Chess games of the rich and famous: Mussolini, Stalin and Hitler divide the Balkans

Cartoon by the great Leslie Illington, probably in Punch Magazine, 1941. “In 1940 and 1941 Germany and Italy started swallowing up the Balkan countries. Russia frowns.” Image from Pictures from War and History

Chess games of the rich and famous: Truman vs. Stalin, over Berlin

Not a chess game that really happened, but a virtual chess game with the highest stakes ever:

Caption from George Mason collection: In this game Stalin‘s main opponent would be Harry Truman, the board Germany, and the opening gambit would occur in Berlin. Image by Leslie Illington. Source: National Library I of Wales.

Stalin’s pieces include “Eastern Bloc,” and “Berlin Blockade.”  Trumans pieces include a knight,  “Air Lift,” and a piece looking a lot like Gen. Dwight Eisenhower,   “Atlantic Alliance.”

I found this image at a site covering the Berlin Airlift, set up by John Lemza, a Ph.D. candidate in history at George Mason University.  I gather it was his response for a final assignment in a class — but it’s a great site to cover Berlin in the Cold War, and especially the Berlin Airlift:  “Berlin Airlift:  Relief for a city held hostage.”

More:

• Chess games of the rich and famous: William Windom (timpanogos.wordpress.com)
• Chess games of the rich and famous: Civil War, in Col McMahon’s camp (timpanogos.wordpress.com)
• Photo Of The Day: Checkmate (gadling.com)
• Update: Spraggett on Chess took note of the cartoon

 

Stanton Sharp history teaching symposium at SMU, February 9

Tired of odd speakers trying to tell you about how boys learn differently from girls because of the size of the Crockus in their brain?

How about serious material to beef up your teaching: Vietnam, the Russian Revolution, Mexicans in U.S. history, Native Americans in the 20th century, use of the internet in history classes — three sessions, each with three classes to choose from.

• Poster for session, The Russian Revolution and Its Legacies, with Prof. Daniel Orlovsky. One of nine different courses offered.

The history department at Southern Methodist University in Dallas offers solid education in serious history issues for teachers in colleges and secondary schools. The Stanton Sharp Teaching Symposium on Saturday, February 9 offers great material in nine different areas. Several of these topics seem to be pulled from the Texas Education Agency’s list of subjects that students need to do better on, for the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS).

Invitation below the fold. The $15 fee includes lunch; you may earn up to 7 hours of Continuing Education Units (CEU) credits.

(I plan to be there, and if you’re really interested in the Crockus and its scholars, I happen to have a photo of the elusive Crosley Shelvador on my cell phone — he appeared to have used one of those spray-on tanning solutions, but is otherwise real, as the photos show.)

Update on Seeger: Critics dig deeper holes

It’s not exactly breaking news, but I probably should have caught it earlier — that Ron Radosh article in the New York Sun in which he noted Pete Seeger had condemned Stalin, ‘finally, after all these years?’ The article that made Instapundit exclaim it’s about time?

The New York Times noted that Seeger had made the confession in his book in 1993. Pete was probably too polite to embarrass his former banjo student, Radosh, with Radosh’s being at least a decade behind the times. But of course, the harpy right wing pundits can’t resist taking a swipe at Seeger anyway. I have to wonder whether earlier examples can be found.

Sour grapes articles were expectorated at NewsBusters, by P. J. Gladnick, Hard Country (which inexplicably extolls the virtue of Pete’s music and offers links to several videos of Pete’s performances), Andrew Sullivan (who even more inexplicably links to the NY Times article pointing out Seeger did it at least a decade ago), Dean’s World, Classically Liberal, Assistant Village Idiot (bucking for promotion?), Moonbattery, Mona Charen at NRO (who confesses to having it wrong in the 1970s, too), Dictators of the World, Jim-Rose.com, Synthstuff — whew! Here’s a pre-Radosh column sour grapes swipe from David Boaz in The Guardian.

See also The Philadelphia Inquirer, Walter Weiss, and the AP story in the Miami Herald. And this: The Peekskill riots?

To get the bad taste out of your mouth, see what Marketing Begins at Home has to say, and see the photos. And see this piece on the Highlander School.