Tuesday, December 11, 2007

1864

Society
1864. Ulysses S. Grant is given command of all Union armies.

1864. The Battle of Atlanta ends in victory for General Sherman.

1864. The second Battle of Atlanta ends in another defeat for Gen. Hood. 1864. Gen. Sherman leads his army on a "march to the sea" beginning November 16 and proceeds to cut a mile-wide swath through Georgia.

1864. Union forces use the hand-cranked Gatling gun to help defeat Gen. Hood at the Battle of Nashville.

1864. The Geneva Conventions signed by representatives of 26 nations pledge all parties to humanitarian rules respecting prisoners of war, wounded and sick military personnel, civilians in war zones and Red Cross neutrality.

1864. Cheyennes go on the warpath, supported by Arapahoe, Apache, Comanche, and Kiowa braves. U.S. troops massacre many of them in November at Sand Creek in Colorado Territory.

1864. New York photographer Mathew B. Brady travels through the war-torn South with a wagonful of equipment to record scenes of the conflict.

1864. A cyclone destroys most of Calcutta, October 1, killing an estimated 70,000.

1864. European immigrants pour into the U.S. to take up free land under the 1862 Homestead Act.

Literature
Notes from the Underground. Fyodor Dostoevsky. Russian. 1864. Story. Complex psychological portrait of the narrator; polemic against positivist philosophy, rationality of man and the possibility of social betterment through material progress. Narrator embodies the irrationality he insists is the essence of man. Starting point of Dostoevsky's literary maturity.

Our Mutual Friend. Charles Dickens. British. 1864. Novel. Will receive an inheritance if he marries a woman he has never met. Under an assumed name, he falls in love with and marries her.

Enoch Arden. Alfred Lord Tennyson. British. 1864. Poetry. Seaman wrecked on a desert island returns home to find his wife married to another. Dies of a broken heart.

Prospice. Robert Browning. British. 1864. Poetry. Written after his wife's death. Optimistic and courageous attitude toward death.

War and Peace. Leo Tolstoy. Russian. 1864/69. Novel. Accurate portrait of the entire Russian nation. Covers the years 1805-1820, centering on the invasion of Russia by Napoleon in 1812. 500 characters. Every social level. Main characters progress from youthful uncertainty to more mature understanding of life. Natasha = instinctual approach to life. Prince Andrey Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov = different approaches to life. Pierre finds peace in living via wisdom of a peasant, Keratayev. Life should be experienced emotionally and accepted naturally. Intellect twists life into artificial forms. Prince Andrey: search for meaning of life through intellect = calm acceptance of death. Historical, social, personal themes. Alternate chapters" personal lives and battles.

No comments: