Dean Schermerhorn's Blog

I now have read 655 pages in the Memoirs of Cordell Hull, carrying the story up to mid-1939.

This period has been interesting as it has dealt with U.S. relations with Japan during Japan’s expanding invasion of China. During this period Japan repeatedly harassed U.S. civilians and military forces stationed in China. Most notable was the sinking of the gunboat Panay by Japanese aircraft in 1937.

Hull also has deals with the Roosevelt administration’s reaction to Hitler’s annexation of Austria and then the demise of Czechoslovakia following the Munich conference.

While Hull was an early advocate of U.S. rearmament in the face of the threat from Germany, Italy and Japan, he and FDR were limited in their actions by the power of isolationists. These isolationists wanted the United States to withdraw further from any involvement with the growing aggression overseas.

The isolationists were represented most famously by Charles Lindbergh and in Congress by senators Hiram Johnson of California, Gerald Nye of North Dakota and William Borah of Idaho.

Especially painful for Hull was the isolationists’ blocking the removal of an arms embargo from neutrality legislation in 1939. Hull had ample evidence from U.S. diplomats that the House’s action encouraged Hitler to continue with his plans for war. Because of the isolationists’ vote, Hitler was convinced that the U.S. would not supply Britain and France with armaments. Thus he felt safe in planning to invade Poland, figuring that Britain and France would not have the strength to oppose him.

I finished reading just as Germany and the Soviet Union had signed their nonaggression pact in August 1939.

On my other favorite topic, errors in grammar or usage, I started noting errors that I hear spoken on news programs. So far I have noted two errors, both involving a failure to conjugate properly the verb to be:

“There is just five providers,” heard on the CBS Evening News by a reporter.

“Was there any co-conspirators?” heard on an MSNBC interview.

I will report more about these topics in future posts.

Since I am a writer and editor, I usually notice (and wince at) errors in grammar and word usage when I see or hear them. I once even started a blog devoted entirely to these errors. You can read that blog at deanblog.deanscribe.com. While I have not maintained that blog, I still run across enough errors to give me ideas for occasional entries in this new blog.

The error that I have noticed the most recently is the failure correctly to conjugate the verb to be in the third person. I notice this especially with the phrase “There is ….” I hear the phrase used too frequently to describe more than one object, as in, “There is many fish in the sea.” The correct grammar, of course, is, “There are many fish in the sea.”

Other examples abound of using the third person singular, is, when the plural, are, would have been the correct choice. I have not prepared for writing this entry by collecting more real examples, so I will do that for a future installment.

Besides the grammatical errors in its use, I have grown to dislike the prevalent use of “There is …” because the phrase seems so passive compared with using other, more active verbs.

On an entirely different topic, I just finished creating an iPod playlist that includes songs by the Flying Burrito Brothers, Bob Dylan from the Concert for Bangla Desh, Leon Russell from the same concert, the Grateful Dead, Eric Clapton (solo and with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers), Robert Johnson and B.B. King. That will give you some idea of my favorite rock and blues artists.

Thanks for reading. I look forward to writing my next installment.

I will start with some speculation about the possible contents of this blog.

One of the main topics that I plan to cover is my reading, that is, the book that I am reading at the time. I was a history major at Portland State University and at UC Santa Barbara, and I have read history almost exclusively since then. While I doubt that covering arcane historical topics will help me attract a large audience, I am more interested in attracting people with similar interests who might be more likely to follow my posts.

My current book is the two-volume Memoirs of Cordell Hull. He was Franklin Roosevelt’s secretary of state for most of FDR’s administration. I am a little over halfway through the first volume, up to about 1937. So far much of the story has concerned Hull’s focus on promoting a reduction of trade barriers.

Hull believed that more free trade would increase prosperity among all nations and help lift the world out of the Great Depression. Lower tariffs and expanded trade opportunities also would reduce friction among nations and reduce the chances of another war.

Hull also hoped to improve the chances for peace by having nations agree to reduce armaments. He did so, however, at a time when Hitler was rearming Germany, Italy was invading Ethiopia and Japan was threatening to attack China after having conquered Manchuria. I am just up to a chapter on Japan and China, so future posts will deal with that conflict.

I also will mention from time to time the music to which I am listening while writing this blog. For awhile that might be Vladimir Horowitz Live at Carnegie Hall almost exclusively, as I bought it recently for a birthday present. It consists of 41 CDs and a DVD and includes recordings from 1943 to 1978, so I have a lot of music that is new to me.

So that is my introductory post. I hope that you find this interesting and that you will return to read more.

Today I have started a new blog using WordPress. I did so initially to gain experience using WordPress, as I hear it mentioned often in connection with blogs. My other purpose is to give myself an outlet for writing beyond the topics for which I am paid.

I do not have a precise road map showing the direction in which this blog will take us. I will just write about topics that I find interesting and hope that you will continue on the journey with me. Your comments and ideas are welcome.