How many of y'all have ever heard the phrase: Tilting at windmills?
The phrase itself simply means to attack imaginary enemies. Tilting is another term for jousting, like knights used to do on horseback facing one another with lances.
The expression derives from Miguel de Cervantes' classic 1605 novel, Don Quixote, which is still considered one of the major literary masterpieces and remains a best seller in numerous translations -- also a personal favorite of this blogger as a young adult.
For those unfamiliar with this classic, the novel recounts the exploits of would-be knight, Don Quixote, and his loyal servant Sancho Panza who propose to fight injustice through chivalry. In the book, the title character/quixotic hero imagines himself to be fighting giants when he is, in point of fact, attacks windmills.
The following is quoted from Chapter 8 of the novel, detailing the classic windmill scene:
At this point they came in sight of thirty forty windmills that there are on plain, and as soon as Don Quixote saw them he said to his squire, "Fortune is arranging matters for us better than we could have shaped our desires ourselves, for look there, friend Sancho Panza, where thirty or more monstrous giants present themselves, all of whom I mean to engage in battle and slay, and with whose spoils we shall begin to make our fortunes; for this is righteous warfare, and it is God's good service to sweep so evil a breed from off the face of the earth."
"What giants?" said Sancho Panza.
"Those thou seest there," answered his master, "with the long arms, and some have them nearly two leagues long."
"Look, your worship," said Sancho; "what we see there are not giants but windmills, and what seem to be their arms are the sails that turned by the wind make the millstone go."
"It is easy to see," replied Don Quixote, "that thou art not used to this business of adventures; those are giants; and if thou art afraid, away with thee out of this and betake thyself to prayer while I engage them in fierce and unequal combat."
So saying, he gave the spur to his steed Rocinante, heedless of the cries his squire Sancho sent after him, warning him that most certainly they were windmills and not giants he was going to attack. He, however, was so positive they were giants that he neither heard the cries of Sancho, nor perceived, near as he was, what they were, but made at them shouting, "Fly not, cowards and vile beings, for a single knight attacks you."
A slight breeze at this moment sprang up, and the great sails began to move, seeing which Don Quixote exclaimed, "Though ye flourish more arms than the giant Briareus, ye have to reckon with me."
So saying, and commending himself with all his heart to his lady Dulcinea, imploring her to support him in such a peril, with lance in rest and covered by his buckler, he charged at Rocinante's fullest gallop and fell upon the first mill that stood in front of him; but as he drove his lance-point into the sail the wind whirled it round with such force that it shivered the lance to pieces, sweeping with it horse and rider, who went rolling over on the plain, in a sorry condition. Sancho hastened to his assistance as fast as his ass could go, and when he came up found him unable to move, with such a shock had Rocinante fallen with him.
I cannot help imagining the scene whenever I read something written by one Kevin M. Levin, arguably one of the most vocal members of the toxic Black Confederate Denial historical negationism community, and definitely one of the most egocentric narcissists I've encountered in the Civil War community.
For the last year, or so, Mr. Levin, author, teacher, and blogger has been shamelessly plugging his new research book: Searching For Black Confederates: The Civil War's Most Persistent Myth (sic).
Today is the official launch of what is supposedly the culmination of a decade and a half of research into the subject of Black Confederates from his perspective -- a subject that he came to after a publishing error was discovered in a Virginia textbook around 2005 (about the time his blog, Civil War Memory was launched) where fact about the numbers of Black Southern loyalists were exaggerated and the specific wording implied that these men were all Confederate soldiers in general.
Since that time, like the literary hero of Cervantes' classic novel, Mr. Levin has armored himself in the rusty chain mail of the Righteous Cause, being joined along his journey with several other Deniers serving as his faithful Sancho Panzas, on a quest to defeat Black Confederate memory by slaying the mythical dragon of Lost Cause conspiracy.
Thankfully I didn't purchase this book, it was loaned to me by a friend who had it on Kindle. If y'all feel the need to actually read it, and I don't discourage the sharing of information, then I strongly recommend either; (a) waiting for your local library to get a copy of it, or (b) waiting for it to get to the cheap bin at Barnes & Noble....in about, oh, the end of the month.
His new book is a psychological ego trip disguised in the trappings of historical research, full of much conjecture and emotion; and yet lacking any real depth. Just look at the dust jacket of the book itself. His name is both at the top of the book over the title, and his name appears using the same font size as the title itself. That just screams arrogance, ego, and possibly a need to compensate for some other shortcomings in his self esteem.
