Roger D. McGrath

Latest by Roger D. McGrath in Chronicles

• Columns

  January 2021

  The Machines of Enslavement

  8 ¼ min

  The perpetuation of slavery in 19th century America is often attributed to some grand design. In fact, the historical evidence shows it was an unintended consequence of the invention of the cotton gin and the planting of a new variety of cotton.

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• Columns

  November 2020

  Slavery's Ironic Twist of Fate

  8 min

  The left asserts that white supremacy motivated the American Colonists to conceive slavery as a founding principle. A look at the historical record, however, suggests slavery actually developed as a consequence of an infectious disease: malaria.

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• Columns

  September 2020

  That Damn Cowboy

  9 min

  The Western frontier transformed Teddy Roosevelt from a New York aristocrat into the rough rider who charged up San Juan Hill. While living as rancher, he impressed the locals with his tenacity, and his ability to handle himself in a bar fight.

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• Columns

  July 2020

  The Chinese Exclusion Act

  8 min

  In 1882 Congress took steps to control Chinese immigration. From the start, the Chinese were different than other immigrants. They were sojourners in the U.S. who rejected the values of American society and carefully maintained their own culture.

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• Columns

  April/May 2020

  Epidemic for the Record Books

  8 ¾ min

  As the hysterical coronavirus overreaction crashes our economy, I can’t help but think of the Spanish flu, which took some 675,000 American lives in 1918 and 1919.

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• Columns

  February 2020

  Jackson and the American Indians

  8 min

  Everyone knows that Andrew Jackson wanted American Indians annihilated, defied the Supreme Court in a famous challenge to Chief Justice John Marshall, and forcibly removed the Five Civilized Tribes of the Southeast to lands west of the Mississippi River. What everyone knows is not true.

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• Reviews

  January 2020

  Books in Brief

  4 ½ min

  Debunking Howard Zinn: Exposing the Fake History That Turned a Generation Against America, by Mary Grabar (Regnery; 327 pp., $29.99). Mary Grabar has performed an invaluable service by taking the time to dissect Howard Zinn’s polemical attack on America, A People’s History of the United States (1980). Christus Vincit: Christ’s Triumph Over the Darkness of the Age, by Bishop Athanasius Schneider and Diane Montagna (Angelico Press; 338 pp., $30.00). How are the Vatican’s Amazon Synod, a board meeting of GlaxoSmithKline, and a hearing before the House Intelligence Committee different?

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• Columns

  December 2019

  George O'Brien: American Star

  8 ½ min

  WWI veteran George O’Brien became a star in Hollywood with his breakout performance in John Ford’s silent film epic, The Iron Horse. Handsome and built like the top athlete he was, O’Brien appeared in 11 more Ford movies and 85 films altogether, a successful career punctuated by voluntary and selfless distinction in two more wars, WWII and Korea. O’Brien represented all that was best in Hollywood and in America, which perhaps explains why he is forgotten today by a different Hollywood and a different America.

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• Correspondence

  September 2019

  The British Invasion of the Ozarks

  19 ¾ min

  Chronicles readers may recall my “Old Route 66” (September 2013) and “Keep the Water on Your Right” (February 2015) motorcycle travelogues, in which I rode through small towns and rural areas to reconnect with the land and people of America. A road trip can do this like no other kind of journey, and doing one astride a motorcycle creates an intimacy with the road absent in other vehicles. Riding a motorcycle, one is exposed to every scent in the air, whether good or ill.

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• Columns

  August 2019

  The Old West's Deadly Doctor

  12 ¾ min

  Most Americans know of Doc Holliday only as Wyatt Earp’s sidekick. He was much more than that. He was not only one of the most colorful characters in the Old West but also one of the most feared. He acquired the nickname “Doc” honestly, earning a degree in dentistry and practicing in several towns. However, he eventually spent nearly all his time as a professional gambler and occasionally as a gunfighter. He had a vicious temper and feared no man, perhaps because tuberculosis had already given him a death sentence.

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• Columns

  June 2019

  Getting Real About Reparations

  13 ¾ min

  The call for slavery reparations is reverberating throughout the land once again. It will be entertaining to watch the Democratic presidential candidates for 2020 position themselves on this topic.

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• Columns

  April 2019

  James Howard: Two-Theater Double Ace

  9 ¼ min

  One would think the only American fighter pilot to earn the Medal of Honor in World War II in Europe would be remembered and honored, or at least mentioned in history textbooks in high school and college. No such luck today.

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• Columns

  February 2019

  William Lundigan

  8 ¼ min

  Of our 20th-century wars World War II stands alone. In a sneak attack early on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, Japanese naval forces bombed Pearl Harbor. As reports were broadcast throughout the day American shock turned to anger.

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• Columns

  December 2018

  Butch Cassidy, Part 2

  10 ¼ min

  A station agent tried to telegraph Price, Utah—the direction the outlaws were headed—but Butch Cassidy and Elzy Lay had cut the wires. The paymaster had the train’s engine uncoupled.

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• Blog

  October 31, 2018

  Bob Mathias

  4 ¼ min

  One of the greatest Olympians of all time, Bob Mathias, is all but forgotten today. He was born in 1930 in Tulare, in the heart of California’s San Joaquin Valley. Robert Bruce Mathias was his name, but everyone called him Bob.

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• Blog

  September 17, 2018

  Cowboy Heroes

  14 ¾ min

  The cowboys were our heroes. There were dozens to choose from. My favorite among the B Western stars was William Boyd, who made 66 films as Hopalong Cassidy beginning in 1935 and ending in 1948.

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• Columns

  October 2018

  Butch Cassidy, Part 1

  9 min

  Starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was a smash success when it was released in 1969. Surprisingly, the movie generally follows the actual events of Butch Cassidy’s outlaw life.

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• Columns

  August 2018

  David Crockett

  13 ¾ min

  “Watch what people are cynical about,” said General Patton, “and one can often discover what they lack.” Since the 1960’s I’ve been watching what are often called revisionist historians trying to destroy the American heroes I grew up admiring.

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• Columns

  June 2018

  Parry O’Brien

  11 min

  It’s difficult to explain today that, from the 1920’s through the mid-1960’s, track and field was a major sport in Southern California. There were several reasons for this.

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• Columns

  April 2018

  Hang ’Em High

  9 min

  I was recently watching Westward Ho, one of the many dozens of B Westerns I have in my collection, and it struck me that until the 1940’s vigilantes were most often portrayed in the movies as the good guys.

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