In an informal survey of 109 professional historians conducted over a three-week period through the History News Network, 98.2 percent assessed the presidency of Mr. Bush was a failure while 1.8 percent classified it as a success.

Asked to rank the presidency of George W. Bush in comparison to those of the other 41 American presidents, more than 61 percent of the historians concluded that the presidency was the worst in the nation’s history. Another 35 percent of the historians surveyed rated the Bush presidency in the 31st to 41st category, while only four of the 109 respondents ranked the presidency as even among the top two-thirds of American administrations.

As Marc quoted in his post Obama already among best :

Like Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D.Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F.Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan - the most memorable of the 18 presidents who served in the last century - Obama seems likely to become an unforgettable personality who presided over a transforming administration….

Seems like Obama already has a good start.

The book Lincoln and His Admirals Begins with a gripping account of the attempt to re-supply Fort Sumter–a comedy of errors that shows all too clearly the fledgling president’s inexperience–Symonds traces Lincoln’s steady growth as a wartime commander-in-chief. Absent a Secretary of Defense, he would eventually become de facto commander of joint operations along the coast and on the rivers.

Marc writes about the book :

Weeks into his presidency, Abraham Lincoln was confronted with his first naval question: What to do about Fort Sumter? First, should he re-supply it–and risk war–or not and concede defeat, thereby giving the secessionist South a valuable bit of propaganda? Was there a diplomatic solution? To help answer these questions, he turned to men, most of whom he barely knew, with military, naval and diplomatic expertise.

You can read more of his book review on his blog the Spinning Clio: Where History and Politics Meet.

On 11 November 1918 at 11 am the guns of the Western Front fell silent after more than four years of continuous warfare. This year marks the 90th Anniversary of the Armistice, when Australians remember those who fought and died for our country in war and armed conflicts.

Letters and diaries held in the Memorial’s collections bring to light what soldiers were doing on the 11th of November and how they felt about their current situation. As would be expected, many of the diaries contain general entries about the weather and warfare.

The Australian War Memorial -blog brings you excerpts that were taken from those diaries.

Captain Walther states that “a pneumonia patient died today” and was buried at sundown. He mentions that at the funeral messages of sympathy “were received from other boats” and the “last post was played”. The Last Post is the bugle call that signifies the end of the day’s activities. It is also sounded at commemorative services such as Remembrance Day to indicate that the soldier has gone to his final rest. Sadly, Captain Walther was one of the soldiers who did not return from the war as he died of wounds in July 1916.(Diary of Captain Bernhardt Herman Walther. PR00937)

Quite a few soldiers from Illinois have participated In the second world war.
Now those Illinois veterans of World War II have their own website where thay can share their stories, memories and information.

One of the posts tells about an army Sergeant named Olyn A. Brockmeyer,he was born June 13, 1921 in Harvel, Illinois, Brockmeyer entered the U.S. army in 1942. He was a light machine gunner and reached the rank of a Sergeant.
This info and more was written by his children.

You can read more about Brockmeyer here and other ww2 Illinois veterans on ww2il.com.

On the 29 August 1938 exactly 70 years ago The British responded to the the Sudeten crisis.

You can read an interesting discussion here and I just couldn’t avoid comparing the way in which the west and mainly Britain of course responded to Hitler moves 70 years ago to the way even the smallest aggressions and invasion attempts are answered immediately by the west 70 years later.

In the context of the response of the West to the Russian invasion to Georgia and the Iraqi invasion to Kuwait at the beginning of the millennium and all the local East European wars in between.

I guess sometimes the lesson of history is so clear that it can’t be forgotten.