mikefisher.org

Just a note about the RSS feed on my site. I noticed that my old feed www.mikefisher.org/atom.xml was still getting hits so I deleted it. The new feed is: http://www.mikefisher.org/blog/?feed=rss2.

At first glance it would seem the task of the historian is fairly objective, as the stated aim of writing history is to retell the past. Indeed, taking up the pen to describe the stories of the past has the ostensible advantage of allowing one to lay out the complexities and conflicts of history while maintaining a safe distance from said events.

In contrast, as is wonderfully illustrated by the book which is the subject of this review, it turns out that for all practical purposes it is quite impossible to retell the stories of the past without weaving subjective judgments, however subtle, into the fabric of the story. It is even quite impossible to write a review of a historical work that is not colored by one’s own perspective of that work and the history it describes.

However, as Fairfax Downey, author of Indian Wars of the U.S. Army (1776-1865) says in his introduction, objectivity remains the goal of the historian. “This work is chiefly a chronicle… Justification or condemnation of the Indian Wars is not its province” (Downey 7). An underlying theme in Downey’s work is his intention not to question or judge the motives behind the Indian Wars, as “the Army was the instrument, not the instigator, of conquest” (7).

The author’s clear objective is to simply describe the role of the U.S. Army in terms of subduing the native population of North America during the eighty-nine-year period between the War for Independence and the Civil War. Downey accomplishes this goal quite well, even though in my view he presents this objective history in such a way as to undermine (for the discerning reader, at least) his determination to hold the Army innocent in terms of the ethical and moral lapses that characterized the Indian Wars. Read the rest of this entry »

I thought some of our online friends might like to see what keeps us busy every spare minute in the summer. And I thought I would post pictures of our garden now because it never looks any better than this! As the summer progresses… the weeds, quite sadly, often gain the upper hand.

The other day I put up the sections of rail fence on the left and planted Concord grape vines which will hopefully overgrow the fence. I also planted six black raspberry plants out from the fence this evening. It takes two to four years I think to get a good vine going… and a couple of years to get raspberries… so the fruit of our labors seems pretty distant at this point!

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Well this evening I had the privilege of meeting several folks that I have only known online before. Hans Mast (of MennoDiscuss fame), Darin Yoder, Ellis Riehl, and Benji Good, all 5th term students at SMBI, came to our house for dinner as well as our good friends and neighbors Seth and Linda Stoltzfus. Here are the four guys.

We had a great time and a few good discussions. It was a short couple of hours as Mr. Riehl is dean of men and had to get his charges back to the school at a decent hour.

Seth and I have been more or less active on the MennoDiscuss forum and it was very interesting and enjoyable to meet our savvy young admin in person. So good to meet all of you!

It will be nice when these fellows want to play a game more intelligent than Candyland on a Sunday evening.

What a week.

Last Sunday, we spent the day in Lancaster visiting friends and relatives. Of course we were on the road a good many hours and by the time we were nearly home at half-past midnight I was getting bleary-eyed. The last road on the way to my house runs along a ridge and is often crossed by deer, so I am always on edge when driving this road particularly in the dark.

Still, when you get within 50 ft. of your driveway, you should be able to relax, right? Wrong. Just a stone’s throw from our lane, as I was beginning to slow down, two deer ran across the road in front of me and I was unable to avoid hitting one of them squarely in the center of the bumper. The deer was sent spinning off the side of the road and I was like, this can’t be happening. (I hit deer with the van two different times within two weeks of purchasing it a few years ago. Another story.) Read the rest of this entry »