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The Burr-Hamilton Duel, 1804, Peter Newark American Pictures / Bridgeman Images .

Dueling: The Violence of Gentlemen

What honor required of men.

How the American Revolution was Made on Honor and Sold on Merit

A review of "American Honor: The Creation of the Nation’s Ideals during the Revolutionary Era."
Robert E. Lee statue
partner

Robert E. Lee WAS a Man of Honor. That’s the Problem.

For white southerners, honor had little to do with justice.
Protester with a sign that reads "Save our Monuments"

Pondering the Question of Confederate Honor

Yes, honorable men can fight for dishonorable causes.
Robert E. Lee statue

Confederate Statues Honor Timeless Virtues — Let Them Stay

Don’t let extremists on both sides destroy honor and valor, even as they seek to destroy everything else.
The ruins of Ft. Ticonderoga, and a note left in a knapsack a soldier carried in battle there.

A Knapsack’s Worth of Courage

Now, and for some years to come, we will need a lot less Paul Weiss, and a lot more Benjamin Warner.
George Washington

The Moment of Truth

The reelection of Donald Trump would mark the end of George Washington’s vision for the presidency—and the United States.
Group of African-American World War I veterans

The Meaning of ‘Sir’ and ‘Ma’am’

“I’d assumed this practice was a manifestation of military decorum.”
Shelby Foote with a drawing of a Civil War battle superimposed over him.

The South’s Jewish Proust

Shelby Foote, failed novelist and closeted member of the Tribe, turned the Civil War into a masterpiece of American literature.
Birds spliced onto a cracked photograph of Winfield Scott.

The Fight Over Animal Names Has Reached a New Extreme

Forget changing only the names that honor the horrors of the past. Some biologists now argue no species should ever be named after a single individual.
The sillhouette of a Civil War statue on a night sky.

The Spirit of Appomattox

Why is Shelby Foote's Civil War subject to so much contemporary debate?
Painting of duel between Charles de Lameth and the Marquis de Castries.

A Slap, Followed by a Duel

Dueling was a dangerous, ritualized response to a real (or perceived) slight. It may also have been a means of proving one's social and economic capital.
Left: Headshot of Shoichi Yokoi in uniform Right: Yokoi sobbing in his wheelchair when he returns to Japan in 1972

The Japanese WWII Soldier Who Refused to Surrender for 27 Years

Unable to bear the shame of being captured as a prisoner of war, Shoichi Yokoi hid in the jungles of Guam until January 1972.
Drawing of Transylvania University Medical Department

The Murderous Origins of the American Medical Association

How a bloody gun duel between two doctors in Transylvania sparked a frenzy of outrage—and helped create the American Medical Association.
Robert E Lee Statue being removed in Richmond

Captured Confederate Flags and Fake News in Civil War Memory

Fake news has been central to the Lost Cause narrative since its inception, employed to justify and amplify the symbolism of Confederate monuments and flags.
Photo of Union commanders.

The Anti-Lee

George Henry Thomas, southerner in blue.

A Military 1st: A Supercarrier is Named After an African-American Sailor

USS Doris Miller will honor a Black Pearl Harbor hero and key figure in the rise of the Civil Rights Movement.

BookChat with David Silkenat, Author of Raising the White Flag

The Civil War started with a surrender, ended with a series of surrenders, and had several of its major campaigns end in surrender.

Mesmerism, (Im)propriety, and Power Over Women’s Bodies

How mesmerism threatened early 19th-century gendered constructs of virtue and honor.

Say It Is So: Baseball’s Disgrace

The case for electing "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and Pete Rose to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Screen shot from Red Dead Redemption 2, of a man in western clothing smoking a cigarette.

Red Dead Redemption 2 Confronts the Racist Past and Lets You Do Something About It

Poke around the game’s fictional South and you’ll find cross-burning Klansmen, whom you are free to kill.

Raising Cane

The violence on Capitol Hill that foreshadowed a bloody war.

My Fellow Prisoners

The grand lesson of John McCain's life should be that heroic politics is a broken politics.
George Washington resigning his commission as commander of the Army
partner

Why George Washington Rejected a Military Parade in his Honor

Of all the precedents the first president set, this is one of his most overlooked — and most important.
Alexander Hamilton

The Many Alexander Hamiltons

An interview with a historian of Hamilton. That is, an “interview” in the modern sense of questions and answers and not in the Hamilton-Burr sense of pistols at dawn.

John Kelly Calls Robert E. Lee An ‘Honorable Man’ and Says ‘Lack of Compromise’ Caused The Civil War

The White House chief of staff set off a firestorm Monday after his comments on the Confederate general.

How Vietnam Dramatically Changed Our Views on Honor and War

The military’s focus on individual service members in the late years of Vietnam has created a permanent legacy
Illustration of Daniel Sickles in front of the White House.

In 1859, a Murderous Congressman Pioneered the Insanity Defense

After gunning down his wife's lover in broad daylight, Daniel Sickles tried to escape the gallows by claiming he was out of his mind.

The Lesser Part of Valor

Preston Brooks, Greg Gianforte, and the American tradition of disguising cowardice as bravery.
Confederate soldiers stand among the ruins of houses.

The Slave-State Origins of Modern Gun Rights

The idea of an unfettered right to carry weapons in public originates in the antebellum South, and its culture of violence and honor.

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