Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Independence Day!

The latest version of my Fourth of July essay is over at PostPartisan: "A nation defined by politics." As regulars know, I write on the same theme every year on the Fourth.

And that's all from me for this Fourth. Plain Blog HQ moved over the weekend, and I'm spending most of the day trying to get things in order (the toaster must be somewhere, right? Right?). The good news is that most of my baseball books are in their customary place right in front of me...the Giants Media Guides, at least, although the Abstracts are still boxed somewhere, but I can see Curt Flood's book, and the James HOF book, and other goodies. And most of Congress, parties and elections, and theory, but hardly any of presidency, are on the shelves behind me as they're supposed to be -- much easier to write after I've unpacked Fenno, Polsby, and Pitkin. I'll still mostly be over at Greg's place tomorrow...I'd know if I'll even do a links post in the morning, but I'll try to put something up here at some point in the day. Next week should be back to normal around here. I hope.

At any rate, hope everyone is having a great holiday.

Read Stuff, You Should

Happy Birthday to Matt Freeman, 47.

Plus a little good stuff:


1. Josh Putnam's latest update on the 2016 calendar.

2. The Founders online? Cool.

3. And Ann Friedman on "the daughter problem."

The Changing National Self-Image

Not sure if I'm going to get to any regular news posting today and tomorrow, but I've been touristing around Washington all weekend and can at least share a few thoughts on that.

Mainly, on the changes to the Mall. I hadn't previously been able to see the WWII and Korea Memorials; I also hadn't seen the King Memorial, although I had seen FDR already.

I had a fairly mixed view of the WWII memorial...I really don't have much of a problem with heroic, triumphant national self-celebration. Was it specific enough to the conflict? I'm not sure, and I'm not sure that the size was sustained by the content -- it's very large, that is, and yet it's not entirely clear why.

I do find the placement of it, along with the Korea and Vietnam memorials, striking in how it almost completely upends the old feel of the Mall.

When I first visited Washington, none of those were there. The Mall was defined by Washington and Lincoln and, although he's off to the side and only visible from a small area, by Jefferson; what's more, it's defined by Congress, on the other end from Lincoln, and then the White House, also only visible from a small area.

While the Smithsonian museums (fewer then) do take up a large amount of space, the addition of the war memorials does two things. On the one hand, it makes the national self-image seem far more obsessed with all things military. I really don't like that at all. But there's a second part to it: all three of those war memorials are focused mainly (and with Vietnam exclusively) on the ordinary people involved, not on generals and presidents. That's a real contrast with the old Mall of Abe, George, Tom, the White House, and Congress. Add to that a heroic memorial to an advocate for social justice and a very populist memorial to FDR.

So: the theory is that since the 1970s the US self-image as seen in the National Mall is both more militaristic and more democratic.

Seeking Washington Tourism Expertise

A bit off the usual path: we're finally doing a family trip to Washington this weekend, and I'm looking for tourism suggestions. Specifically, any new stuff I don't know about. I haven't done a touristy trip to Washington since Hector was a pup...well, really, not since my wife and I lived there. I have been over to the (mediocre at best, in my view) FDR Memorial, but otherwise I really haven't done anything touristy in a long, long time. 

So, helpful people: what should I know that I don't know? What's new that wasn't there twenty years ago that should be on a can't-miss list, or even an if-you-have-time list? What's changed about visiting the things that were there that I probably don't know about? The (high-school and college aged) kids are excellent tourists with broad interests, so really anything good is worth knowing about. Any help, or any pointers to further help, would be very much appreciated.

Thank you!

Sunday Question for Everyone

Oh, why not: following up on the questions earlier today and several interesting comments: suppose that coins and currency are opened up to people outside the current group, which is limited to what the treasury, for currency, calls "famous deceased American statesmen." Hmmm....let's say that they were to open up three slots for great Americans whose achievements are in culture, science, business, medicine..whatever, it's open. Who would you select? Twain? Babe Ruth? Louis Armstrong? Neil Armstrong?