Lloyd Bowers | Discover Thrilling Stories: Divide the Country, Freedom as Public Utility, The Results of Polar Bear Research & Keep These In the Family

About the Author

Lloyd Bowers was born in Columbus, Georgia in 1952, graduated from Furman University in 1976, and has lived in Charleston, South Carolina since 2002.

The Results of Polar Bear Research is Lloyd's first novel and was published in 2007. Lloyd's next book, Keep These in the Family, is a collection of twelve stories and was published in 2010.

"I grew up in the South," says Lloyd. "The Southern Appalachians is a sort of fixed foot in my life, and the summer-time is a great time to gravitate unpredictably in social settings."

"Freedom is a Public Utility, published 2014, developed from the discovery of a stash of old family letters, dated 1812 to 1857, mailed to my great-great-grandfather John Siegling, who emigrated from Erfurt, Germany, and settled in Charleston in 1820. That he was en route, or 'unterwegs,' for five years impressed me.

"Divide the Country! was published February, 2020. It reflects my concern about the disunity, and even partisan hatred, that plagues the U.S."

Latest Posts

16 May 2024

Hoffer and Conservatives

I had a curious feeling when I started studying the history of political philosophies and economic models. Most intelligent or engaged Americans identify themselves as "Liberal" or "Conservative", or politically Left and Right. But "Liberal" in the late-19th century referred to the burgeoning new class of wealthy entrepreneurs, who benefited from the capitalization of industry. Liberal politics defined the freedom of a citizen to start any business he wanted, without government permission. He only had to purchase a business-license.

14 May 2024

Hoffer and Selfhood

I had a relationship with a woman a long time ago that sticks in my mind, as a determinant for a lot of my thinking about things. She picked quarrels with me out of thin air, on the flimsiest pretexts. She never trusted me, and I suggested several times that we break up. Each time I said it, she hit the roof with indignation, No matter what I did, she found fault with me—damned if I did, damned if I didn't!

10 May 2024

Hoffer and Minorities

In the old days, I used to stay at budget hotels on Interstate 26, between Greenville and Charleston, in South Carolina, and on Interstate 85, between Greenville and Columbus, Georgia. Nearly all of them were run by Asians. Immigrants. They also ran nearly all of the convenience stores that lined the interstates. In Greenville, immigrants ran many of the fast-food restaurants, tailoring shops, and liquor stores—many of them from Greece or Lebanon.

06 May 2024

Eric Hoffer and the Dynamics of Hatred

In True Believer, Eric Hoffer studies the components of a mass-movement, in order to explain its origins, instigators, and intentions, and its role in rebellions and revolutions. True Believer deserves renewed attention in contemporary America, in light of the renewed risk of revolution shaking the earth under our feet, as we speak.

01 May 2024

Eric Hoffer on the American Political Crisis

The longshoreman philosopher Eric Hoffer published his landmark book True Believer in 1951. Hoffer described it as his Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements (in an under-title). For me, True Believer does more than that. He profiles the players in a political crisis, analyzes their intentions, and studies their motives. A reader has to understand his perspective on this subject—the atrocities of the Third Reich and the Soviet Union.

29 Apr 2024

The Gold Standard

In 1927, an American aviator Charles Lindbergh made history when he flew across the Atlantic Ocean in the “Spirit of St. Louis.” He lifted off from Roosevelt Field on Long Island on May 20 and landed again 33.5 hours later at Le Bourget Aerodrome outside Paris. The flight covered an astounding 3600 miles.

26 Apr 2024

Revenue and Documentary Stamps

When I started collecting stamps, I discovered a category of stamps called "revenue stamps," also known as "documentary stamps." Essentially, the U.S. government decided it needed more money to cover its expeditures, so it started taxing everything. We modern Americans think we have such a tough time with the high taxes. In 1862, the Federal Government faced increased expenses related to fighting the Civil War against the rebellious Confederacy, so it taxed everything in order to cover the costs of fielding an army and equipping it.

23 Apr 2024

Founding Father Credo: Immanuel Kant

Patrick Henry had his fifteen minutes of fame when he said, "Give me liberty, or give me death!" Many people since his day have made similar statements in support of political or ethnic causes. Military leaders have uttered a variation of his ultimatum: "Victory or death!" The succession of ultimata have eclipsed Patrick Henry's. He is too generic to carry weight in the world of competing causes.

20 Apr 2024

Founding Father Credo: Alexander Hamilton

Abraham Lincoln more or less lucked into the Presidency—or unlucked into it, depending on how you view his career as President. His rugged looks and rural, ax-wielding background lent more to his reputation than it should have. The level of destruction caused by the Civil War suggests that he did not have the right credentials to help the nation avoid the catastrophe—enough education, basic diplomatic or social skills enable him to jaw instead of war. Lincoln was too much a creature of his political party—in debt to the political bosses—rather than the leader of it.

18 Apr 2024

Founding Father Credo: John Adams

When I think of the important persons who helped found our nation, who did the fighting to free the nation from the British, who studied the lessons of history in order to build a hugely successful land of opportunity, and undergird it with first-rate foundational documents, I do not think right away of fFrancis Scott Key. He played an important role aguing cases, including many before the Supreme Court, and functioned as a sort of attorney general in the government of the young nation.

16 Apr 2024

Founding Father Credo: James Madison

Benjamin Franklin's credo sounds like a generic, laid-back aphorism, spoken from a rocking-chair by someone's retired, church-minister uncle. Numerous academics try to paint Franklin as a sort of hippie-prototype, and he wasn't like that at all. You get a better idea of his personal convictions in Poor Richard's Almanack, published in 1733.

13 Apr 2024

Founding Father Credo: George Washington

George Washington spent much of his life commanding the Continental Army against the British and keeping the fight alive, and then leading the young United States as its civilian President; but the quote attributed to him, selected for the Credo stamp series—"Observe good faith and justice toward all nations."—fails to sum up the man, his beliefs, or gravitas. The quote is too generic, too laid back. Any moralizer could talk about "good faith and justice." We hear stuff like that everyday. I prefer this quote from Washington, from a letter to James Madison:

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