Some Odds and Ends

This post is talk about some odds and ends, I want to thank everyone who has read my blog and continues to read it, to explain a comment I got and to shamelessly plug some other projects that I am working on.  First off "The Weaving Chronicle" has just reached over 2000 views! This may not seem like much, but it is a pretty big milestone for me as a young historian and writer.  So thank you to all of you read and support my blog. An equally big milestone, is that I had my first comment that challenged a statement I made in a post! I have had comments posted by friends who offered encouragement (very grateful for those too)!  When I saw that I had a comment, I had to check it right away!  And when I read it, my heart sank a little bit but then I reminded myself that criticism was better than silence and the author was not rude or abusive.  So I thanked the commenter and did a mental fist pump at actually having interest in my blog posts.  Here is the comment in full.

I have to say that, bearing in mind the examples that you gave, implying that "walls actually have a poor success rate throughout history" is not entirely substantiated. Walls are physical barriers intended to keep people (and other critters) out or in. The Great Wall of China did eventually fail, but it also held back scores of other previous invaders. The Maginot Line failed as a wall because it was not complete; the lack of end points and gaps made it more of nuisance than an actual physical barrier. The other examples (the Berlin Wall and the Korean Border) worked splendidly for their intended primary and secondary purposes: secondary to keep people out, primary to keep people IN. If their intent was solely political in nature, I would agree that they failed in compelling sympathy toward their respective causes, but as physical barriers they were quite effective.

The author makes some good points.  

Criticisms and rebuttals are important to the study of history, as a professor once said “History is a conversation.” History is not hear say, repeating whatever you have been told. It is a back and forth, trying to understand the past better.  Here are my reasons for maintaining my opinion:

The Great Wall of China did stand for many years before the Mongols conquered China and established the Yuan Dynasty but the point is the wall did fail.

The Maginot Line did not fail because it was unfinished, it failed because it was an outdated stratagem against a superior form of warfare.

The Berlin Wall did its job very well however there are stories of people still getting passed that obstacle (see the link http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/07/berlin-wall-escape-stories_n_6090602.html). That being said the reason it was so successful is the same reason why the 38th parallel is so successful because of men, mines (there were no mines in Berlin that I know of) and machine-guns. I for one would not want to see such a structure raised in Texas.  My point is that walls have failed over the years and will continue to fail. Those that have done their job well, is not because the wall was too high or thick but because of the threat of force against those who try to cross it. From ancient China around the globe and to modern Korea.  A wall will not protect the United States nor make it great.

I am very grateful to "unknown" for the comment and please continue to comment, let me know where I missed it, nailed it or if you have an idea for me to write about let me know.

Here is the shameless plug.  If you like what you see here, like me on face book https://www.facebook.com/Historianforeva/?view_public_for=299851710031447 and follow me on twitter https://twitter.com/Historianforeva

I and some friends of mine are working on a project called Popstorian! It talks about the history of film, music, comic books and all things pop-culture-ish. You can like the Facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/PopStorian/?view_public_for=1423293254642909 and follow our twitter here, https://twitter.com/PopStorian!