Introduction

Hello everyone, 


I am Nathaniel McCain, I live near Sasabe, Arizona on a cattle ranch that controls and grazes about 100 square miles, our south fence line is the famous border fence, which is an impressive four strands of barb wire that won't even keep a cow on one side or the other, let alone a person looking for a better life or a narco trafficker.  I have worked mostly in the dude ranching, outfitting, horse trading and colt starting business for the last fifteen years but am working on a career change, I just don't bounce like I did when I was eighteen.  


I went to college in Walla Walla, Washington right after I graduated from high school, but it didn't really take.  Like Edward Abbey's Henry Lightcap, "I was a philosophy major (well second lieutenant anyway)."   I have long been an amateur history student, I read constantly and prefer well written non-fiction.  


I started taking online courses at ASU in the spring of 2011, so far I have taken Arizona History, Europe in World History since 1789, History of the Modern Middle East, Dr. Barnes' Witchcraft and Heresy in Europe, Latin American History, and the History of Modern Southeast Asia.  This semester I am, clearly, taking HST 300, as well as China, Japan and East Asia in World History, Immigration and Ethnicity in the United States, and a Political Science class on world politics.  


As I study history, I am fascinated by the way that patterns repeat over time and in different locations.  As an example, last semester I had Latin American History, History of the Modern Middle East, and the History of Modern Southeast Asia.  All three areas were colonized by the European powers, fought for independence, and suffered through corruption and various dictatorships or other repressive governments.  Some have eventually found a path to freedom and rule of law, some are on the verge of finding that path, and some are still searching.  I think that understanding the roots of these kinds of patterns could be a step toward improving the world as it is today, although I could be totally wrong and it may turn out that there is no hope.


My girlfriend is English and lives in Birmingham, England, so I travel to the UK a couple of times a year, I will be there for the second half of January this year.  There is of course lots of history around the UK, I prefer the Victorians, there seems to have been something in the culture of the time that produced wonderfully audacious people that did impossible things without ever doubting their eventual success.  My current favorites are Isambard Kingdom Brunel the great engineer and Sir James Brooke the "White Raja of Sarawak."