Summer Gone and on to the Fall

Spirit of '76

I've had a very wonderful summer at Piety Hill, and am back in Midland. I am now an adjunct professor at Northwood University teaching the Founding of the American Republic this semester. I've found a way to incorporate William Potter's wonderful military history into it. All going well...

To the glory of God,
Wesley

A Temporal Farewell and a New Beginning

Cross in the Wilderness, 1857, by Frederic Edwin Church

Friends,


Tomorrow, I will be leaving for a summer stay at Piety Hill; the Imladris of those who are in hiding from the storm of post-modern academia. There, I will be on research fellowship to further local historiography and to help host lectures, seminars, etc. I will be returning every Sunday for church in Midland.

In the meantime, I believe I am changing my approach to blogging. Before I launched Landmarks of Liberty for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, I was largely disinterested in blogs and very hesitant to blog at all. This disinterest is returning to me, and I am generally dissatisfied with my "research" on Landmarks and here. It lacked a scholarly edge and mostly celebrated in the moments of history which I still find personally encouraging. If it holds any merit at all, it would be in the fact that I have maintained and extended some friendships through my blogs, and also began refining a Christian, homely historical narrative which is lacking in most present scholarly histories. You may expect some more picture posts with some quips from me or some sermons links from our church, but beyond that, I really think I ought to confine my pen to the publishable page, and work hard to elevate the scholarly method which I have developed through graduate school. I may also begin a personal memoir instead of posting my thoughts to the world. The internet is becoming rather too burdensome for me. Please feel free to continue to email me. That, at least, I can handle.

In parting, I would like to seriously recommend following my pastor's blog Joshua Judges Ruth. I can not recommend it highly enough.

Ever yours,
Wesley

My Reading List...

Pic from here

In the past month and a half since graduation, I've been reading the following...

Selections from the Midland Republican and Midland Sun (old Midland newspapers)

The Forgotten Conservative: Rediscovering Grover Cleveland by John Pafford

First Presbyterian Church of Midland, 1867-1947 by Minnie W. Ball

The Populist Persuasion: An American History by Michael Kazin

Greenbackers, Knights of Labor, and Populists: Farmer-Labor Insurgency in the Late-Nineteenth-Century South by Matthew Hild

New Spirits: Americans in the Gilded Age, 1865-1905 by Rebecca Edwards

The Populist Vision by Charles Postel (second read through)

A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870-1920 by Michael McGerr

Touching Base: Professional Baseball and American Culture in the Progressive Era by Steven A. Riess

British Cinema and Middlebrow Culture in the Interwar Years by Lawrence Napper

Daily Life in the United States, 1920-1940 by David E. Kyvig

Charles A. Lindbergh and the American Dilemma: The Conflict of Technology and Human Values by Susan M. Gray

The Flight of the Century: Charles Lindbergh & the Rise of American Aviation (Pivotal Moments in American History) by Thomas Kessner

The Marvellous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum (still reading)

Psalms from the Vulgate Bible (my Latin is coming along beautifully, after a long period of atrophy.)

New Grover Cleveland Book

For those of you who enjoy reading about America's "gilded age," my friend and mentor Rev., Dr. Pafford has authored a new book. Here is my brief review of his The Forgotten Conservative: Rediscovering Grover Cleveland. Professor Pafford is church friend of mine, a distinguished scholar from Northwood University, and one of Russell Kirk's few intellectual successors. Below is his biography on the book:

John M. Pafford,
Ph.D., a protege of Russell Kirk, is a professor of history and philosophy at Northwood University in Midland, Michigan, and a member of the board of scholars of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. He is the author of the volume Russell Kirk in the Major Conservative and Libertarian Thinkers series (2010) and of John Jay: The Forgotten Founder (2009).

An Afternoon Walk through Dow Gardens

 The Rose Gardens: Nothing is in bloom yet, but there with be "fountains of roses" this summer.

 A couple daffodil fields are still very much alive.

There is nothing so fine to set roses in than in an iron trellis.

 "Then He said, 'What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and put in his garden; and it grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches'" (Luke 13:18-19).

 The Rhododendrons are all in bloom.

 A spout of water in the distance.

 There are some new things growing out of the Herb Garden.

 "Edible Flowers," hmm, not much to eat, I think.

 This is my favorite garden decoration ever.

 "TEMPUS FUGIT," rendered from the Latin, the clock reads, "Time flees." Indeed it does! The clock seemed to be a full hour behind the time.

More Rhododendrons

 I have just discovered a nook of these Gardens I don't remember, with a little pond and spillway.

 Some detail of the spillway

Something is blooming near the H. H. Dow house

 Literally, towers of Rhododendrons grow up among these pines.

 Showers and showers of Rhododendrons

 A placid artist is at work rendering the stream's course

 Another wooden portal with a dogwood behind.

 A spout of water from a well of light.

 Up and up grows the dogwood

 Bells of Honeysuckle?