Chawnzmit, or That Sounds PC to Me!
When I talk to people about Helen C. Rountree’s book (which I mentioned earlier this week) telling the story of Jamestown from the Indian perspective, I’ve noticed an almost instinctive… Read More»
If Virginia Had Been Named for Henry VIII
Larry Gonick is one of my cartooning heroes, and after posting Kyle Baker’s version of the Nat Turner Revolt the other day, I decided to look for Gonick’s take on… Read More»
Pocahontas Takes One for the Team
Speaking of perspective, imagine you’re a Jamestown settler confronting the Powhatan people for the first time. Who are these dudes? Why do they do what they do? Your writing about… Read More»
'We exist—and then we don't'
Ta-Nehisi Coates on reading American history as a black man: Dave Chapelle has that great bit where he goes back in time with a white guy and sees Thomas Jefferson… Read More»
Why We're Online (Cont'd)
Artist Rob Matthews binds Wikipedia’s featured articles in “dysfunctional physical form” as a way “to question its use as an internet resource.” The picture speaks for itself, I guess, but… Read More»
Real People vs. the Smelly Ones
So much of the business of history is simply being alive to the possibilities and pitfalls of perspective. For instance, my view of an event is bound to be different… Read More»
The Loving Gets Started Early
New York City plans to celebrate Loving Day this weekend, commemorating (a little early) the June 12, 1967, U.S. Supreme Court decision in Loving v. Virginia. And yes, there are… Read More»
John Brown, Nat Turner, & Armed Embryos
In a post the other day, I mentioned that a blogger for the Atlantic had compared Scott Roeder, who allegedly murdered a doctor because he performed late-term abortions, to John… Read More»
Bedford's D-Day Memorial Struggling (Cont'd)
Virginia’s fifth district congressman, Tom Perriello, has introduced a bill in Congress aimed at saving the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford. An earlier post linked to news that the memorial… Read More»
Why We're Online
From the London Review of Books: The best one-volume encyclopedia in the world used to be the Columbia Encyclopedia, first published by Columbia University Press in 1935. In our house… Read More»
Recent Comments