There aren’t many historians whose deaths would occasion a lengthy obituary linked at the top of that section on the New York Times website. But there haven’t been many historians like John Keegan, widely regarded as the greatest military historian of his time (1934-2012). As it happened, when I saw the news of Keegan’s death … More John Keegan: “I have not been in a battle…”
I have gathered a posie of other men’s flowers, and nothing but the thread that binds them is mine own. So said American publisher John Bartlett of his most famous work, a compendium of quotations that is still in print today. While later editors went far beyond the founder’s favorite sources (the Bible and Shakespeare) … More Democratizing Bartlett’s: What Kindle Readers Highlight
Today: a second reflection inspired by Lauren Winner’s Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis. Read the first here. As you might guess from the title, Lauren Winner spends plenty of time alone with her thoughts in Still, but it doesn’t usually take more than a page or two before a relative or friend or pastor … More Reflections on Lauren Winner’s Still: The Potluck Church
Courtesy of three of my colleagues at Bethel University’s Department of History… We’ve been taking turns posting our summer reading lists at the department blog, AC 2nd. I’ve already posted my list on this blog as well; now here are a few of the titles listed by my more widely-read colleagues G.W. Carlson (GWC), AnneMarie … More Some (Mid)Summer Reading Suggestions
Let’s see… More than halfway through my summer vacation and so far I’ve only completed one of the books on my summer reading list. And that the shortest one. But if that’s all the progress I made, it’s okay, since the one book I crossed off the list was Lauren Winner’s Still: Notes on a … More Reflections on Lauren Winner’s Still: Writing
In part because he wrapped up the Republican race so quickly, it’s almost been treated as a footnote that Mitt Romney will soon become the first member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to receive the presidential nomination of a major American political party. As the Washington Post noted in a late … More The Mormon Moment
For once, it was easy this week to know where to start my post-vacation ritual of sifting through stacks of new publications requiring some reading attention: with Roger Olson’s article in the Summer 2012 issue of Christian Scholar’s Review, “Pietism and Postmodernism: Points of Congeniality.” A refined version of the second of two lectures he … More Roger Olson on Pietism and Postmodernism
I probably won’t get through all of these before classes start up again, but expect to see posts inspired by these books on my summer reading list: Peter Englund, The Sorrow and the Beauty: An Intimate History of the First World War Adam Hochschild, To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 … More My Summer Reading List
I’m still eighteen months away from teaching my new World War II history course for the first time, but I’ve been thinking about it this week after reading an interview with master spy novelist Alan Furst (whose new book, Mission to Paris, will surely appear on my summer reading list when it comes out next week). … More Moral Histories of World War II
This is a couple weeks old now, but in case, like me, you don’t happen read the L.A. Review of Books religiously but, like me, do happen to be a fan of Sherlock Holmes — and especially if, like me, your favorite pre-J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies are The Wrath of Khan and The Undiscovered … More Nicholas Meyer on Sherlock Holmes
The Pietist Schoolman 