See, this is why you spend all those hours teaching college students: so that one day they’ll be your Facebook friend and point you in the direction of a tool as interesting as this interactive map from Bloomberg. For each of United States’ 3100+ counties, it lets you see how heavy or light is the … More Mapping the Melting Pot
CAESAR: The ides of March are come. SOOTHSAYER: Ay, Caesar; but not gone. Happy March 15th, everyone! But especially my friend Brook, who celebrates his birthday on the ides of March, and my brother Jon and his wife Michelle, marking their 10th anniversary today. All of which has me thinking that perhaps we’ve let one … More This Day in History: The Ides of March
Or, technically, Happy Washington’s Birthday, since as Thomas S. Kidd points out (more from him in a few lines), “Presidents’ Day” is a marketing invention, not a Federal holiday. I’ll admit to being an infrequent celebrant of this particular holiday, mostly because it’s been nearly twenty years since I was part of an educational institution … More Happy Presidents’ Day!
Commemoration has been much on my mind since my trip to the battlefields and cemeteries of World War I, but I have to admit that I hadn’t given much thought to the nature of commemoration in this country, the center of which (sorry, Mount Rushmore) is Washington, D.C. Of course, like many Americans I’ve seen … More Presidential Memorials
It’s been a busy first week of class here at Bethel, so I’m going to postpone my two posts on museums until next week. But before we wrap up the week, let me pass along a few more details about the Pietism colloquium (Friday, April 20) that I’m coordinating with my colleague Christian Collins Winn. … More Update: Jon Sensbach’s Talk at Our Pietism Colloquium
In my über-links post yesterday, I noted how the holiday that honors Martin Luther King, Jr. became an occasion for several writers to invoke King in support of their own positions on a variety of issues. One version of the phenomenon that I didn’t mention came from actor-director George Clooney, speaking about same-sex marriage during … More A Common Moral Inheritance?
So here it is, December 30th, the sixth day of Christmas. And I know what you’re thinking: “Where am I going to find six geese for my true love? *Do geese even lay eggs in late December?” (See end of post for answer.) And adding to the problem, yesterday’s five gold rings didn’t come cheap … More The Sixth Day of Christmas
November 30, 1936 – Crystal Palace burns down “This is the end of an age,” remarked Winston Churchill as he joined tens of thousands of other Londoners to watch the blaze. Though it had long since fallen into disrepair, the Crystal Palace was the crowning achievement of the British Industrial Revolution, built out of cast … More This Day in History: “The End of an Age”
Clayton Nans is a War of 1812 reenactor. And if that didn’t get your attention, well, this retired Marine officer wouldn’t be too surprised. As Nans told the New York Times for a story that ran last Friday, “I know people who can go their whole life and will be just as happy not to … More The War of 1812 (un)Remembered
This entire week in history is special because of what happened in 1582, when the Catholic countries of southern Europe (plus Poland) became the first to adopt the new calendar decreed by Pope Gregory XIII and so move off of the old Julian calendar. The “Gregorian” calendar was designed to ensure that vernal equinox fell … More This Week in History
The Pietist Schoolman 