A weekly thread about the past
I probably won’t be around too much today, but I wanted to put a thread up to inaugurate the Halloween season. Expect a return of Things That Are Not soon, I’ll be taking a look for historical myths and silly … Continue reading The Spooky History Thread
The post-WWII Red Scare is one of several historical topics I’ve revisited several times for this site. Here’s a chronological list of related columns, most of them written in 2019-2020, back when I was still trying themed series of articles. … Continue reading History Thread: The Avocado History of the Red Scare
Jonathan Eig’s biography of Martin Luther King Jr. comes at a time when his subject, more than ever, is the focus of controversy. Like many historical figures, “King’s life and lessons are often smoothed and polished beyond recognition,” creating a … Continue reading History Thread: Jonathan Eig’s King: A Life (2023)
Came across an old article in The Atlantic which summarizes the problems with the way history is taught in public schools. The thrust of the piece is about how focus on individual narratives and perspectives robs history of its richness: … Continue reading The History Thread Wrestles With History
As the weather (at least in this part of the world) heats back up to barely tolerable levels, I found a fun article by Tasha Marks of the British Museum, exploring the rise of ice cream in the 19th Century. … Continue reading The History Thread Cools Off!
Optional discussion prompt: What history subjects do you consider yourself most knowledgeable about, and how did you first become interested in them? Continue reading What Does The History Thread Know?
From 1912 through 1926, Japan was ruled by Emperor Yoshihito, better known as Taisho. The son of the legendary Meiji, who had “modernized” Japan and built it into a world power, Taisho was a weak man who suffered from chronic … Continue reading History Thread: Ito Noe and Taisho Feminism
Today is the anniversary of Emperor Hirohito’s surrender announcement, ending the Pacific Theater of World War II (although a formal surrender wasn’t signed until September 1st). Japan’s road to accepting defeat in the war was long and torturous, with the … Continue reading The History Thread Surrenders
This week’s History Thread welcomes in the end of summer. Continue reading The History Thread Celebrates Lúnasa
It’s become a pet peeve of mine that so many historians (particularly, though not exclusively, popular historians) offer German history. Germany itself is a relatively recent creation, of course, with a large number of regional and religious cleavages that endure … Continue reading History Thread: Christopher Clark’s Iron Kingdom (2007)
The History Thread is back! I did not have a chance to write a full review of Revolutionary Spring, Christopher Clark’s new book on the Revolutions of 1848, but hopefully a short write-up (originally posted on Goodreads) will suffice as … Continue reading History Thread: Mini-Review of Christopher Clark’s Revolutionary Spring
It’s common knowledge that fewer people are studying history as a major. There are a lot of reasons for this: the general difficulty in finding jobs in the field, the push towards STEM education over the humanities, the fact that … Continue reading History Thread: One Damn Thing After Another
In 1906, Imperial Germany had gained a reputation as one of Europe’s most belligerent empires. Only recently unified as a nation, Germany was showing impatience with its role under the mercurial Kaiser Wilhelm II. Its increasingly provocative policies had led … Continue reading History Thread: The Kaiser’s Friends
On June 13, 1971 the New York Times began publication of a secret study documenting the history of the Vietnam War. The so-called “Pentagon Papers” revealed that the United States government had systematically deceived the press, the American people and … Continue reading History Thread: The Pentagon Papers
June 6, 1944 is the date of the Allied landing in Normandy during the Second World War. In lieu of a long, original post here’s Dwight Eisenhower’s famous address to the troops before the operation: Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of … Continue reading The D-Day History Thread
I’d hoped to have a book review for this week’s History Thread, but circumstances intervened. Namely, I wound up purchasing 21 (!) books at the various Maryland thrift bookstores I visited last week, and didn’t have any money left for … Continue reading History Thread Unspools
If you grew up in the ’90s, watch a lot of Sci-Fi Channel reruns in the 2000s or spend any time on the Internet, you’re likely familiar with Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction. This anthology series ran on Fox from … Continue reading History Thread: Beyond Believable
It’s surprising, and perhaps disappointing, that the Church Committee isn’t better-known. In 1975, Senator Frank Church (D-ID) commanded headlines with his investigation of abuses by the American intelligence community, from domestic surveillance of dissidents to foreign assassinations. Two full-length books … Continue reading History Thread: Revisiting the Church Committee
This week’s History Thread celebrates Katherine Milhous, the famous artist and children’s book writer from the 1930s and 1940s. The daughter of Philadelphia Quakers, she was disappointed at the lack of popular art celebrating her heritage, along with Pennsylvania’s other … Continue reading The Katherine Milhous History Thread
No time for a big write-up so I wanted to feature this wonderful bit of T.E. Lawrence arcana that I just received in the mail: a 1963 reprint of T.E. Lawrence By His Friends. This is a festschrift compiled by … Continue reading The History Thread By Its Friends
Mercifully it’s been almost eight months since this thread’s Nixon-themed header, and what better time to bring back everyone’s “favorite” head-in-a-jar president? Because there’s been a recent flurry of Nixon releases. PBS just released a new American Experience documentary, “The … Continue reading History Thread: Nixon’s Back!!!
