HOW THE SMALL 'g' GODS BECAME ONE SMALL 'g' GOD, AND THEM MORPHED INTO THE BIG 'G' GOD

Thomas Romer, The Invention of God, translated from the French by Raymond Geuss (Cambridge, Massachusetts, & London, England: Harvard U. Press, 2015) ("An examination . . . allows us to retrace the path of a god who probably had his origin somewhere in the 'South,' between the Negev and Egypt. Originally he was a god of the wilderness, of war and storms, but gradually through a series of small steps he became the god of Israel and Jerusalem. Then eventually, after a major catastrophe--the destruction of Jerusalem and Judah--he established himself as the one god, creator of heaven and earth, invisible and transcendent, who nevertheless loudly proclaimed his special relationship with Judaism. How did one god among others become God? This is the basic, and theologically fundamental, enigma that this book attempts to illuminate. Despite what certain theologians continue to assert, it is now beyond doubt that the god of the Bible was not always 'unique,' the one-and-only God." Id. at 2. Or, as I would put it, why one should read the bible as foundation myths, and not history, let alone as the word of God.).

NEGRO SLAVERY: ITS SUPPORTERS AND ITS CRITICS

Manisha Sinha, The Counterrevolution of Slavery: Politics and Ideology in Antebellum South Carolina (Chapel Hill & London: University of North Carolina Press, 2000) ("The explosive sectional controversy over the expansion of slavery into newly conquered territories, which tore at the heart of mid-nineteenth century America and paved the way for the Civil War, presented a golden opportunity for Carolinian planter politicians to impart to their section the political ideology of slavery, with its ideal of an independent southern nation. . . . It is in this context that South Carolina's exceptionalism became pertinent and influential. Not bound by party allegiance or democratic practice, Carolinian planter politicians championed the cause of their class and section, Calhoun's notion of state sovereignty became the basis of the southern position on slavery in the territories and on the right to secession. Not just formal constitutional and political arguments, but the vindication of slavery as a superior way of ordering society and of a separate southern identity based on slavery would constitute the discourse of  southern nationalism. During nullification, Carolinian politicos had developed a systematic defense of slavery and the slaveholding minority in a democratic republic. The slavery expansion conflict fostered southern nationalism, which pointed to the inescapable conclusion that slavery was a higher good than the American republic." Id. at 63-64. Query. To what extent would an updated version of the following 1861 statement, by Alexander Stephens, Vice President of the Confederate States of America, find favorable sentiment in early twenty-first century America? "The prevailing ideas entertained by . . . most of the leading statement at the time of the formation of the old Constitution were that the enslavement of the African was in violation, of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally and politically. . . . Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great turn that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition. . . . [O]ur new Government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth." Id. at 254. Or, to put it another way, to what extent do Americans (or, at least, the so-called 'Silent Majority") believe that people of colors, notably Blacks and Hispanics, should have second-class status? "Historians, like contemporaries, have long noted that an overwhelming majority of South Carolinians were for secession. But a majority of South Carolinians had noting to do with secession or the glorification of human bondage. A majority of South Carolinians in 1860 were slaves." Id. at 258.).

Manisha Sinha, The Slave's Cause: A History of Abolition (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2016) ("The conflict over the contours and nature of American democracy has often centered on debates over black freedom and rights. The origins of that momentous and ongoing political struggle lie in the movement to abolish slavery. This book tells the story of abolition. . . . Abolition was a radical, interracial movement, one which addressed the entrenched problems of exploitation and disenfranchisement in a liberal democracy and anticipated debates over race, labor and empire." Id. at 1. "The abolition legacy for American democracy lies hidden in plain sight.  . . . The age of Obama, like the age of Lincoln, has its critics and its admirers, but neither would have been possible without the abolition movement." "The enduring heritage of the abolition movement is even broader: its unyielding commitment to human rights and a call to action, however much abolitionists disagreed on tactics and ideas until the end. Demonstrating the potential of democratic radicalism is no mean achievement. Their wide-ranging activism was, as Du Bois put it, 'the finest thing in American history'." Id. at 591.).

EDITH STEIN

Edith Stein, Essays on Woman, 2d ed., rev'd (Collected Works of Edith Stein, volume 2), translated from the German by Freda Mary Oben (Washington, D. C.: ICS Publications/Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1996).

Edith Stein, Life in a Jewish Family 1891-1916 (Collected Works of Edith Stein, volume 1), translated from the German by Josephine Koeppel (Washington, D. C.: ICS Publications/Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1986).

Edith Stein, On the Problem of Empathy (Collected Works of Edith Stein, volume 3), translated from the German by Waltraut Stein (Washington, D. C.: ICS Publications, 1989).

THE IDEA OF THE BLACK FEMALE FIGURE

Robin Coste Lewis, Voyage of the Sable Venus and Other Poems (New York: Knopf, 2016) (From the book cover: "Robin Coste Lewis's electrifying collection is a triptych that begins and ends with lyric poems considering the role of desire and race play in the construction of self. The central panel is the title poem, 'Voyage of the Sable Venus,' a riveting narrative made up entirely of titles of artworks from ancient to present times--titles that feature or in some way comment on the black female figure in Western Art. Bracketed by Lewis's autobiographical poems, 'Voyage' is a tender and shocking study of the fragmentary mysteries of stereotype, as it juxtaposes our names for things with what we actually see and know. Offering a new understanding of biography and the self, this collection questions just where, historically, do ideas about the black female figure truly begin--five hundred years ago, five thousand, or even longer? And what role has art played in this ancient, often heinous story? . . . [T]his poet adores her culture and the beauty to be found within it. Yet she is also a cultural critic alert to he nuances of race and desire and how they define us all, including herself, as she explores her own sometimes painful history. Lewis's book is a thrilling aesthetic anthem to the complexity of race--a full embrace of its pleasure and horror, in equal parts.").

AMERICA'S UNCIVIL WAR

Brooks D. Simpson, ed., The Civil War: The Third Year Told By Those Who Lived It (New York: Library of America, 2013).

Aaron Sheehan-Dean, ed., The Civil War: The Final Year Told By Those Who Lived It (New York: Library of America, 2014) ("On May 26 General Edmund Kirby Smith surrounded all Confederate forces west of the Mississippi. Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston on June 18 and issued General Order No. 3 the following day. His order enforcing the Emancipation Proclamation brought freedom to about 250,000 slaves in Texas and became the basis for the African American holiday of Juneteenth." Id. at 735.).

W. S. MERWIN

W. S. Merwin, Collected Poems 1952-1993, edited by J. D. McClatchy (New York: Library of America, 2013) ("Poems are written in moments of history, and their circumstances bear upon their language and tone and subject and feeling whether the authors are conscious of that happening or not, but it is hard to conceive of a poem being written only out of historic occasions. Somebody who was not a product of history alone had to be there and feel the need for words, hear them, summon them together." Id. at 193.).

W. S. Merwin, Collected Poems 1996-2011, edited by J. D. McClatchy (New York: Library of America, 2013).

THE WAR OF 1812

Donald R. Hickey, ed., The War of 1812: Writings from America's Second War of Independence (New York: Library of America, 2013)(As with America's First War of Independence, America did not win the War of 1812. Great Britain lost it; or, to be more precise, began no longer willing to pursue it. As with the First, in the Second the American's again unsuccessfully invaded Canada. The result, binding Canada ever closer to Great Britain. And, one sees White Americans viewing Native Americans (even those allied and fighting on America's side) as "internal enemies," to be exterminated or removed.).