By William H. Benson
The Parallel Lives
Of The NOBLE AMERICAN RELIGIOUS THINKERS AND BELIEVERS:
Roger Williams VS. Cotton Mathers
NEW ARTICLES
biweekly column
Readers, please look for my column that I completed today, some ideas on Jonathan Winthrop’s sermon “A Model of Christian Charity.” It should post in a few days.
BILLY GRAHAM
BILLY GRAHAMBILLY GRAHAM by William H. Benson January 25, 2007 In September of 1936, sixty years ago, a North Carolina farmer drove his seventeen-year old son west across the Appalachians to Cleveland, Tennessee to enroll as a freshman in Bob Jones College. The...
COMMON SENSE
COMMON SENSECOMMON SENSE by William H. Benson January 11, 2007 In last Sunday’s New York Times “Book Review” section, P. J. O’Rourke reviewed Adam Smith’s massive work on economics The Wealth of Nations, first published in 1776. The publisher’s idea was to give...
WORDS
WORDSWORDS by William H. Benson December 28, 2006 At the encouragement of a family member, I slowed down for two hours last Friday night to watch a video: Alkeelah and the Bee, and strangely enough, I liked it. It is the fictional story of Akeelah Anderson, an...
WAR AND PEACE
WAR AND PEACEWAR AND PEACE by William H. Benson December 14, 2006 The calendar tells us that we are midway between Pearl Harbor and Christmas, between War and Peace, between an attack upon a Pacific Island and Advent. The history of the world constantly...
READING AND WHY
READING AND WHYREADING AND WHY by William H. Benson November 30, 2006 Today, November 30th, marks the birthdays of three celebrated writers: Jonathan Swift in 1667, Mark Twain, in 1835, and Winston Churchill in 1874. Jonathan Swift, an English Protestant...
REVOLUTION IN HUNGARY
REVOLUTION IN HUNGARYREVOLUTION IN HUNGARY by William H. Benson November 16, 2006 Josef Toth’s mother passed away in 1954, weeks after her return from a six-month prison confinement, courtesy of the AVO, Hungary’s state police. She had spoken out against the...
Older Posts
ALGERIA, AFGHANISTAN, AND VIETNAM
ALGERIA, AFGHANISTAN, AND VIETNAMALGERIA, AFGHANISTAN, AND VIETNAM by William H. Benson November 2, 2006 Algeria’s rebel army initiated its revolution against the French forces on November 1, 1954, fifty-two years ago. It required eight years but the FLN, the...
YORKTOWN AND LEWIS AND CLARK
YORKTOWN AND LEWIS AND CLARKYORKTOWN AND LEWIS AND CLARK by William H. Benson October 19, 2006 Writing teachers tell us that authors build their most successful stories upon one of two themes: a stranger comes to town or somebody goes on a journey. In each...
MULTICULTURALISM
MULTICULTURALISMMULTICULTURALISM by William H. Benson September 21, 2006 Serendipity catches us unaware. It brings us up short. It happens when we go to watch a fight, and right in the middle of it an ice hockey game breaks out. We are astonished when...
PRESIDENTIAL PARDONS
PRESIDENTIAL PARDONSPRESIDENTIAL PARDONS by William H. Benson September 7, 2006 “The quality of mercy is not strain’d; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath. It is twice blest: It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.” So said...
PLAY
PLAYPLAY by William H. Benson August 24, 2006 The fall sports season at the high schools is now in full swing. The schedules are set, and participants will soon play their first games or compete at their first matches and meets. Some will win, others will lose,...
ALFRED HITCHCOCK
ALFRED HITCHCOCKALFRED HITCHCOCK by William H. Benson August 10, 2006 He began his television show, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, with the words, “Good evening,” which he spoke slowly and precisely with an English accent while standing alone on a stage. When he had...
One of University of Northern Colorado’s 2020 Honored Alumni
William H. Benson
Local has provided scholarships for history students for 15 years
A Sterling resident is among five alumni selected to be recognized this year by the University of Northern Colorado. Bill Benson is one of college’s 2020 Honored Alumni.
Each year UNC honors alumni in recognition for their outstanding contributions to the college, their profession and their community. This year’s honorees were to be recognized at an awards ceremony on March 27, but due to the COVID-19 outbreak that event has been cancelled. Instead UNC will recognize the honorees in the fall during homecoming Oct. 10 and 11……
Newspaper Columns
The Duodecimal System
For centuries, the ancient Romans calculated sums with their clunky numerals: I, V, X, L, C, D, and M; or one, five, ten, 50, 100, 500, and 1,000. They knew nothing better.
The Thirteenth Amendment
On Jan. 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, and by it, he declared that “all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are and henceforward shall be free.” Lincoln’s Proclamation freed some 3.1 million slaves within the Confederacy.
The Fourteenth Amendment
After Congress and enough states ratified the thirteenth amendment that terminated slavery, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866. This law declared that “all people born in the United States are entitled to be citizens, without regard to race, color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude.” The Act equated birth to citizenship.
The New-York Packet and the Constitution
Jill Lepore, the Harvard historian, published her newest book a month ago, These Truths: A History of the United States. In a short introduction, she describes in detail the Oct. 30, 1787 edition of a semi-weekly newspaper, The New-York Packet.
Mr. Benson’s writings on the U.S. Constitution are a great addition to the South Platte Sentinel. Its inspiring to see the history of the highest laws of this country passed on to others.
– Richard Hogan
Mr. Benson, I cannot thank you enough for this scholarship. As a first-generation college student, the prospect of finding a way to afford college is a very daunting one. Thanks to your generous donation, my dream of attending UNC and continuing my success here is far more achievable
– Cedric Sage Nixon
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– Extra Times
FUTURE BOOKS
- Thomas Paine vs. George Whitefield
- Ralph Waldo Emerson vs. Joseph Smith
- William James vs. Mary Baker Eddy
- Mark Twain vs. Billy Graham
- Henry Louis Mencken vs. Jim Bakker
