Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it
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
On May 12, 1898 American warships appeared off the coast of San Juan, Puerto Rico. After two months of blockade, and several failed attempts by Spanish warships to break it, the Americans prepared a land invasion. On July 25, American … Continue reading How We Got Here: The Ponce Massacre and Contempt for America’s Colony
Welcome to this week’s History Thread! This week we’re going to discuss ideologies in history: political, philosophical, religious or other. I’m casting the net as broadly as possible to encourage a wide-ranging discussion. What systems of government or economics have … Continue reading The Ideological Weekly History Thread
January 11, 1871 was Victoria Woodhull’s moment to shine. With Congress addressing women’s suffrage for the first time, Woodhull – thirty-three year old, strikingly beautiful and intensely charismatic – received the honor of addressing them. She had the blessing of … Continue reading How We Got Here: Victoria Woodhull’s War
Welcome to this week’s history thread! This week’s discussion topic: What is your primary resource for learning about history? Do you read books, like a nerd? Do you watch documentaries, also like a nerd? Do you watch a movie/read a … Continue reading The Weekly History Thread Learns
Note: This week’s planned article, a follow-up on last week’s article about Vladimir Putin, has been postponed. I didn’t have time to write an original piece from scratch, so I’m revising something from my personal archive again. On February 2, … Continue reading How We Got Here: The American Protective League, the Wobblies and the “War on Slackers”
Welcome to this week’s History Thread! This week our discussion topic will be turning points in history. Big or small, obvious or subtle, there are specific lives or events that made an impact on history more than a single day … Continue reading The Weekly History Thread
“With the recent developments in Eastern Europe, do you think that Communism is on the decline, or is this just a temporary setback?” This was the question Mike Myers posed to the band Aerosmith on a Wayne’s World sketch on Saturday … Continue reading How We Got Here: Moscow Is Silent
Welcome to this week’s History Thread! I’ll be lazy and proclaim this an Open Thread where you can discuss whatever you like. Today’s picture: April 3rd, 1895 marked the beginning of the trial against John Douglas, Marquess of Queensberry for … Continue reading The Libelous Weekly History Thread
Welcome back to How We Got Here! After surviving the Adams Administration, I’ll take it easy this week by reposting an old blog article. If parallels with modern events seem more explicit than usual, it’s with good reason, as I … Continue reading How We Got Here: Henry Clay Keeps America in Suspense
Part Five in a series; see Parts One, Two, Three and Four. By fall 1799, John Adams no longer found the prospect of war with France desirable. He toned down his belligerent rhetoric and dispatched a new peace commission, headed … Continue reading How We Got Here: The Prospect Before Us
Welcome to this week’s History Thread! This week’s topic: subjects you know nothing, or not enough about. No matter how much history you’ve studied, there are going to be blind spots in your knowledge. What are some subjects that, whether … Continue reading The Weekly History Thread Forgets
Part Four in a series; see Parts One, Two and Three. Following the XYZ Affair, war between the United States and France seemed inevitable. Diplomatic stalemate intensified French attacks on American shipping, triggering a vigorous response from American naval vessels. … Continue reading How We Got Here: Deceit and Weakness
Let’s close out the week with a few more trivia questions from the late 19th century. This is mostly an excuse to empty the old brain bucket of detritus I picked up doing research this week. NB – There was … Continue reading Shoeless Trivia: Fin de Siècle Miscellany
For what it’s worth, my definition of the Gilded Age here is a little bit broad, extending up until the turn of the century. The two monuments pictured below commemorate the same event, though each with decidedly different sympathies. What … Continue reading Shoeless Trivia: The Gilded Age
Welcome to this week’s History Thread! Because we’re running behind, I’ll be brief. This week’s topic is atrocities, whether murders or massacres or genocides or what have you. Not the cheeriest topic, but humanity has a long, hallowed history of … Continue reading The Weekly History Thread is Too Late!
Welcome to this week’s History Thread! Have fun and be historical! This week’s discussion question: Facts that changed your worldview. If you’ve studied history at all, whether as a history buff, a serious researcher or even someone with marginal interest in … Continue reading The Weekly History Thread
March 5 was the date of an annual, ancient Roman, nautical religious festival called Navigium Isidis (“Vessel of Isis”), which was dedicated to Isis, an ancient Egyptian goddess who had been reinterpreted by and for the Greco-Roman world. In the … Continue reading Happy Navigium Isidis!
Part III in a series; see Parts One and Two. On May 7th, 1798, a crowd of roughly 1,200 Philadelphians, mostly young men in their teens and twenties, gathered at Market Street for an impromptu rally. Some carried flags and … Continue reading How We Got Here: Deranged Affairs
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