Yesterday I explained that, inspired by the realization that there simply aren’t many movies about the American Revolutionary War — let alone good movies, I spent some time over the weekend going through the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) and the Rotten Tomatoes (RT) index of critics to see which modern wars have produced the best … More Which Modern War Has Yielded the Best Movies? (part 2)
Yesterday’s picture of a plum pudding is easily the best image that’s ever been on the cover of this blog, so I’ll just leave it up while I offer a second straight Christmas-y post… Fun seasonal facts about myself: I’m horrible at coming up with creative Christmas gift ideas But if I do have an … More Some E-Stocking Stuffers for My Readers
Nothing says Christmas in this society like rerunning something you’ve already seen before, so enjoy this repeat from December 2011! Ah, Christmas memories from childhood… Playing elf to my pediatrician father’s Santa at the Children’s Hospital party. Honoring my Swedish heritage by choking down one bite of lutefisk every Christmas Eve. Getting a pile of … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: A Very Nazi Christmas!
Looking for ideas for the history buff and/or book lover on your Santa list? To my earlier collection of history books making the cut for some early “Best of 2012” lists, let’s add the following, selected by the editors of the New York Times Book Review for their 10 Best and 100 Notable lists: Pat … More Some More “Best of 2012” History Books
It’s late November, which means that newspapers and periodicals are starting to put out their “Best of 2012” lists. Here are the works of scholarly and popular history (and some historical fiction) that have shown up on “Best Books” lists produced by Publishers Weekly (PW), The Washington Post (WP), and Britain’s The Guardian. For each, … More The Best History (and Religion) Books of 2012?
I don’t have all that many memories of the former senator and presidential candidate — I was only five when he was voted out of the Senate in 1980, after three terms representing South Dakota — but as a historian I know enough to find interesting what’s being remembered, and what’s being forgotten, as journalists … More Remembering (and Forgetting) George McGovern
Here • My usual weekend links wrap-up got pushed back a day because I spent Friday and Saturday in Boston, at the biennial meeting of the Conference of Faith and History. I posted some thoughts on Friday morning/afternoon panels, plus Tracy McKenzie’s monumentally important (I think) presidential address. Then one more on the Saturday sessions, … More That Was The Week That Was
In the shadow of the Mall of America and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport stand two very different kinds of memorials to Minnesotans’ participation in the two world wars and other conflicts: one the product of design, the other the victim of neglect. First, Fort Snelling National Cemetery, the final resting place of over 180,000 men … More Commemorating WWI in Minnesota: Fort Snelling
Eleven years ago this morning I was in Hamden, Connecticut, waking up after a late night of dissertation writing to turn on CNN in time to watch the collapse of the World Trade Center’s twin towers. Those structures stood less than two hours’ drive away from my apartment, and I knew people who lived in … More This Day in History: 9/11
The largest memorial to those Minnesotans who died in World War I no longer exists, except for a preserved fragment and an impressive website that thoroughly documents its nearly ninety-year history. Opened in 1924, the University of Minnesota’s Memorial Stadium hosted six national championship-winning football teams before the Gophers moved off-campus to the Metrodome in … More Commemorating WWI in Minnesota: The Brickhouse
The Pietist Schoolman 