In the last two weeks of my Modern Europe course, we’ve twice run headlong into the hardest question historians ask: Why? First, I had my students read The Dynamite Club, John Merriman’s account of Émile Henry, a young French anarchist who threw a bomb into a crowded Paris café in 1894 — thereby, in John’s … More Terror, Secularization, and “Imaginative Understanding”
October 17, 1660 – Nine “Regicides” are drawn and quartered At the conclusion of the English Civil War in 1649, Parliament appointed “commissioners” to sit in judgment of the defeated king Charles I. He was sentenced to death, with the warrant signed by fifty-nine men. When the monarchy was restored under Charles’ son in 1660, … More This Week in History
Getting closer to revealing the best national anthem… Before we get to #4, let’s recap the top ten so far: 10. Greece, “Hymn to Liberty” 9. Uruguay, “National Anthem of Uruguay” 8. Russia, “National Anthem of the Russian Federation” 7. China, “Song of the Volunteers” 6. Japan, “Kimigayo” 5. Brazil, “The Brazilian National Anthem” If … More The Best National Anthems: The UK
A very special week in history, since we start with… August 29, 2011 – I make my 100th post at The Pietist Schoolman Namely, this one. How to properly assess the historical significance of this moment as compared to the other landmarks we’ll be commemorating today? Well, only time will tell, but I think we … More This Week in History
Part four of our romp through The Pietist Impulse in Christianity raises another deceptively simple question, “Was John Wesley a Pietist?” Even if one accepts a definition of “Pietist” that encompasses people other than early modern German Lutherans, Wesley is a controversial figure. He is included in Carter Lindberg’s popular collection, The Pietist Theologians, and … More The Pietist Impulse: Wesley
A series of posts taking you day-by-day through a proposed travel version of my course HIS230L World War I. Read the introduction to the series here, or the previous post here. Friday, January 11, 2013 – London For our last day in London, students will be given semi-free rein and set loose to work on … More The Challenge of Commemoration
A series of posts taking you day-by-day through a proposed travel version of my course HIS230L World War I. Read the introduction to the series here, or the previous post here. Thursday, January 10, 2013 – Oxford Already in this series, I’ve singled out several excellent movies that meditate on the First World War. Another … More Tolkien, Lewis, and the Memory of War
A series of posts taking you day-by-day through a proposed travel version of my course HIS230L World War I. Read the introduction to the series here, or the previous post here. Wednesday, January 9, 2013 – London …God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work … More Sing! Sing! Sing!
A series of posts taking you day-by-day through a proposed travel version of my course HIS230L World War I. Read the introduction to the series here, or the previous post here. Tuesday, January 8, 2013 – London Our initial burst of museum-touring will conclude today with a pair of brief introductions to European art ca. … More Nevinson’s War
A series of posts taking you day-by-day through a proposed travel version of my course HIS230L World War I. Read the introduction to the series here, or the previous post here. Monday, January 7, 2013 – London Well, I’ve put it off as long as I can: try as I might to argue that this … More The First War Documentary
The Pietist Schoolman 