Ed West's Classes

Here is an excellent resource for the 80th anniversary of D-Day!

D-Day | The United States Army U.S. Army D-Day Microsite | The United States Army

To all of my Commonwealth, friends, old and new :-)

Happy boxing day!

Happy boxing day!

Merry Christmas greetings, old and new!

If Jesus were born in times of Google, Facebook and Twitter Merry Digital Christmas :-)http://welcome-to-croatia.comhttp://holidaysincroatia.hr

Happiest Anniversary to us!

Are you so excited?!

https://homeschoolcampus.org/account/preview-2023-fall-class-schedule/
Are you looking for in-person classes in Orange County?
I look forward to seeing you tomorrow in fountain Valley at the HSC meet and greet from 10-12!

Preview the 2023 Fall Class Schedule | HomeSchool Campus Register AND Enroll Here. No Registration Fee! CA Locations: Fountain Valley (Mon/Wed), Riverside (Thu), Capo Beach (Fri)Live-Online: Worldwide (Mon-Fri) Watch this short video on The HSC Class Schedule Features

Hello everyone! There is still time to enroll for the fall
If you are still looking for in-person, classes in orange county, please join me tomorrow in Fountain Valley! https://homeschoolcampus.org/account/preview-2023-fall-class-schedule/
I will be available to meet parents and students as well as answer your questions about this upcoming semester.
HSC Fountain Valley - 10350 Ellis Avenue
Fountain Valley, CA 92708

Adventures in World Geography Life is an adventure and students know that the world is in constant change. Each week we will explore our planet by looking at maps, videos, and having disc...

Hey everyone! can you believe it's that time of year again? I am adding my Adventures in World Geography to my Online lineup!
Starting Sep. 7th at 8a.m. PT.
Check out this video...

Adventures in World Geography Life is an adventure and students know that the world is in constant change. Each week we will explore our planet by looking at maps, videos, and having disc...

Happy freedom day, everyone!

Coming to HomeSchool Campus Fountain Valley Mondays and Wednesdays this Fall. Check out my HSC Online classes online Thursdays on my site, too at edwestlit.weebly.com

It’s flag day! We celebrate our nations flag today…

Did you know?

It was late at night in the Jersey City railroad station in 1864, and Robert Todd Lincoln, the president’s son, was in a crowd of people trying to buy tickets for a berth in a sleeping car. Robert, a student at Harvard Law School at the time, was jostled against the side of the railroad car and when the train began to move, he was pulled off his feet and over a crevice that would drop him onto the tracks. Suddenly someone in the crowd grabbed Robert by the collar and pulled him to safety. When Robert composed himself and turned to thank the man who had saved him, he saw that it was Edwin Booth.

Edwin Booth was a well-known celebrity—the greatest American Shakespearean actor of his time. He came from a family of actors. He was the son of famed English-born actor Marcus Junius Booth, and his two brothers Junius and John Wilkes Booth were also noted actors of their day.

In 1864 Edwin, Junius, and John performed together in Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, in a benefit performance to raise funds to erect a statue of Shakespeare in Central Park. It was the only time in their careers that the three brothers performed together. The Shakespeare statue is still standing in Central Park.

When John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Lincoln, Edwin, a staunch Unionist, was devastated. For the rest of his life he would be shadowed by his brother’s crime. But he could always take some comfort from the fact that he had once saved the life of Mr. Lincoln’s son.

Edwin Booth is regarded as one of the finest American actors ever, and the definitive American Hamlet. But, sadly, his fame as an actor has been eclipsed by the infamy of his assassin brother.

Edwin Booth died on this day in 1893, one hundred and thirty years ago today.

The photo is of Edwin Booth, as Hamlet.

Remembering D-Day today, the beginning of the end of World War II…

Home | D-Day | June 6, 1944 | The United States Army The U.S. Army remembers June 6, 1944: The World War II D-Day invasion of Normandy, France.

 “Et tu, Brute?” It’s that time of year again!

Beware the Ides of March! On 15 March 44 BC, Julius Caesar was stabbed to death at the Senate by as many as 60 high-ranking Roman conspirators. When he saw that even Brutus - perhaps his illegitimate son - had turned against him, he is said to have pulled his toga over his head. Shakespeare, rather than contemporary reports, gave us the phrase "Et tu, Brute?"

Britain’s longest reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II just died at 96 years old. What a legacy.

Important to remember…

You are not entitled to your own set of facts.

Fall is just around the corner! Classes start at HomeSchool Campus September 9th! Hope to see you there!

Some of the greatest breakthroughs in history have been innovations in communication.
Shrinking the time between the North American continent and Britain from weeks to minutes!

