to all those who went to British schools
-
Dog112 — 15 years ago(November 19, 2010 09:10 PM)
my (American) grade school textbooks never referred to "the (American) Civil War," only to "the War Between the States." That's because the publishers want to sell books to schools in the Deep South
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/civil+war
:
civil war
noun
a war between political factions or regions within the same country.
http://tripatlas.com/Civil_war
:
A 'civil war' is a war in which parties within the same culture, society or nationality fight against each other for the control of political power.
A civil war is a war in which the combatants fight for control of the government. In the American "Civil War," there was no such fight. The war was fought because Lincoln was determined to preserve the Union through the use of offensive military action. He believed that state governments did not have the right to leave a federation they could not support and which did not support them.
The southern states did not want control of the government. They wanted to be free of it. Hence the name, "The War Between the States."
(Some 600,000 men died in this war, roughly 50% more than the number of Americans killed in WWII.)
Similarly, the American Revolutionary War is sometimes referred to in Britain as the "War for American Independence."
The War Between the States could be called the "War for the Independence of the Confederate States." It might well have, if the south had won.
. -
Petronius Arbiter II — 15 years ago(February 08, 2011 02:12 PM)
Ah, the old "dictionary defense!"
Doesn't wash with me. I don't accept these dictionaries' definitions as being the only possible definitions of "civil war." I don't believe in prescriptive linguistics, and this situation is one good example of the many reasons I don't.
"I don't deduce, I observe." -
Errington_92 — 10 years ago(January 15, 2016 07:27 AM)
Cromwell is still a sensitive topic among the British upper classes.
They're willing to allow textbooks and BBC shows to reveal the sins of past monarchs,
but the Commonwealth Period was something else. It was an attack on the principle of monarchy itself.
I agree completely. Unless you undertake history at University level, Cromwell and the Civil War/Commonwealth period is not discussed. The British Monarchy for most people has been deemed as a important national institution for so long, despite its injustices, that even today the suggestion of a Republic is seen as treacherous.
I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not. -
garywolfboy — 15 years ago(December 29, 2010 06:46 AM)
There are too many Roman Catholics in high places now. Their sole remit seems to be Catholicism by stealth. It is particularly bad in Scotland at present. Air brushing protestantism wherever and however they can. Yet they continue to play the "oppressed chip on their shoulder" victims. However, try bringing up state funded sectarian, state funded schooling with them ( catholic schools)and watch them squirm.
The UK is a protestant nation. -
Squeeth2 — 9 years ago(May 05, 2016 10:52 PM)
We did the triangle of trade, the Great War, the agricultural revolution, workhouses, the industrial revolution. Nothing about the Big Two or the civil war after 1918 or the betrayal of the working class by the Liarbour Partei in 1922. We also did a bit on the Russian revolutions.
Marlon, Claudia & Dimby the cats 1989-2005, 2007, 2010. Clio, July 1997 - 1 May 2016.