LEGENDS OF HISTORY: An Educational Multi- Media Historical Art exhibit exploring the history of War and Civilization in the Western World

through an outline of history in word paintings and visual art by Howard David Johnson...  Newly updated for 2010!

Spanning the Centuries from Ancient Sparta to World War Two:

The Ancient Greeks

In the beginning men wandered lawless in the wilderness following herds and harvesting wild plants. When man began to keep animals and cultivate crops he created settlements. Tribal disputes were resolved by ceremonial conflict until the Greeks invented the decisive and deadly engagements we know today as war.

And now... War and Civilization: The Legends of History

"Return with your shield or on it" was every Spartan Mother's wartime farewell to her son.

Not even a Spartan Mother could forgive cowardice...

... the heavy shield made flight impossible ...

     Legendary in the annals of history are the Spartan Warriors of Ancient Greece. Fearless defenders of liberty, they followed a strict military way of life. In 480 B.C. three hundred of them under King Leonidas stood alone at the end against the enormous Persian army under the tyrannical King Xerxes who was sweeping southward into Greece. The 300 Spartans fought to the death against these impossible odds in the narrow mountain pass at Thermopylae (Gates of Fire ). The Persians took shocking casualties. Their narrow lines of wicker shields and short javelins were no match for the highly disciplined Spartan lines with their large bronze shields and long spears who slaughtered the Sea of Persians wave after wave.

        It was only after a betrayal of a secret path and the 700 Greek allies were ordered home to warn Greece that the 300 Spartans were finally overcome. Although the Spartans contributed little to the artistic and intellectual development of Greece, without them, ironically, Democracy and Freedom would have been wiped out in their infancy...

   Earlier Spartan legends: Helen of Troy ( circa 1194 B.C. ) was often called "the face that launched a thousand ships" and "the most beautiful woman who ever lived". The Trojan War resulted when Paris, the prince of Troy carried her off during the reign of her husband the Spartan King Menelaus. Here Helen has just seen the sea lights of her husband's enormous amphibious invasion fleet on the horizon. To recover Helen, the Acheans under Agamemnon, brother of Menelaus lay ferocious siege to Troy to no avail for ten years until Hector was killed by Achilles and he by Paris. At last a wooden horse was contrived. Odysseus had masterminded a strategy to break the stalemate...The Trojan Horse...

   In whose hollow interior many elite Achean Warriors hid themselves... Leaving Their Giant Gift outside the city and withdrawing their army and fleet to Tenedos, feigning to have raised the seige. The Trojans conveyed the wooden horse into the city. Later that night the Greeks stole out and opened the gates, and Troy was taken. The Spartan King Menelaus recovered Helen and  forgave her. She was thought for ages to be merely a part of mythology - partly because of lack of evidence and partly because of the colorful portrayal of Olympian pagan religion as a reality in Homer's  immortal Epic Poem "The Iliad" -  prejudiced the scientific and academic communities - until archaeologists excavated Troy.

Now, it is one of the Legends of History as well...  

Herodotus and Thucydides, like ancient pagan writers generally, accepted the Trojan War as historical, but criticized what they politely called "epic statements" in detail. Traditional genealogies, collated by Hecataeus of Miletus and others , enabled   Eratosthenes to date the fall of Troy to 1194 B.C. This is consistent with  the Roman scholar Pliny the elder and Egyptian records from Rameses' time as well.

Egypt and Babylon :  The Cradle of Civilization...

Even earlier great western civilizations included the Egyptians and Babylonians. 

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Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) conquered what was then the known world. "When Alexander saw the breadth of his kingdom he wept, for there were no more new worlds to conquer." Although he built the city of Alexandria with it's legendary lighthouse, he was not a great builder or statesman like other notables of history. The real creator of this Legend of History is his father, Phillip of Macedonia. Just as a great playright does not bask in the limelight, but the actors, so it was with Phillip and his son Alexander the Great.

Phillip conceived and planned everything, building the army and beginning the Persian expedition before his death. For a time the whole world, from the Adriatic to the Indus, was under one ruler; realizing the dreams of his father.  He and 90 of his generals and friends married Persian brides. This was called the marriage of Europe and Asia. At 31, he had been in possession of the Persian empire for six years and wore the robes and tiara of a Persian monarch. He broke with Greek tradition by shaving his face, becoming notoriously violent, vain, and egotistical in his last days. His career marks an epoch in human history and he remains a controversial figure to this day. World Governing Empires of the West: After the Babylonians, the Medeo-Persians, and the Greeks ( under Alexander) came the Romans. *****