Now, before I go on, I would like to say that in no way am I diminishing the time and effort Mr. Levin into his (ahem) "research" on the topic. He has published at least one other book on the subject of Black Union soldiers at the Battle of the Crater, which this blogger has also read and gives about a B+ for his work, if not entirely for his delivery of history. No offense, but Mr. Levin's writing style comes off more like a lecture than an actual work of history and, reading any of his work I always end up hearing it dictated by a voice that sounds like Ben Stein on sedatives. Even if Mr. Levin isn't the most engaging writer, as far as the research went most of the details in his former book were fairly accurate, and that I will give him credit for.
His new book on the other hand delivers historical fact with all the sparkle and pizazz of a UPS truck with about 240 pages of mind-numbing opinion and conjecture building up a false narrative of a strange conspiracy theory centered around the Sons of Confederate Veterans in particular inventing the Black Confederate "soldier" to counter growing political correctness.
This is largely built on the strength of Mr. Levin's own interpretation of a memo written in the mid-1970s by a former SCV commander in chief, an interpretation that is laughably inaccurate. Adding to his growing paranoid ramblings is his insistence that (of all things) inaccurate facebook and tumblr memes misidentifying one group of United States Colored Troops soldiers as the New Orleans Guard are products of this vast right-wing conspiracy.
I'm sorry folks, y'all have to forgive me. In the last 25+ years I've heard a number of such conspiracy theories about the alleged motives of Southern heritage groups trying to "re-write" history. The craziest of these that I've heard is one by an ultra alt-Lefty who claimed (and I swear I am not making this up!) that the Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC) still exists, has infiltrated all Southern State governments, works with the Illuminati, and conspires with the SCV and UDC to undermine the national historical narrative. Whenever I read some historian who throws around words like "lost causers" my mind flashes back to that insane conspiracy theory, and I just can't take them seriously anymore.
Now, to his credit, Mr. Levin isn't nearly that radical in his interpretations. He simply believes that the SCV manufactured soldiers out of Black Confederates -- which I mentioned before in my critically acclaimed blog post on the subject is far more complex and general term. Mr. Levin also believes that Confederate heritage groups are attempting to rewrite history to promote what he calls a "Rainbow Confederacy" in order to exonerate Confederate symbols from the charge of being racist icons. Actually the term Rainbow Confederate was coined by white nationalists, but Black Confederate Deniers for whatever reason have adopted the term for themselves.
Mr. Levin's conspiracy theory falls apart when approached from a logical, common sense discussion of the general attempt by American academics in the late 1970s and early 1980s to restore the public record of the actual role African Americans had in the building of American cultural identity and history, erasing two centuries of white washing. Once you are resigned to that fact, the rest of his book's narrative comes across less like an attempt at restoring historical truth and more like Mr. Levin shouting: No Black Confederates! Reee!
Add to this is largely dehumanizing interpretations of how he views Black Confederate Veterans were treated by other Confederate Veterans in the years after the war, and his disdain for proud descendants of Black Confederates -- something else Mr. Levin is well known for -- then you discover the real goal of Mr. Levin.
As for my final judgment of the accuracy of this stinker, let's put it this way: there is far more historical accuracy in the 1988 Yahoo Serious film Young Einstein than there is in Kevin Levin's book Finding Black Confederates. Trust me y'all would find it far more entertaining too.
Keep tilting at those windmills there, Mr. Levin.
For the last year, or so, Mr. Levin, author, teacher, and blogger has been shamelessly plugging his new research book: Searching For Black Confederates: The Civil War's Most Persistent Myth (sic).
Today is the official launch of what is supposedly the culmination of a decade and a half of research into the subject of Black Confederates from his perspective -- a subject that he came to after a publishing error was discovered in a Virginia textbook around 2005 (about the time his blog, Civil War Memory was launched) where fact about the numbers of Black Southern loyalists were exaggerated and the specific wording implied that these men were all Confederate soldiers in general.
Since that time, like the literary hero of Cervantes' classic novel, Mr. Levin has armored himself in the rusty chain mail of the Righteous Cause, being joined along his journey with several other Deniers serving as his faithful Sancho Panzas, on a quest to defeat Black Confederate memory by slaying the mythical dragon of Lost Cause conspiracy.
