwise known as Jeffery Evan Brooks, which is (if you haven't already guessed) an interesting take on an alternate ending for the American Civil War. Now, most Civil War novels will tend to focus on men like Robert E. Lee or Stonewall Jackson, the great commanders of the South, and even then they will largely focus on the events of 1862-63, with things like the battle of Antietam or Gettysburg and all of these become major war winning victories. This novel, does things a little differently.

Welcome to the world of Shattered Nation.