Gaius Julius Caesar ( 100-44 B.C.) General & Dictator of Rome,  was born in Rome on July 13, 100 BC to Gaius Julius Caesar & Aurelia. He was the only son & had two sisters, both named Julia, called respectively Julia Minor & Julia Major . Romans, like Cicero spelled his name: "CAIVS IVLIVS CAESAR"

Contrary to popular myths Caesar did not come from a very rich or influential family.  Caesar's father died at Pisa while on military duty in 85/84 BC. At this time little Julius is tutored by Alexandrian educated grammarian and rhetorican Marcus Antonius Gnipho.      In 77 BC Caesar enters politics in the conventional way, as a lawyer. In 74 BC, using treasure he captured from pirates, Caesar raised an army and defeated Mithridates VI, who had invaded Roman territory. After this service he returned to study at Rhodes. In Rome Caesar is elected Military Tribune by the people. In 61 BC Caesar served as  governor in Spain. In 59 BC Julius Caesar at 40 entered office as Consul of the republic of Rome. Caesar now solidified his alliance with Pompey by marrying his daughter Julia to him persuading Pompey to give him legions for her. Caesar had achieved much by age 42, doing more than many men twice his age. He understood that his times required more than just political and oratory skill to attain his goals.  The conquest and eventual assimilation of Gaul secured more money and a considerable military reputation for him. Also the map and history of Europe would be forever changed.

It began Romanic & Germanic differences in culture & nationalism that existed between Gaul (France) & Germania (Germany) for 2039 years leading to countless wars & atrocities. The Celtic Warriors were a ferocious adversaries, madly fond of war, but we must not glorify Caesar's Gallic conquest too much, the Roman policy was bordering on genocide! Gaul was starved & pillaged to bare soil during the long siege.  We must add to Caesar's epitaph that he was one of history's greatest killers. In 48 BC King Ptolemy XIII of Egypt assassinated Pompey & presented his head to Caesar. Infuriated, the Roman Consul Gaius Julius Caesar arrived with 4000 men at Alexandria Egypt and took over. In 44 BC On the day of an ancient festival, Caesar sat on his gilded chair, dressed in a purple robe like the old kings of Rome had worn & a golden wreath. Its  clear Caesar was comfortable appearing in Public as Dictator Perpetuus, the next best thing to being king. His relationship with Cleopatra, queen of Egypt did not help. He was assassinated on the Ides of march by the Senators in the Senate chambers. The reasons for his assassination are debated over to this very day. Caesar later also claimed to be descendant of Rome's fourth King Ancus Marcius and the Goddess Venus.

Cleopatra, ( 69-30 B.C.) descended from Ptolomey, one of Alexander the great's generals, she was heralded as the greatest of all beauties and is arguably the most legendary femme fatale in all the annals of history in competition with the beauteous Helen of Troy. At the age of seventeen, she became Queen of Egypt ruling jointly with her younger brother Ptolemey V by marriage, according to the ancient Egyptian custom of the Pharaohs.
After he betrayed her and stripped her of all power and authority, she withdrew to Syria, and prepared to recover her rights by force of arms. Her opportunity came when Julius Caesar followed Pompey into Egypt. The personal fascinations of Cleopatra induced Caesar to undertake a war on her behalf, in which Ptolemey lost his life. She regained her throne through a marriage to her younger brother whom she rid herself of with poison. She lived openly as Caesar's mistress until his assassination in Rome. Their association had been terribly unpopular, and she became aware of her unpopularity and returned to Egypt.      Subsequently Cleopatra became ally and mistress to Mark Antony (Antonius ). Enter Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian ( 63 B.C.- 14 A.D.) who was the adopted son of Julius Caesar. He declared war on the star crossed lovers and defeated them at Actium. After a secret conference, she accepted the victor's proposal that she  poison Antony, her lover, and "for Egypt" she set out to seduce this newest Roman Commander, Octavian...
She lured Antony to a mausoleum where he committed suicide himself in the mistaken idea she had already done so. Octavian refused to yield to the charms of Cleopatra, who, according to tradition, put an end to her own life by applying an asp to her bosom. Octavian went on to realize their unfulfilled ambitions and became Caesar Augustus, the first Emperor of Rome and founder of the Imperial Roman Government.

