Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it
Welcome to this week’s History Thread! No discussion topic, just fun and learning! Today’s picture: On July 24, 1915 the SS Eastland, a passenger ship used for touring Lake Michigan, capsized while docked in Chicago. Exactly what happened is unclear, … Continue reading The Weekly History Thread Capsizes!
Part One of a projected series on the American far right during the Depression and New Deal. Besides inline citations, a bibliographic essay will be provided in the final article. On July 28, 1932, Washington saw the nadir of the Great … Continue reading How We Got Here: March of the Khaki Shirts
Welcome to this week’s history thread. As we’ve done for the past few weeks, I’ll dispense with a discussion question; it doesn’t seem to have seriously inhibited discussion, and it saves me the three brain cells I might otherwise expend … Continue reading The Weekly History Thread
Like many American presidents, Woodrow Wilson harbored contradictory impulses. He enacted progressive economic and labor reforms while racially segregating the Federal government. He spoke stirringly about spreading democracy abroad while suppressing civil liberties and arresting dissidents at home. He advocated … Continue reading How We Got Here: Appointment at Veracruz
History: A blast from the past! Today’s picture: July 10th is the anniversary of the Isshi Incident, a key moment in the early history of Imperial Japan. Soga no Iruka, the scion to the powerful Soga clan, was assassinated by … Continue reading The Weekly History Thread
Throughout the spring of 1850, New Orleans and other southern ports bustled with activity. Two sailing vessels and two ships were purchased and outfitted; a force of about 500 armed men began organizing throughout the Mississippi Valley, awaiting signals to … Continue reading How We Got Here: Narciso Lopez Dreams of Cuba
“General, I have been a soldier all my life. I have been with soldiers engaged in fights by couples, by squads, companies, regiments, divisions, and armies, and should know, as well as any one, what soldiers can do. It is … Continue reading The Weekly History Thread Can’t Take That Position
Welcome to this week’s History Thread! At this point, I’m inclined to call it yet another open thread and call it a day. Today’s picture: On June 26, 1975 two FBI Agents, Jack Coler and Ronald Williams, entered the Pine … Continue reading The Weekly History Thread
On June 20, 1949, Paul Robeson gave a speech at the so-called Paris Peace Conference, sponsored by the USSR. The American actor and singer, a leading black activist, was long associated with progressive causes, yet emerged from World War II … Continue reading How We Got Here: Paul Robeson’s Road to Peekskill
Welcome to this week’s history thread! This week we’ll discuss times you were wrong about history. Surely we’ve all held erroneous beliefs about historical events or people that we later came to realize were bullshit. Perhaps even unwittingly spread them … Continue reading The History Thread Admits It’s Wrong
This would make more sense closer to Bastille Day, but I was reading about it last night and I want to strike while the mental iron is hot. What sartorial name was given to the class of revolution minded commoners … Continue reading Shoeless Trivia: The French Revolution
I’m not the biggest fan of the color blue (black is my favorite, as edge-lordy as it sounds), but I do have a soft spot for a certain shade that is commonly called “Maya Blue.” True to it’s name, the … Continue reading The History Thread is Feeling (Maya) Blue.
Cats! Does the internet talk about cats enough? Are you sure? Betteridge’s Law dictates that the answer to that question would be “no,” so here’s some trivia about some famous or historical cats I’ve compiled in semi-chronological order to fix … Continue reading Famous And Historical Cats
Welcome to this week’s History Thread. Sorry about the past two weeks, WordPress issues prevented anything from posting. I’ll declare this an Open Thread where you can discuss anything history related that’s happened over the past few weeks. Today’s image: … Continue reading The History Thread is Back!
Picture the opening of a John Buchan or Ian Fleming thriller: an American general, languishing on inglorious reserve duty, is summoned across country without notice, then arrives at a train station where he’s contacted by a strange man wearing a … Continue reading How We Got Here: General Graves and the Siberian Shuffle
In the summer of 1918, American doughboys finally joined the desperate battles raging in France during World War I’s climactic days. Meanwhile, the 339th Infantry waited across the English Channel to join them. Dubbed “Detroit’s Own,” the 339th consisted of … Continue reading How We Got Here: American Polar Bears Meet the Bolsheviks
May 4, 1970 saw America’s tensions over the Vietnam War explode into violence. Shortly after Richard Nixon authorized an American “incursion” into Cambodia, thus expanding the war he’d pledged to end, backlash erupted on college campuses across the country. Unexpectedly, … Continue reading How We Got Here: The Hard Hats Strike Back
Note: Didn’t have time to research my planned subject this week; here, then, is a post combining two of my old blog posts on everyone’s favorite President. Richard Nixon took office with a bold strategy to end the Vietnam War. … Continue reading How We Got Here: The State Department and the Madman
Welcome to this week’s History Thread! This week’s topic: Terrorism. Everyone during this generation has lived under the shadow of terrorism, but it’s not a new phenomenon and goes back, in one form or another, all the way to distant … Continue reading The Weekly History Thread Blows Up!
In 1850, the United States of America stood on the edge of a precipice. The Mexican War added 529,000 square miles to the United States, re-sparking long dormant debates about the future of slavery. Southern slave owners had long maintained … Continue reading How We Got Here: Liberty at Christiana
Welcome to this week’s History Thread! It’s May Day, so we’re going to discuss labor and the history of labor activism. Today’s picture commemorates the famous Haymarket Riot in 1886, which led to May Day’s adoption as an international worker’s … Continue reading The Hardly Working History Thread
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