A weekly thread about the past
In October 1888 Ambrose Bierce published a short story, “Charles Ashmore’s Trail,” in the San Francisco Examiner. Bierce’s tale concerned a sixteen year old boy from Troy, New York who left home one snowy evening in 1878 to retrieve water … Continue reading History Thread: Three Missing Olivers
I did not have time for a detailed write-up this week but I came across a fascinating article investigating (and debunking) one of the most famous ghost photographs of all time: the ghosts of the SS Watertown. If, like me, … Continue reading History Thread: The Case of the Phony Sea Specters
Military incompetence is a common subject for popular history. Humans are nothing if not fallible, and studying our failures can be more illuminating than tired, propagandized tales of glorious victory. Hence well-received, engaging books like Cecil Woodham-Smith’s The Reason Why (1953), Russell … Continue reading History Thread: Charles Fair’s From the Jaws of Victory (1971)
In 1920 Chicago was a city of 2.7 million souls, swollen with returning Great War veterans, Eastern European immigrants and Black migrants from the South. The city gained a reputation as an area of tumult, corruption and violence. In July … Continue reading History Thread: Tracking The Ragged Stranger
I was born in 1990. I was born right on one of those era-dividing lines, even though I didn’t know it at the time and wouldn’t realise it until I began studying history as a teenager in the years after … Continue reading The History Thread Stands With Ukraine
Spiro Agnew was a man of many talents. A modestly effective Baltimore County executive, he became a race-baiting Governor of Maryland and Richard Nixon’s alliteratively-insulting Vice President, raining hellfire on hippies, reporters, activists and “radiclibs.” As Vice President, he was … Continue reading History Thread: The Literary Genius of Spiro T. Agnew
As I languish in my exile with only beef jerky and books to keep me company, here is a History Thread. Enjoy yourself but be warned to wash your hands after every post lest you join the Legion of the … Continue reading A Plague-Ridden History Thread
On this date in 1904, the Japanese Imperial Navy launched a surprise attack on the Russian Pacific Fleet at Port Arthur (modern day Lushunkou, China), initiating the Russo-Japanese War. Admiral Togo Heihachiro, Japan’s brilliant naval leader, planned to incapacitate the … Continue reading The Surprise History Thread
I didn’t make a thread in advance today because I had a doctor’s appointment. But it wrapped up sooner than expected, so accept this history thread. My one, my only weekly thread (that will last beyond this spring). If it’s … Continue reading The Persistence of the History Thread
Been reading a lot of biographies lately, so this seemed like a quick and easy prompt for the History Thread. What are some of your favorite biographies or memoirs? Least favorites? Looking for recommendations? This thread is for you. Continue reading The Biographical History Thread
In the 1810s, the British Empire’s domain in Africa consisted of coastal enclaves on the continent’s west and south. Having previously profited off the Transatlantic Slave Trade, British officials of Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast (modern Ghana) were now … Continue reading History Thread: MacCarthy’s Macaroni Massacre
It’s only human to wonder how things might have gone differently. And historians, or history buffs, have spent an inordinate amount of time wondering how events from the distant past might have differed. From fictional works like The Man in … Continue reading The Alternate History Thread
As I’ve mentioned in some of the past History threads, I’ve been doing a dive into some of the design aesthetics catalogued by folks at the Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute (CARI). While I’m currently just coming out of the 70’s … Continue reading The 00’s Aesthetic History Thread
It’s almost the end of another year. As America’s existential crisis continues and a pandemic rages across the world history can be, well, not always comforting but at the very least a welcome distraction from the horrors of our day-to-day … Continue reading The Year-End History Thread
What could history possibly matter to someone who is forced to relive the same month of their life, over and over again? For those of us who haven’t contracted with an alien ferret, though, it remains a source of endless … Continue reading The Homura History Thread
Eleftherios Venizelos had a vision for Greece. As young man on Crete, he had led a rebellion against its Turkish rulers in 1897, triggering British intervention and the island’s union with Greece. As Foreign Minister in the 1910s, he engineered … Continue reading History Thread: The Glass General and the Burning City
Braddon, Russell. The Siege: The Full, Horrifying Account of the Kut Disaster. New York: Viking Press, 1970. Originally published 1969. 352 pp. Some wars are so ill-conceived and badly-waged that even when successful, they seem a colossal waste. The Crimean War fascinates me … Continue reading History Thread: Russell Braddon’s The Siege (1969)
One of the key components to the success of the Vikings during the Viking Age was the ship. And the greatest innovation of the Viking ship, beyond the shallow draught or the clinker construction, was the sail. Sails first appeared … Continue reading The History Thread is Invaded by Vikings
From the beginning of his political career, Richard Nixon dodged accusations of financial impropriety. In 1950, hostile reporters claimed that notorious mobster Mickey Cohen donated to his Senate race against Helen Gahagan Douglas. His infamous Checkers Speech of 1952, while … Continue reading History Thread: Nixon Cash
For a few weeks every fall, American consumers are inundated with ads for a primal horror escaped from the bowels of McDonald’s: the McRib. This sandwich consists of ground, processed pork shoulder enticingly repackaged into a vaguely rib-shaped lump, slathered … Continue reading The History Thread Ponders the McRib
Sadly, I’m putting all my creative time and effort into anime writing right now, so I didn’t have time for a proper header this week. What else is new? Discuss whatever historical is going on in your world this week. Continue reading The Distraction History Thread
