Blog Archive
There and Back Again: On the Awesomeness of Road Trips (and some stats)
Along with chocolate frosted donuts at the local pool (a treat after swim lessons), road trips were the defining events of my childhood summers. My mother was not a fan of airplanes and so every August we would pile into the car before dawn on a Saturday and head out across the . . .
Read MoreThe Kindness of Strangers — and Friends and Family
There is much to love about road trips. Seeing towns, cities, and landscapes for the first time; that sense of being in control of your own fate; sampling local cuisines and cocktails. But for people like me, who think they like adventure but are actually not super-adventurous, road trips can also be . . .
Read MoreWhat’s in a List? Part 2: Here’s mine.
Last week on Historista I urged my academic colleagues to call attention to the best historians writing today (or the most inspiring works, or however else they would like to categorize such matters), in response to James McPherson’s list of old white dudes in his New York Times interview. In response, Kevin . . .
Read MoreWhat’s in a List?
I haven’t written about the academic profession much on Historista, mostly because such topics always seem a little “inside baseball.” But last week, the New York Times published a “By the Book” interview with James McPherson, professor emeritus at Princeton University and one of the most well-known historians of the Civil War . . .
Read MoreThis Girl Is On Fire: A review of Lifetime’s “Deliverance Creek”
Deliverance Creek, written by Melissa Carter. Produced by Nicholas Sparks. Lifetime, September 13, 2014 (Premiere). The best thing about the Lifetime original movie/”First Original Nicholas Sparks Television Event” may be its poster. A woman stands alone in a desolate landscape with stormy skies. Smoke billows up behind her. She is hunched over . . .
Read More(Un)Catalogued: Adventures in Historical Research
Beginning this week, I will be writing a regular column for JSTOR Daily, a new online magazine that “features topical essays that draw connections between current affairs, historical scholarship, and other content that’s housed on JSTOR.” In “(Un)Catalogued” (h/t to Paul Erickson for suggesting the title), I will be reporting on my . . .
Read MoreTracking Alonzo
On a chilly day in December 1861, an Iowa farmer and Colorado gold miner named Alonzo Ferdinand Ickis put on his Union uniform—what he called his “suit of Sam’s best”—and set out from Cañon City with ninety fellow soldiers in Company B, 2nd Colorado Infantry. Their destination was Fort Garland, a federal . . .
Read MoreThe Most Terrifying Guest Room in America
They say you can always go home again. This is certainly true for me; my parents are happy when I come home to visit. They put me up in their guest room, where I sleep surrounded by antique objects–most of which scare the living bejesus out of me. My mother has collected . . .
Read MoreLighting out for the Territories
Why do so few historians talk about the American Civil War in the West? And by “the West” I don’t mean the trans-Mississippi. I mean the vast stretches of high desert and the extensive mountain ranges west of the 100th meridian, where elevation and aridity make everything a bit more difficult: breathing, . . .
Read MoreHistory Bites
You probably think that I’ve got some sort of obsession with vampire TV shows and movies. But have you considered that perhaps this is because recent vampire TV shows and movies have an obsession with history? Most historians have not paid much attention to vampires; literary critics, on the other hand, have . . .
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