THE "PAX ROMANA" (27 BC to 180 AD)

   Augustus Caesar brought about the "Pax Romana" or "Roman Peace"; history's longest period without a war. That's what the history books say, but is it the truth? It was a peaceful 200-odd years for a few insulated Roman aristocrats, but these so-called "continuous years of peace" came at the price of freedom and were imposed by Roman armies and weapons of war. One would need their own definitions of war and peace to call the Jewish Revolt (66-73 A.D.) with at least a million dead and the subsequent Jewish wars (115-117 & 132-135 A.D.) times of peace. The Civil Wars fought in the Year of the Four Emperors.(69 A.D.) and a massive Roman army led by Quintus Petillius Cerialis was sent to put down a German revolt (Revolt of the Batavi) that same year all disprove this claim, but the evidence is overwhelming- (Cerialis also took part in the 60-61 A.D. rebellion led by Queen Boudica of the Iceni in Britain.) 1st Century Roman Wars:  * Roman-Parthian Wars (ongoing)* Roman conquest of Britain (43 AD.)* First Jewish-Roman War (66-73 AD.) * Roman Civil War of 68-69 AD 2nd Century: * Roman-Parthian Wars (ongoing)* First Dacian War (101-102 AD.)* Second Dacian War (105-106 AD.)* Kitos War (115-117 AD.)* Bar Kokhba's revolt (132-135 AD.)* Marcomannic Wars (166-180 AD.) The legendary "Pax Romana" was actually littered with wars, rebellions and the systematic persecution and genocide of Christians for 300 years under 10 Emperors. 

The Coming of Christianity

"This mischievous superstition has found its way all the way to Rome!" ~ Tacitus

No other religion or philosophy has had more influence on Western Civilization than Christianity. Christian beliefs spread like wildfire and turned the Roman world upside down and are still controversial today. Christians came from all nations, peoples and tongues by faith in Jesus Christ, even many citizens of Rome. The Early Christians believed in the authority and reliability of their sacred writings, now called the Bible, which is broken up into two sections: THE OLD TESTAMENT is an account of a nation. THE NEW TESTAMENT is an account of a "man". They believed THE NATION was founded and nurtured of god to bring the man into the world. Christians believe GOD HIMSELF became a man to give mankind a tangible concrete definite idea of what kind of personality to think of when we think of God. This radical new religion taught that Jesus not only came to redeem mankind but to reveal the true nature of God: patient, loving and forgiving. 

 The most famous Roman execution in history, Jesus of Nazareth, was only one of three thousand Jews crucified by the Romans  in Jerusalem that year alone. They were nailing Jews to the walls of the city because there were not enough scaffolds to satisfy the Romans lust for blood. (34 A.D.) Even so, there was nothing routine about it. The Roman governor Pontius Pilate tried to spare him and had guards placed outside the tomb because of rumors of his imminent resurrection. These rumors turned into eyewitness reports and later into a religion that believed he would return and judge the world.

From the dawn of war and civilization to today, the aggressors have always been the villains of history no matter what noble religious icons or flags they carried into battle...

    The knowledge and technology of the ancient world was lost as the west sank into the Dark Ages. The sword of Islam was unsheathed and the Arab Conquest began by sweeping into Europe. ( 705- 715 A.D.) 

    The Crusades ( 1095 - 1291 A.D.) were the culminating act of the medieval drama, and perhaps the most picturesque event in the history of Europe and the Near East. 

    The failure of the Crusades caused doubt as to the divine origin and support of the Roman Church. The Inquisition took it's earliest form around 1023 A.D. to deal with various kinds of heresies and made the Age of Faith complete. Persecution of Jews, Muslims, and Pagans was especially relentless during these centuries. Dante - 'The Divine Comedy' ( 1318 A.D.) with his 'Inferno' - a terrifying vision of Hell - was the most influential writer and philosopher of the times. 

    The Roman Church's unspeakable crimes committed in the name of GOD during this era are among the most horrific abuses of power in the legends of history...   

    The Medieval Romans felt any criticism of the Catholic Church was an attack on GOD himself; the contumacious heretic could only be viewed as an agent of Satan, sent to undo the work of Christ; and any man or government that tolerated heresy was serving Lucifer.

Holy Wars?

INTOLERANCE: If something does not irritate you, you cannot be tolerating it. Tolerance takes great strength. Judaism, Islam and Christianity, the monotheistic faiths of the World's Great Religions all worship the ONE GOD of Abraham; whose beautiful teachings lead not to grudges, war, and hate... but to forgiveness, peace, and love... it was direct disobedience that led to the Crusades and all the death destruction and heartache that accompanied them. The sad truth is that the Crusades were largely more a matter of loot than faith. Faith was used as a smoke screen to cover up the greed and lust for power...

