This week I went to see the extraordinary motion picture Lincoln, and it made quite an impression on me. It is an extraordinary film about an extraordinary man in extraordinary times.

The American Civil War was a war that changed the world; quite literally it changed the world, and it was the first and only war to my knowledge that was fought for the freedom of people who were slaves. The Steel battleships now used by navies all around the world, and repeating rifles and trench warfare, used to such disastrous effect in the First World War, all came from the American Civil War. When the first Iron Clad war ship was used in that war, every navy in the world was obsolete.