Okay, one more Olympic post… Last fall I spent a couple of weeks attempting (with a big assist from my HIS354 Modern Europe students, and with tongue mostly in cheek) to determine the “best national anthem” — pointing out at least once or twice along the way that there’s really no objective way to determine … More The Best National Anthems: Special Olympic Edition
With the Summer Olympics about to start, there’s been some attention paid to the last Olympiad hosted by London: the 1948 summer games, which took place in a country still subject to rationing and other austerity measures, experiencing the beginning of the end of history’s greatest empire, and nervously watching Cold War tensions heat up … More Mussolini’s World’s Fair
Yesterday in Kiev, Spain routed Italy 4-0 to win the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, a tournament that (for many Europeans and no small number of non-Europeans) is only slightly less significant than the other international sporting competition with which it shares a quadrennium. As I wrote about early in Euro 2012, one match between … More Soccer and Nationalism
We’re one of those households that gets by without cable or satellite. Most of the time, that’s fine with me: Hulu, NetFlix, and digital broadcasting provide more than enough entertainment/information options. But that does mean that I’m missing out on the first of two terrific sporting events to happen in Europe this summer. The London … More The Cold War Continues… in Sports
Here • Musing about what it means to say “I believe…” about the Trinity… • Two down, twenty-four to go: an alphabetical sampler of my CD collection started with the Rolling Stones (Aftermath) and Bob Dylan (Bob Dylan Live 1966). • “Moral histories” of the Second World War from novelist Alan Furst and historians Don … More That Was The Week That Was
Here • My unplugged concert for student teaching assistants in Bethel’s Western Civ course, caught on film by my trusty friend Sam. • Jazz, Nazi-style. • The third and final part of my series recasting church history as family history looked at the disenchanting process of engaging in remembrance. • My students and I had … More That Was The Week That Was
Here • Most importantly, one of you paid a visit that happened to be the 25,000th in this blog’s still-brief history. Now, I happened to talk with another blogger recently for whom this number would represent a good half-week’s worth of traffic. But I’m still amazed that anywhere near that number of people would want … More That Was The Week That Was
As I’ve blogged about previously, making the switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar necessitated some odd choices throughout Europe, but none odder than what my ancestral people — generally noted for their commitment to reason and common sense — tried to pull off early in the 18th century. I’ll let a physicist explain: … More February 30, 1712
Earlier this month Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) presented an evening program focused entirely on classical music written by French and English composers during and right after World War I. Here’s the playlist if you’d like to order any of the pieces (for February 7th; the WWI music ran from 8-9pm). For the occasion Classical MPR … More WWI in Classical Music
A series of posts inspired by my recent trip to Europe, scouting a January 2013 travel course on the history of World War I. Today continues a series-within-the-series on how WWI was commemorated. Yesterday I showed the image of an Australian soldier’s gravestone, its epitaph asking “Have I died in vain?” Immediately above those words … More Commemorating World War I: Post-Christian Memory?
The Pietist Schoolman 