    El Cid Campeador (Eng. The 'Lord Champion' ca.1040-1099) He was the foremost man of the historical period of Spain and the greatest warrior of the long struggle between Christian and Muslim. Born Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar to a Castillian Noble family, he is the favorite hero of Spain and the most preeminent figure in her literature. The Cid was a diplomat, a great military leader and a soldier of fortune. Rodrigo began his career around 1057and fought against the Moorish stronghold of Saragossa in the service of Sancho II. In the spring of 1063 he served in the battle of Graus where legends say El Cid killed the enemy's champion knight in single combat and received the honorific title of Campeador.

King Sancho II continued to expand his territory, conquering both Moorish and Christian cities and was assassinated in 1072 and his enemy Alfonso VI seized the vacant throne as King of León and Castile. According to the epic of El Cid, [Poema del Cid ca.1250-1300] the Castilian nobility led by the Cid and a dozen "oath-helpers" forced Alfonso to swear on holy relics he was not responsible. His list of victories and heroic deeds was extensive. In the Battle of Cabra (1079), El Cid heroically rallied his troops and turned the battle into a rout but his unauthorized expedition into Granada outraged King Alfonso, and May 8, 1080, El Cid was sent into exile, due to the jealousy of the King other nobles of his popularity, citing as their reason he had skimmed some of the tribute money.

El Cid held Christian and Muslim military and political Alliances.

       Of course It was a death penalty for over a thousand years to be caught reading a Bible in vernacular or without a priest. Jesus Christ's blistering rebuke of the Harlot Church and commands for GOD's faithful to leave it in The Holy Bible, the Book of Revelation - chapters 2, 3, and especially Chapter 18 were covered up with deadly force. Ancient Roman taxation evolved into tithes and the Church's greed led to the Protestant Reformation (1517- 64 A.D.) which brought sweeping reforms to all the Christian Churches.

Note: Only around the turn of the 21st century did the Pope help overcome this medieval stigma by publicly denouncing and apologizing for these centuries of  murderous atrocities and embracing Christ's fundamental teachings of forgiveness, tolerance, and love. John Paul II has brought renewed honor to the Papacy by providing real spiritual leadership to the Modern Catholic Church and working tirelessly for peace throughout the world.  

The REBIRTH of LEARNING:

  Following the Dark Ages came the Renaissance, Reformation, Rousseau and Revolution! In Italy under the Borges we had warfare, terror, bloodshed - and that produced Michaelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland we had five hundred years of peace and brotherly love... and what did that produce? The Cuckoo Clock. The boundary between "medieval" and "modern" is always advancing and the last century's age of coal and oil and sooty slums may some day be accounted as medieval by an era of cleaner power and more gracious life.

The New World and The Age of EMPIRES

   With the discovery of the New World, many European Nations began empire building. An Empire, in the strictest sense is a country ruled by an emperor. An empire is usually larger than a single nation consisting of a ruling nation and one or more subject nations. Some nations called themselves empires even though they had no colonies or dependencies. The term is also applied to composite nations regardless of the ruler's title. Thus the domains of Alexander the Great and the Assyrians and Persians are commonly called empires even though the first nation to have an emperor was Rome. Others included The Holy Roman Empire, the Byzantine and the Ottoman and Mongol empires. In America, the Aztecs and Incas had great empires before the coming of the Spaniards. Since that time many nations have been called empires; Russia, Austria-Hungary Germany, France (under Napoleon I and III) Brazil, Mexico, Haiti, Ethiopia, and in the east, most notably China and Japan. The largest modern empire was the British Empire, later called the commonwealth of nations. As various British colonies developed economically and politically in the 18th century tensions developed in the empire. The first real crack in the Imperial structure came with the American Revolution and the resulting loss of the 13 American colonies leading to a re-examination of colonial policies.

George Washington and the American Revolution

     One of the outstanding Legends of History is George Washington, serving brilliantly as the commander of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War he accomplished what had never been done in the history of mankind - a successful revolution against a major Imperial power. Because of his significant role in the revolution, the war and in the formation of the United States, he became the first President of the United States and is revered by Americans to this day as the "Father of Our Country".

    The American Revolution took it's force from economic realities like taxation and trade, and the legendary framers of it's Constitution and the authors of it's Declaration of Independence, Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson had been molded to free thought by the philosophes. If the phrase "all men are created equal" seems strange reading America's  Declaration of Independence today, it is for two reasons; first, because Thomas Jefferson who principally wrote it was forced to remove the paragraph freeing the slaves by other powerful slave owning politicians and because it was mainly directed at rebutting the dominant political doctrine of the day: "The Divine Right of Kings". Following the war's end in 1783, King George III of England asked what Washington would do next and was reported rumors that he would return to farming; this prompted the king to proclaim, "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world."

" We have had enough of kings."

" Napoleon at Waterloo"

Out of them came one of the greatest legends of all history -

Napoleon Bonaparte

         He was a great general who was also a dictator very fond of Ancient Rome. He emulated Julius Caesar on the battlefield and off and realized many of Caesar's ambitions. After he declared himself emperor of the French he abolished the Holy Roman Empire. After that, the title emperor simply came to mean the ruler of a country.

Napoleon's time was the Zenith of the Era of the Gentleman's War, the heyday of the professional soldier. Professional Armies had not waged war against helpless civilians since the time of the Ancient Romans. (There were deserters from these armies preying on the populace however, but they were shot.) He was both the most hated and best loved man of his day. Legendary both for brilliant victories and agonizing defeats.

Hero, Villain, Statesman, Traitor... Napoleon Bonaparte was all these things and more.

"Remember the Alamo!" 

was the battle cry of the Texas Revolution that struck fear into the hearts of the army of General Santa Anna at the battle of San Jacinto. Santa Anna liked to be called "the Napoleon of the west".

The Alamo was a military defeat that turned out to be a political victory for the Texans.  It  took 13 days and enormous casualties for Santa Anna to take the Alamo mission. The stubborn defenders of the Alamo held them off long enough for General Sam Houston to build the army of the Texas Revolution.

Many Hispanic freedom fighters such as Juan N. Seguin - first mayor of San Antonio - the famous scout who went out to get help from Sam Houston - took their stand as legendary Defenders of liberty against tyranny alongside their famous Anglo-Saxon companeros inside the walls of the Alamo.

-The American Thermopylae.

"The Sun never sets on the British Empire"

"The Sun never sets on the British Empire" was a popular saying during its zenith, so vast was its area. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the British Empire encompassed the largest land mass and greatest wealth ever controlled by one country. The land surface of the Earth is estimated at 52,500,000 square miles. The British Empire covered 16,000,000 square miles and was represented on every continent. Although it had its origins in the 16th century during the conflicts with Spain in the New World, the term "Empire" was never used officially until Queen Victoria became empress of India in 1876. It was made possible by the British Navy's control of the seas which beginning in 1583 when England claimed sovereignty over Newfoundland. Soon after, in 1600 the East India Trading company was chartered and expansion spread into Asia overcoming Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Dutch efforts to stop it. To protect shipping routes Britain took control of many countries, gaining much of the territory as a result of wars.  They drove the French out of North America after decades of conflict and continuing through the Napoleonic Wars (1800-15) the British won many colonies from the French and Dutch. It was during this time the 13 British colonies succeeded in securing their independence through the American Revolution. There were also other wars of rebellion fought to preserve dominance like the Anglo-Zulu war in Africa. During World War I Britain captured German and Turkish possessions which they administered as mandates under the League of Nations.

"The Defense of Reorke's Drift" (1879) was a battle in the Anglo-Zulu war in Africa in which 139 British Soldiers defended their garrison against 4,000 Zulu warriors.

Eventually these dominions were given complete independence.  The term "Empire" was officially dropped in 1947 when King George VI relinquished the title of Emperor of India when granting independence to India and Pakistan. From that time the dissolution of the Empire and the development of the Commonwealth proceeded simultaneously.

THE FRIGHTFUL COST OF WAR:

     War costs money...trillions of dollars. War takes human lives...millions of them! War makes children old, breaks parent's hearts, kills morale. War destroys cities, art treasures, civilization! The first world war alone cost thirty million lives and several trillion dollars when adjusted to modern U.S. dollars.

   With the money at the time we could have built a three bedroom two bath house furnished with fine hardwood furniture on five acres of quality land for every family in The United States, Canada, Australia, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, Belgium, Germany and Russia. There would have been enough left to build and stock a first class library and a proper university in every town of twenty- thousand people or more.

      Think of it...Out of the balance we could have paid the salaries for life of 125,000 teachers and 125,000 nurses. The remaining balance could have bought 1919 Belgium and France and everything in them.

Instead, the power of industry with it's new war machines made attacking factories and their civilian personnel essential. Technology forced us back into barbarism and the journey to total war was complete.

TOTAL WAR ON A GLOBAL SCALE:

   Blitzkrieg! Even after all the horrors of World War One mankind still did not learn it's lesson... In Nazi Germany Intolerance was rising again in the spirit and pattern of Imperial Rome...

The world hoped appeasement would work...

but the Fascist Imperialists just grew stronger and stronger -until they were confident enough to strike!

The Panzer Grenadiers were an elite Nazi German fighting unit of World War Two that was often mistaken for the Gestapo because of the skull and crossbones they both wore on their collars ...The soldiers above are actual German World War II veterans painted from extant photographs. Note the distinctive rose pink piping on the epaulets and the tank commander's black beret and tunic. 

The Battle of Russia depicted to the right with Panzer Grenadiers in war torn Stalingrad were the largest land battles in human history and their casualties reflect it. 

     Legendary in the annals of war are the B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators of World War II. The battles between them and the German Luftwaffe were the most epic and ferocious air battles ever.

     Famous for bringing their boys home with tails shot off, engines aflame and missing wings, the skies over Europe were  black with planes in 1943 & 1944 in the most massive bombing raids in human history. In spite of this Incredible durability one in three did not return from Germany...the fighting was so tough...

       World War Two brought us history's only Nuclear War. No One had to teach me to grieve for three million allied casualties in World War Two or the coming of Atomic War and it's terror to Japan and therefore the world.

         My Mother taught me to grieve for the six million Jews who were killed in World War Two...Then my Father, an American WWII veteran taught me to also grieve for thirteen million Germans, twenty million Russians and an incalculable number of Asians... 

       After the war: Hermann Goering, who commanded the German Air Force also bore responsibility for the elimination of Jews from political life and for the destruction and takeover of Jewish businesses and property. He and several other Nazi leaders were tried for crimes against humanity at Nuremberg. When confronted with the concentration camps, Goering, who WANTED a world audience said; "You are hypocrites! We got the idea from you Americans with your dealings with Indians in your Western Expansion. Why is it ok for you Americans to seize land for Aryans and not us?

Simple! Because you won the war!" 

AN AGE OF ATOMIC TERROR?

I see History as an endless waltz. Three beats over and over. War, Peace, and Revolution. Three beats over and over in an endless cycle of death, destruction, and regeneration. An Endless Waltz... and those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to dance this deadly waltz and pay this Frightful price for War. As modern technology such as jet aircraft and thermonuclear missiles make the world smaller & more dangerous everyday, tolerating each other's racial, social, & religious differences & living together in peace has now become key to the continued survival of mankind through the 21st century...

Things to Come?

Can we look for a nuclear war in the middle east when the Tigris and Euphrates rivers dry up? Legends of atomic Armageddon in the middle east come to mind once again... but that has nothing to do with history... or does it? Visit 'Things to Come' below for a chilling look at prophecies describing upcoming Atomic Warfare in the middle east and the effects of Nuclear Weapons with amazing accuracy and detail.

*****

Some key written sources for Howard David Johnson's THE LEGENDS OF HISTORY and recommended reading:

THE OUTLINE OF HISTORY   by    H. G. WELLES   Doubleday   (written in the 19th century)

THE STORY OF CIVILIZATION   by   WILL & ARIEL DURANT  Simon & Schuster    (written in the 20th century)

THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY  OF EUSEBIUS PAMPHILUS Baker book house    (written in the 4th century)

THE ANNALS OF TACITUS   ( extant Roman history ) (written in the 1st and 2nd centuries)

"It is best not to use only one source or only modern sources for researching history unless you know the bias of the author. The prejudices of the authors above are easily sorted out by reading their differing accounts of the fall of Jerusalem when Titus came in and destroyed the temple. ( 70 A.D. ) Once you know the bias of the author, his work is a more solid contribution to your research. For example, H. G. Welles was openly anti-Semetic, Will Durant was openly anti-Christian, Eusibius was a Christian minister, Bishop of Cesarea, and Cornelius Tacitus was a Roman Pagan, and they all tailored history to fit their belief systems." ~HDJ   

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        Did you know the real life Robin Hood ( before the legend was Christianized ) actually fought the ancient Romans during the reign of Emperor Claudius and was really a Celtic Warrior named Caracticus? Consider 20th century American President Theodore Roosevelt. He lives in history because of his heroic charge up San Juan hill with his legendary roughriders. When this story was printed in William Randolph Hearst's newspapers it catapulted him to fame and ushered him into the White House as a glorious American War Hero. Everyone has seen the paintings and statues of Teddy Roosevelt and his roughriders dressed in khaki, mounted on horseback and charging fearlessly forward waving their swords. In reality, it was a group of Heroic African American Buffalo Soldiers who took San Juan Hill in spite of their heavy casualties. They did not wear khaki. They were not mounted on horseback, but were foot soldiers in the same dark blue uniforms of the U.S. cavalry as worn during the Indian Wars. Roosevelt's group actually took a nearby Hill against light resistance but Hearst said that would not sell newspapers so he created an American Myth. So as we see, here is something taught to children in schools as history is just not true at all, but yet, this myth shaped the true history of the world in  the 20th century and beyond.

