History – Savannah Schaffer

Mises University 2014

July 22, 2014 July 22, 2014Culture, Economics, Education, History, Life, Politics

For those of you not aware of this…I am in Auburn, Alabama this week attending the Mises Institute’s Mises U. So far it has been just incredible, I am enjoying every moment of it. To follow the official posts, please visit the Mises blog. As time allows I am posting to my Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, so you can check it out there as well. I am excited to share more details next week, but the schedule is pretty intense and I can’t make any guarantees about additional posts this week. Just listen to the lectures and and follow along…

Book Blogging: The Odyssey, Book II – V

July 1, 2014 July 1, 2014Book Blogging, Culture, History, Literature

We had left off in Book I with Telemachus (Odysseus’ son) being challenged by Athena to leave his childhood behind and grow into a hero worthy of his father. So, appropriately, Book II is titled, “A Hero’s Son Awakens.” Telemachus carries out a well-intentioned but doomed attempt to intimidate the suitors who are literally eating his family out of house and home. Lacking their respect and having no “bite” to his “bark” they are not scared by his threats but instead pity his childish outburst of temper. Athena intervenes again and counsels Telemachus to go on a trip to visit…

Book Blogging: The Odyssey, Book I

June 19, 2014 June 19, 2014Book Blogging, Culture, Education, History, Literature

I’ve always had a fascination with Greek literature, and it seems that my interest is never satisfied. Even after doing a MOOC from Harvard last year on “The Greek Hero” I was excited to see another MOOC from University of Pennsylvania on Greek and Roman Mythology. So far—two weeks into the course—it has been amazing! The first book assigned to read for the class was The Odyssey. However, the reading is split up into three weeks, so for each week I’ll be reading 8 of the 24 books (aka chapters) of The Odyssey. You know you’re into Greek lit when…

Book Blogging: The Case Against the Fed

June 5, 2014 April 20, 2020Book Blogging, Economics, History, Life, Politics

In the last few weeks I’ve been thinking about what to do with my site. It has undergone a lot of transformations over the years. My site is a reflection of me, and like I’ve changed and evolved from my young high school self, this site has developed too. To reflect my reading projects and enjoyment of writing as a way to process what I learn, I am going to start doing something new, what I’m calling, “book blogging.” Up till now I’ve tried to write about books only after I read them completely through. But now I am going…

The Problem of Property

April 17, 2014 April 17, 2014Economics, History, News, Politics

There’s been a lot of controversy about the Bundy Ranch situation, and like basically every other high-profile news event, there’s an awful lot of hype associated with it. I’ve been following the story, but I haven’t dug into all the details. However, this article from the Mises Institute is a thought-provoking exploration of property rights in the West. While the 19th century “Wild West” was in some ways an excellent example of anarcho-capitalism, this freedom was eventually overshadowed by the federal government’s intrusion into the West and its claim on much of the land. Just as one could point to the…

Reflections on the Debate

February 5, 2014 February 5, 2014Christianity, Culture, History, Life, News

To preface this, I enjoyed live blogging the debate last night! Here’s my live blog post if you want to look at it. It was so much fun that I’m looking for another event to live blog, so let me know if you have any suggestions! In hindsight, I think it would have been helpful to give more details as to what was actually happening, to better contextualize the statements. But it was a good first attempt! What the live blogging did for me was capture my thoughts as I had them, so today I can just run through my comments…

What I Learned Last Week

February 4, 2014 February 4, 2014Christianity, Culture, Education, History, Life, Literature

It’s a bit awkward when you sit down to write a blog post about everything you learned last week and your mind goes completely blank. I know that I didn’t do much besides studying, but I don’t remember a thing, haha. At that point I pull out my trusty binder and refer to the prodigious notes created last week. And now I remember one thing: I got a 100% on my chemistry exam! That literally stunned me. I am not strong in science or math, so I’ve thought it impossible for me to do well in a subject like chemistry….

Frost and Woolf: Tradition and Modernity

January 30, 2014 January 30, 2014Culture, Essays, History, Literature

This is an essay I wrote last semester for my Ideas of the 20th Century course. The assignment was to explore two modern artists who had contrasting views about progress and modernity. Robert Frost, a 20th century American poet, opposed the disintegration of tradition. He called for a return to convention both in the content and structure of his poetry. Some poems directly confront the erosion of civilization; others indirectly support his conservative tendencies in the overall structure. Mending Walls is an early poem by Frost, published in 1914. The poem tells of two rural New England neighbors who meet…

Rousseau and Marx on Historical Progress

January 25, 2014 January 25, 2014Culture, Economics, Essays, History, Politics

This is an essay I wrote last semester for my Modern and Postmodern Philosophy class. For Rousseau, historical progress only further removes man from his natural state of living. He argues that the cultivation of civilized studies weaken the natural virtues of men; in his Discourse on the Arts and Sciences, Rousseau writes, “our souls have become corrupted to the extent that our sciences and our arts have advanced towards perfection.” He cites Romans of old as saying, “Since the learned men began to appear among us, good people have slipped away.” Rousseau attributes this decline to the intentional pursuit…

What My Day Looks Like

January 22, 2014 January 22, 2014Education, History, Life

Spending this cold winter’s day starting a Mises Academy course on The Interwar Years and enjoying coffee and hot chocolate : )

Category: History