Thankfully I didn't purchase this book, it was loaned to me by a friend who had it on Kindle. If y'all feel the need to actually read it, and I don't discourage the sharing of information, then I strongly recommend either; (a) waiting for your local library to get a copy of it, or (b) waiting for it to get to the cheap bin at Barnes & Noble....in about, oh, the end of the month.
His new book is a psychological ego trip disguised in the trappings of historical research, full of much conjecture and emotion; and yet lacking any real depth. Just look at the dust jacket of the book itself. His name is both at the top of the book over the title, and his name appears using the same font size as the title itself. That just screams arrogance, ego, and possibly a need to compensate for some other shortcomings in his self esteem.
 |
| Also, "most persistent myth"? Really? Off the top of my head I can name at least a dozen others that hold much higher places in civil war academia. |
Now, before I go on, I would like to say that in no way am I diminishing the time and effort Mr. Levin into his (ahem) "research" on the topic. He has published at least one other book on the subject of Black Union soldiers at the Battle of the Crater, which this blogger has also read and gives about a B+ for his work, if not entirely for his delivery of history. No offense, but Mr. Levin's writing style comes off more like a lecture than an actual work of history and, reading any of his work I always end up hearing it dictated by a voice that sounds like Ben Stein on sedatives. Even if Mr. Levin isn't the most engaging writer, as far as the research went most of the details in his former book were fairly accurate, and that I will give him credit for.
His new book on the other hand delivers historical fact with all the sparkle and pizazz of a UPS truck with about 240 pages of mind-numbing opinion and conjecture building up a false narrative of a strange conspiracy theory centered around the Sons of Confederate Veterans in particular inventing the Black Confederate "soldier" to counter growing political correctness.
This is largely built on the strength of Mr. Levin's own interpretation of a memo written in the mid-1970s by a former SCV commander in chief, an interpretation that is laughably inaccurate. Adding to his growing paranoid ramblings is his insistence that (of all things) inaccurate facebook and tumblr memes misidentifying one group of United States Colored Troops soldiers as the New Orleans Guard are products of this vast right-wing conspiracy.
I'm sorry folks, y'all have to forgive me. In the last 25+ years I've heard a number of such conspiracy theories about the alleged motives of Southern heritage groups trying to "re-write" history. The craziest of these that I've heard is one by an ultra alt-Lefty who claimed (and I swear I am not making this up!) that the Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC) still exists, has infiltrated all Southern State governments, works with the Illuminati, and conspires with the SCV and UDC to undermine the national historical narrative. Whenever I read some historian who throws around words like "lost causers" my mind flashes back to that insane conspiracy theory, and I just can't take them seriously anymore.
Now, to his credit, Mr. Levin isn't nearly that radical in his interpretations. He simply believes that the SCV manufactured soldiers out of Black Confederates -- which I mentioned before in my critically acclaimed blog post on the subject is far more complex and general term. Mr. Levin also believes that Confederate heritage groups are attempting to rewrite history to promote what he calls a "Rainbow Confederacy" in order to exonerate Confederate symbols from the charge of being racist icons. Actually the term Rainbow Confederate was coined by white nationalists, but Black Confederate Deniers for whatever reason have adopted the term for themselves.
 |
| Humm, these must be the "rainbow Confederates" I keep hearing about. Did y'all find the pot-o-gold? |
Mr. Levin's conspiracy theory falls apart when approached from a logical, common sense discussion of the general attempt by American academics in the late 1970s and early 1980s to restore the public record of the actual role African Americans had in the building of American cultural identity and history, erasing two centuries of white washing. Once you are resigned to that fact, the rest of his book's narrative comes across less like an attempt at restoring historical truth and more like Mr. Levin shouting: No Black Confederates! Reee!
Add to this is largely dehumanizing interpretations of how he views Black Confederate Veterans were treated by other Confederate Veterans in the years after the war, and his disdain for proud descendants of Black Confederates -- something else Mr. Levin is well known for -- then you discover the real goal of Mr. Levin.
As for my final judgment of the accuracy of this stinker, let's put it this way: there is far more historical accuracy in the 1988 Yahoo Serious film Young Einstein than there is in Kevin Levin's book Finding Black Confederates. Trust me y'all would find it far more entertaining too.
Keep tilting at those windmills there, Mr. Levin.
2 comments:
Pretty good and accurate review! I am surprised that man is allowed into a classroom, but the problem I see with him, he's hard headed, narrow minded, and wouldn't dare debate someone with an opposing viewpoint in fear of losing to concrete facts...
Wonderful review, Carl. You have Levin pegged, sure enough.
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