            If Teddy Roosevelt had not been elected president, neither would his nephew, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who provided very real and crucial leadership during the Great Depression and the Second World War. Neither would Theodore Roosevelt have built the Panama Canal or established the conservation of our natural resources. So here we see Modern Myth not only influencing, but creating History. In reality, I perceive Theodore Roosevelt was a much greater president than history gives him credit for. Although it is true his kindness created the "Teddy Bear", he really was also fit and trim, vigorous and active, and a very tough president in his foreign policies. He was instrumental in America's emergence as a world power. It is also true that he came from the upper upper class - old money in New York with a background of great wealth and limitless luxury and chose to be an outdoorsman, a cowboy, and soldier. When he was given office, he embraced the concept of being a good Shepherd , of seeking justice for all Americans - for this he was called a" traitor to his class".

         Actually, he is the savior of his class. In my estimation, it is President Theodore Roosevelt who is most responsible for the end of the then imminent threat of communist revolution or takeover in America. Throughout the early 20th century Socialist Revolutions were sweeping across the globe. Conditions for the workers in America were appalling. Child Labor, dangerous working conditions, ungodly long hours, degradation, and shockingly low pay. When Karl Marx wrote his "Communist Manifesto" he never dreamed of an affluent MIDDLE class. A middle class that is comfortable and savoring, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is not going to rise up in murderous anger and "Storm the Bastile". What Global Communism could not contend with was America's happy and prosperous middle class. Theodore Roosevelt practically invented America's affluent middle class and eliminated the threat of Communist revolution in America.  Although he was well loved, he was also hated and caught tremendous heat from the wealthy elite for sharing a small portion of their wealth with the common man. He saved them from a Second American Revolution by customizing capitalism to a kinder, gentler form than the horrors of the late 19th century. Like General Winfield Scott, who won The American Civil War before it started, he defeated his foes with an idea. If the Robber Barons had had their way, their greed could well have caused America to fall to communism. Today, we have a new generation of robber barons but no Teddy to stand up for the little guys. I feel the true history about American President Theodore Roosevelt is more amazing than the myth, but they are interwoven and inseparable, without the one, we would not have the other. He was both a glorious and a tragic figure. As a leader and as a man I believe he is badly underestimated. It was only when his beloved son, nicknamed "Quinnykins" died fighting in World War One that he finally saw through all the myths and glamour to see the awful truth about war face on. He never got over his guilt for glorifying war to his son. We could all learn a lot from his experiences.

        War costs money...trillions of dollars. War takes human lives...millions of them! War makes children old, breaks parent's hearts, kills morale. War destroys cities, art treasures, civilization! The first world war alone cost thirty million lives and 4 trillion dollars when adjusted to the buying power of modern U.S. dollars. With the money at the time we could have built a three bedroom two bath house furnished with fine hardwood furniture on five acres of quality land for every family in The United States, Canada, Australia, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, Belgium, Germany and Russia. There would have been enough left to build and stock a first class library and a proper university in every town of 20,000 people or more. Out of the balance we could pay the salaries for life of 125,000 teachers and 125,000 nurses. The remaining balance could have bought 1919 Belgium and France and everything in them.

           I see History as an endless waltz. Three beats over and over. War, Peace, and Revolution. Three beats over and over in an endless cycle of death, destruction, and regeneration. An Endless Waltz... and those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to dance this deadly waltz and pay this Frightful price for War. As modern technology such as jet aircraft and thermonuclear missiles make the world smaller & more dangerous everyday, tolerating each other's racial, social, & religious differences & living together in peace has now become key to the continued survival of mankind through the 21st century...

~H D Johnson 2003

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Essay One:

Realistic Art: THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME...

(A Brief essay dealing with attitudes toward Traditional Realistic Paintings, Pastels, Colored Pencils and Art Numérica )

"Painting, in art, the action of laying colour on a surface, or the representation of objects by this means. Considered one of the fine arts"

~Encyclopaedia Britannica. 

"Painting. noun. 1.) The act or employment of laying on colors or paints. 2.) The art of forming figures or objects in colors on canvas or any other surface, or the art of representing to the eye by means of figures and colors any object; the work of an illustrator or painter. 3.) A picture; a likeness or resemblance in shape or colors. 4.) Colors laid on. 5.) Delineation that raises a vivid image in the mind; as in word painting.

