Archive for History
I recently encountered a reference to Alger Hiss and a “Woodstock typewriter”; I went looking for more information, and found some really interesting history, which among other things touches on the rise of Richard Nixon. My only association with the name “Alger Hiss” was that he was a spy; I didn’t even know when or […]
I’m continuing to read/skim Fernand Braudel’s 1980(ish) The Structures of Everyday Life: The Limits of the Possible (volume 1 of his three-volume work Civilization and Capitalism, 15th–18th Century). I continue to find it a mix of fascinating and annoying—there’s a wealth of information here about what Braudel calls “material life” around the world during that […]
More about Fred Hampton, the Black Panther leader who was killed by Chicago police at age 21 in 1969. Starting with this 65-tweet thread (from 2020) about Hampton, and about ways in which we white Americans are often raised on lies about Black American history. Below are links to some of the pieces that that […]
I think I’ve had a couple of dreams in which I’ve tried but failed to look up info about the folksong “Oleanna.” In last night’s dream, I finally managed to do a web search on that term, but got no relevant results. But when I woke up, I did a real-world web search, and got […]
I'm watching Underground season 2, episode 1, “Contraband,” and I just got to a scene in which one of the...
Today is a Day of Remembrance: the 75th anniversary of FDR's executive order to incarcerate Japanese Americans. A bunch of...
I find the whole Mandela Effect thing intriguing. (A group of people remembering something that didn't happen.) Here's one I...
A friend asked this morning what the deal is with this Hamilton thing. Here's what I posted in response: It's...
Back in May, I posted about Hamilton, the new hip-hop Broadway musical about Alexander Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Ever since...
Back in January 2014, I attended folksinger John McCutcheon's annual Santa Cruz concert, a benefit (as always) for the Resource...
I just picked up the printed book of The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage, and so far it's regularly...
Yesterday someone linked to Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham Jail, and I realized that I had never read it...