Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it
You likely heard that our outgoing President, in one of his last paroxysms of awfulness, released the report of his “1776 Commission” yesterday. This report makes broad claims: “presenting a definitive chronicle of the American founding, a powerful description of … Continue reading God Bless The History Thread
Hoped to get back to more substantial headers this week, but truth be told I’m still processing Nightmare Week and didn’t feel up for writing anything. Feel free to comment and discuss whatever you want (within reason) below. Continue reading The Shell-Shocked History Thread
Welcome to the first History Thread of 2021! Sadly it’s a lazy one, as I didn’t have time to prepare a proper header. But it is the anniversary of Alfred Dreyfus’s degradation, so you can read this piece from the … Continue reading The Degraded History Thread
On December 29, 1890, the Indian Wars climaxed with the Wounded Knee Massacre, where the 7th US Cavalry killed 300 members of the Miniconjou and Hunkpapa Lakota. The massacre’s immediate causes were the government’s decision to dissolve the Great Sioux … Continue reading History Thread: The Last Ghost Dance
Welcome to this week’s History Thread! I didn’t have time to prepare a full article, but I did discover the story of William and Ellen Craft, two slaves from Georgia who made a remarkable escape from captivity in December 1848. … Continue reading The History Thread Escapes!
Sorry that I didn’t have time to prepare a proper thread this week, but I did find another delightful Whig Party cartoon circa 1844. This one assures us that Henry Clay will beat James K. Polk because Polk will step … Continue reading The History Thread Has Fundamental Objections
This week’s header uses as its starting point a neat article about recent efforts by amateur culinarians to recreate ancient recipes and cooking styles. The main focus is the recreation of Egyptian bread by Seamus Blackley (creator of the XBox!?!) … Continue reading The History Thread Gets That (Egyptian) Bread
On November 24th, 1965 General Joseph Mobutu formally seized power in the Republic of Congo. Mobutu was a member of the Ngbandi people, long looked down upon by Congolese as a backward agrarian people. During the ’50s, he served the … Continue reading History Thread: A Brief History of Mobutu’s Zaire
The global society in which we live in today is just a ceiling tile on the top floor of the towering skyscraper that is human history. It stretches back two hundred thousand years, from the point in the fossil record … Continue reading My Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandfather Could Have Done That: Ancient Art from around the World
Another week, another History Thread I didn’t have time to write. Mea culpa, hopefully we’ll return to substantial headers soon. As usual, you’re invited to discuss anything and everything history-related. Continue reading Same Old History Thread
The History Thread returns! We’ve all survived an acrimonious presidential election, so let’s keep it laid back this week. Header is a political cartoon from the 1852 race between Franklin Pierce and Winfield Scott. Hope to return to regular headers … Continue reading The History Thread Gets Whiggy With It
Welcome all! It’s been a busy month here in the History Thread, and after the past few long-form articles I’m making a perfunctory header this week. Next week, I will be taking Election Day off. Mostly because I plan to … Continue reading The History Thread Takes a Break
Few poets achieve lasting fame or cultural impact: in that sense, at least, Ezra Pound deserves notice. The abrasive, brilliant writer from Philadelphia made his mark in the literary salons of London in the 1910s, in Paris during the “Lost … Continue reading History Thread: The Madness of Ezra Pound
On August 30, 1945 two American war corespondents entered Tokyo. The Second World War still hadn’t formally ended – Douglas MacArthur accepted Japan’s surrender two days later – but Clark Lee of International News Service and Harry Brundidge of Cosmopolitan … Continue reading History Thread: The Making of Tokyo Rose
What responsibility do artists have under dictatorships? Nazi Germany, with its obsessive control over entertainment, posed a particularly harsh dilemma to those unable to leave. Those who willingly collaborated, like directors Leni Riefenstahl (Triumph of the Will) and Veit Harlan … Continue reading History Thread: Gustaf Gründgens, Der Schauspieler
Due to work and a defective laptop, I didn’t have time to prepare my planned History Thread, Der Schranker must wait another week. Until then, enjoy this delightful caricature of Georgian nobility: A highlight of the exhibit was the pairing … Continue reading A Peep at the History Thread
This week, we’ll explore the myths surrounding German actor Max Schreck, best-remembered for playing the vampire Count Orlok in F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922). There’s a lot of misinformation about Schreck, some of it repeated by writers that should know better, … Continue reading Die geheime Geschichte von Max Schreck
Part One here. As 1868 dawned, Andrew Johnson grew bolder and his adversaries, increasingly frustrated. Washington life fell into a dismal pattern, observed French journalist Georges Clemenceau, that yielded only deadlock and chaos: At each session [Congress] add a shackle … Continue reading History Thread: The Saturday Morning Massacre
Andrew Johnson was a stubborn man. From his hardscrabble childhood in North Carolina, when he escaped from indentured servitude; as an unschooled Tennessee tailor who taught himself (helped by his wife Eliza) to read and write, developing a taste for … Continue reading History Thread: Andrew Johnson’s Dignity
Biological warfare is a practice known from antiquity. The titular character of Philoctetes, Sophocles’ 409 BC play, is a Greek hero who suffers from a festering leg wound caused by a poisoned Trojan arrow. The ancient use of poisoned arrows … Continue reading The Weekly History Thread Wages Biological Warfare and Helps Spread a Pandemic
Today, Rick Perlstein’s new book, Reaganland: America’s Right Turn, 1976-1980, hits bookstores. It’s useful to remember, as Perlstein continues exploring the Republican Party’s right turn between 1960 and 1980, the manufactured controversy surrounding his last volume, The Invisible Bridge, in … Continue reading The Plagiarized History Thread