~ Webster's Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language

Soft Pastels, Acrylics, and Colored Pencils combined

    Snobbism in the arts is nothing new. Some people will tell you that oils are the only valid medium for realistic paintings. That Colored Pencil, Digital, and other Realistic Painting and Drawing Media are not valid  for "real" art. Young artists, Don't let them bother you. Their forerunners used to condemn Pastels before they gained acceptance and called them "crayons" when Johann Alexander Thiele (1685-1752) invented them.  Mercilessly disrespectful art critics of the time could not stop the Experimentalists no matter how viciously they attacked and derided them. "Crayon-painting" as it was called in England was practiced early on by persecuted pioneers in Switzerland and many other nations. What a debt we owe to these master artists who refused to knuckle under to the pressure of those short-sighted critics during those historic and experimental times. It took until 1870 with the founding of the "Societe` Des Pastellistes" in France that respect came  at last to these heroic & immortal visual artists.

        In England the liberation of the Pastellists from slight regard and undeserved disrespect came with the first exhibition of "The Pastel Society" at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1880. Pastel Painters like Mary Cassat and others from America and other nations forever silenced  the snobs with their masterworks and gained recognition at long last for Thiele's invention as a valid art medium. I am persuaded that history will repeat itself.  Like Pastels, I believe these wonderful new colored pencils and even Digital Realistic Art Media will one day receive the recognition they deserve as powerful mediums of artistic expression just as pastel paintings did. What is your definition of art? Have you thought about it?

Mine is: "anything that makes you feel or think."

     Consider dancing... it can be a little skip in the step or rise to the level of the incomparable Russian Ballet. Did you know that just the materials alone for a single oil painting cost up to a thousand dollars these days? Did you know that they are toxic? Even paying the artist less than minimum wage no one but the super rich can afford them anymore. Something's got to give. Realistic paintings in oil have been highly prized for centuries and the appeal and following of realistic art is undiminished to this day. Oil paintings featuring Abstract Art and Realistic Art are generally the most treasured form of all the visual art media and with good reason. But snobbish art critics  favoring abstract art have declared  that realistic paintings, or illustrations are not art for a century. With so many representationalist  paintings by so many immortal master artists hanging in the Louvre, the Hermitage, and the British Museum and others I think the disrespect for realistic illustrators that dominated the 20th century is academically ridiculous as well as vain and intolerant, insisting theirs is the only valid opinion. What is your definition of Art? I believe almost any form of human expression can be raised to the level of "high art" especially  visual art and Realistic illustration...

      By my own definition of art, which is: "anything that makes you feel or think" most abstract paintings are not "real art"to me personally, because abstract paintings usually neither make me feel or think,  generally focusing obsessively on technique and avoiding any coherent content. I usually draw a complete blank mentally and emotionally when I look at them. In 1979 the Houston Metropolitan Museum of Art displayed a triptych of 3 giant paintings they paid fifty thousand dollars for-  three blank white canvasses entitled "untitled". Then there was "The incredible new artistic Genius" with an I.Q. of 62 ...Congo the chimpanzee with his gala New York art exhibition...an elaborate prank played on the Snobbish American Art critics about a generation ago by research scientists in the field of primatology. Imagine how upset they were when he created one of his "ingenious masterpieces" right before their eyes.

( My Source for this is the Time Life Science Library volume entitled "The Primates". )

      Art education has been almost completely removed from American Schools as a result of generations of this kind of  fabulous nonsense contributing to America's cultural illiteracy crisis. Now, the works of Leonardo Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, and other notables are being removed from school libraries.  After generations of this, most American college graduates today cannot name even one living visual artist, abstract or realistic.

There is no way that mandating more math, requiring more reading, or scheduling more science will replace what we have lost as a culture.    

What is your definition of Art?

~HDJ

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But how does this new Digital Art media fit in with formal definitions of Art?

       Art ( noun ) [ Middle English, from Old French, from Latin ars (stem art-). ] 1. Human effort to imitate, supplement, alter, or counteract the work of nature. 2. The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colors, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty; specifically, the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium. 3. The product of these activities; human works of beauty, collectively. 4. High quality of conception or execution, as found in works of beauty; aesthetic value. 5. Any field or category of art, such as painting, music, ballet, or literature. 6. A non-scientific branch of learning; one of the liberal arts. 7. a. A system of principles and methods employed in the performances of a set of activities: the art of building. b. A trade or craft that applies such a system of principles and methods: pursuing the baker's art. 8. A specific skill in adept performance, conceived as requiring the exercise of intuitive faculties that cannot be learned solely by study: the art of writing letters. 9. a. Usually plural.  Artful devices; stratagems; tricks. b. Artfulness; contrivance; cunning. 10. In printing: Illustrative material as distinguished from text.

~ The American Heritage College Dictionary of the English Language

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