The First Transatlantic Telegraph Cable Was a Bold, Short-Lived Success After much ado, the US and Britain laid the first successful cable under the ocean in August 1858. It stopped working weeks later.

James Madison, Father of the Constitution and fourth President of the United States, died on this day in 1836. Upon his death, his personal notes were published, breaking the seal upon the secret proceedings of the Constitutional Congress, and giving valuable insight into deliberate wording he specified with regard to slavery.

While there are three provisions for slavery in the body of the Constitution – the three fifths compromise, the fugitive slave clause, and the continuation of the Atlantic slave trade until 1808 – the word “slave” is never used. This is not subterfuge. According to Sean Wilentz, esteemed Princeton historian and author, “Although the framers agreed to compromises over slavery that blunted antislavery hopes and augmented the slaveholders’ power, they also deliberately excluded any validation of property in man.” The nation’s founding document contained a fundamental antislavery ideal built into it. Enslaved people were defined legally as “persons” and not property. Patrick Henry, not pleased, said he “smelt a rat,” noting the “absence in the Constitution of any categorical guarantee to the slaveholders of their rights to property in man.”

Wilentz continues, “the framers left room for political efforts aimed at slavery’s restriction, and eventually, its destruction, even under a Constitution that safeguarded slavery.” Abraham Lincoln harked back to this when he stated that he wanted to place slavery where the Founders had placed it, “on the course to its ultimate extinction.” The hateful term first appeared in the Constitution in the 13th amendment. “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

Having the privilege of teaching about Rembrandt during the period of enlightened absolutism, this gem pops up!

Onze helden zijn terug! 13 april gaat het Rijksmuseum open en komen Het melkmeisje, Jan Steen, De Nachtwacht en alle andere helden weer terug. Dit is wat er gebeurt als ze plotselin...

Are representative form of government has had an interesting linage!

14 Day Free Trial

Coming up on the Civil War in my American history classes. Current events and this post are quite relevant! Technology and warfare often go hand-in-hand!

160 years ago today in 1862, the ironclad U.S.S. Monitor arrives on the scene to face the rebel ironclad C.S.S. Virginia in the 2nd day of the Battle of Hampton Roads.

During the previous day, the C.S.S. Virginia made its combat debut and inflicted the single worst day in U.S. naval history at that time. Destroying the U.S.S. Cumberland and U.S.S. Congress and forcing the U.S.S. Minnesota to run aground, only nighttime brought an end to the fighting. The next morning the Virginia was determined to finish off the U.S.S. Minnesota but the Monitor arrived in the middle of the night just in time to defend the desperate stranded ship.

A rebel sailor described the appearance of the Union ironclad: “There was a craft that such as the eyes of a seaman never looked upon before--an immense shingle floating on the water, with a gigantic cheese box rising from its center; no sails, no wheels, no smokestack, no guns. What could it be?”

For more than 4 hours the duel raged on. Virginia’s ten guns pounded the ironclad and dented its armor. The Rebel ship even rammed its Union opponent, but it was still operational. Towards the end of the duel the Virginia scored a direct hit on the Monitor’s pilothouse, temporarily blinding Captain John Worden and forcing him to turn over command to Lieutenant Samuel Dana Greene. And just as the first day, nightfall brought an end to the fighting and both ships retreated to their sides.

While the battle between both ships is considered a draw, the U.S.S. Monitor provided a valuable boost to morale and settled the hysterical fear caused by the rebel’s ironclad. The design of U.S.S. Monitor was originally dismissed by the Union navy but Abraham Lincoln personally overruled them and allowed the project to continue and its completion occurred just in time.

Both ships met undignified ends. Two months after the battle at Hampton Roads, the retreating Confederates were forced to destroy their precious ironclad to prevent it from falling into enemy hands. The Monitor sank in bad weather off the cost of North Carolina at the end of the year. Both ships had short careers but ushered in a new era in naval warfare and made every existing warship around the world obsolete.

[Online References]
(https://www.historynet.com/battle-of-hampton-roads/ )
(https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/uss-monitor-cheesebox-raft?fbclid=IwAR2qhWGK8u8CGNl06uHfF6uoHsSMXoDVuwN9yffVOs1Ch73rvBJgSLQnAZ8 )
( https://monitorcenter.org/battle-hampton-roads-timeline/?fbclid=IwAR3aPIfPhKd6-tsthu_t2iaf8YeVjIfl76e0xi1BOZYG3NGcsvbDiHoFETM )

Authored by R.E. Foy

Happy birthday presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln!