Opinion and Commentary from Dennis M. Spragg, historian and author of America Ascendant, the Rise of American Exceptionalism and Glenn Miller Declassified. Firstly, Dennis offers insight and perspective from his extensive and groundbreaking research. Next, he links American history with current events to demonstrate genuine American exceptionalism, in a relevant and objective manner.
Moreover, Dennis’ published works, available from the Potomac Books imprint of the University of Nebraska Press, contain many important insights for today’s Americans, as they consider, value and emulate genuine the exceptionalism of their liberal democratic republic. His articles offer valuable, entertaining and informative perspective.
America Ascendant, the Rise of American Exceptionalism contains a treasure trove of relevant and timely facts that matter in today’s critical conversations about America’s national purpose and direction. Likewise, Dennis’ opinion and commentary puts specifics such as America First in clear focus and accurate perspective. Therefore, from presidents to policies, his view of America’s cultural history is a breath of fresh air. Military and political reviewers praise his prose and perspectives.
Glenn Miller Declassified, like America Ascendant, includes unique content about the remarkable Government and Media alliance of World War II. The alliance defined American Exceptionalism while everyday Americans proved it on the battlefield. Moreover, the music of Glenn Miller was the soundtrack of the wartime era. Major Glenn Miller was not only America’s #1 bandleader but a genuine patriot. However, Glenn Miller Declassified goes beyond his achievements and how he fit the wartime government-media alliance. Consequently, Dennis proves what really happened when Glenn Miller disappeared on December 15, 1944, and why Glenn Miller matters.
In conclusion, opinion and commentary by Dennis M. Spragg is always refreshing, thought provoking and worth the read.
WHITE HOUSE AND CONGRESSIONAL INITIATIVES Firstly, here is an update regarding our Glenn Miller Medal of Freedom and military honors initiative. As published in Glenn Miller Declassified: “Major Alton Glenn Miller, Air Corps, Army of the United States, confidently boarded the wrong aircraft on the wrong day to do his …
THEN AND NOW America First was a provocative movement in 1940 and it remains controversial eighty years later. America First as advocated in 1940 was incompatible with genuine American exceptionalism. Likewise, the 2020 version of America First is often confused with the original movement. But it is different. Therefore, let …
NATION OVER PARTY STATESMANSHIP Unlike Wendell Willkie, the 1940 Republican presidential candidate, many modern politicians and media appear institutionally incapable of objective reasoning. However, Willkie’s story proves that there was a time when bipartisan statesmanship was possible in Washington. Furthermore, we misunderstand the isolationist opposition to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s …
AMERICA GOES NUCLEAR At 5:29 a.m. Mountain War Time on July 16, 1945, the United States detonated the first nuclear weapon, an atomic device code named Trinity, in the Jornada del Muerto desert about thirty-five miles southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, on the Army Air Forces’ Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery …
RESOLVE AND RESTRAINT We remember Korea as an example of American resolve and restraint. Firstly, seventy years ago, in January 1950, U. S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson implied that the Korean Peninsula lay outside the defense perimeter of the United States. Then, on Sunday July 25, 1950, at 4:00 …
DEFEATING THE INVISIBLE ENEMY PANDEMIC CHALLENGES COVID-19 is certainly not America’s original invisible enemy. The deadly 1918-20 Spanish Flu pandemic certainly comes to mind. The nation that defeated infantile paralysis in the 1950s (and other childhood afflictions) will conquer our current challenge. Although an American president must rely upon medical …
HOW GLENN MILLER’S MUSIC DEFINED A GENERATION “Moonlight Serenade” is my essay appearing in the November 2019 edition of Smithsonian Magazine. It honors Glenn Miller and his famous recording. Moreover, it appears on the seventy-fifth anniversary of his disappearance. Here is a link to my Smithsonian essay, which also appears …