T. R. Fehrenbach Quotes
Sam Houston's republic was a struggling frontier community of less than forty thousand people; it was a series of plantations and farms carved out of the Southern forests along the river bottoms extending up from the Gulf, with an utterly colonial economy. Most Texans were subsistence farmers, with a little barter on the side. The planters exported their cotton against imported goods; the balance of trade was yet adverse. The largest towns were frontier outposts with mud streets and at most a few thousand assorted people. There was no money economy, nor any money. There were no banks or improved roads or organized schools. There was no industry — everything from pins to powder had to be imported from the United States. Over this sprawling community the government was only loosely organized
T. R. Fehrenbach, Historian, History of Texas
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This is one of the earliest enumerations of the methods by which nations might rectify an imbalance of trade.
“Amor patriae” is Latin for “love of country”. Jefferson had a strong prejudice against cities, merchants, factories and economic entities other than farms or plantations. Despite his brilliance and amazing predictive ability, Jefferson’s prejudice caused him to challenge Alexander Hamilton’s view of the economic future of America. Fortunately, Jefferson and his views did not prevail.
Over a century ago writers were beginning to see the downside of a global economy. They had not however seen the enormous benefits against which the cost must be weighed.
This is one of the earliest examples of the establishment of a type of Commerce Department – a government institution to look after the commercial affairs of the state.
The reason for the secrecy was that he was informing Congress of the Lewis & Clark Expedition. Potentially, the Spanish, English or French might try to interfere with the expedition which was the precursor to American domination of the entire continent. Unfortunately, Jefferson’s plan for the Indians was not supported by many other Americans with the exception of New York State and the Iroquois remaining after many left after supporting the British in the Revolution. But the Iroquois who remained were already farmers in fixed communities and were experienced traders. Further, they had a complex governmental structure with many elements of democracy, and several had already succeeded in European educational settings. Their successful integration with the rest of New York can be demonstrated by the fact that New York is the only state where the average Native American Income is the same as the average white income, and there is no Indian gaming in New York. Jefferson’s vision, unfortunately, was never implemented in early the Westward Expansion.
Executed by the English for his part in the Easter Uprising. Although a century ago, Connolly captured the centrality of the development problem of every Third World County trying to compete in a global economy. The irony is that Ireland, long after achieving Independence, had the lowest standard of living in Europe for years. The great Irish breakthrough came as the result of the government making a huge national investment providing the capital for giving all of Ireland access to the Internet and passed laws for the information age. The Irish people took it from there. They leapfrogged wealthier nations and found customers all over the globe because they had the infrastructure to reach the rest of the globe just as fast as anyone else. See {589760} for Connolly’s idea to bring technology of the time to Ireland. The Irish information revolution was accomplished by using this idea for information technology instead of farm technology.
He was describing the Russian peasant in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, however it applied to the peasants of many countries of Europe. He was explaining why the Communist revolutionary government in Russia was not getting enthusiastic cooperation from the peasants when the government was trying to “help” them. Immediately after the Russian Revolution, the provisional government appointed him as Ambassador to the United States. However, the provisional government was supplanted when the Bolsheviks took over. Not enamored of Communism, he stayed in the United States with many other Russian refugees.
Arguing that Slavery inhibited a society from development ...
Theodore Reed "T. R." Fehrenbach, Jr. was an American historian, columnist, and the former head of the Texas Historical Commission (1987-1991). He graduated from Princeton University in 1947 and wrote more than twenty books, including the bestseller Lone Star: A History of Texas and Texans and This Kind of War, about the Korean War. Senator John McCain called this book “perhaps the best book ever written on the Korean War”. Secretary of Defense James Mattis said “There’s a reason I recommended T.R. Fehrenbach’s book...that we all pull it out and read it one more time.”
