In Tuesday’s Pearl Harbor post, I appended a little shout out to my home state’s role in ending the Russo-Japanese War. Well, just when you thought China had a monopoly on specious historical claims, here comes Maine and their splittist propaganda:
Really enjoyed your recent post on Pearl Harbor and historical absolutism. It’s somewhat difficult for me to hear anyone even suggest that the number of historical absolutists in America is fewer than elsewhere, because as an American living in the UK essentially all I hear about is how skewed our view of this or that historical event is. It breeds apologists of my fellow American expats, which I don’t love (when do Brits ever apologize for the situation they had such a hand in creating in Africa, to pick an atrocity out of a hat?).
I’m writing to note, however, that in fact you New Hampshire people–well, you can try to claim the Treaty of Portsmouth all you want, but the site of its signing in fact is in my home state across the border from Portsmouth. It’s somewhat confusing, but the Treaty of Portsmouth was signed at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, located in Kittery, Maine.
I know, I know,