history 51
On Nosferatu, Moloch, and AI
Sometimes, it’s okay to be scared. At the very worst, it’s just a story.
The Writing on the Wall
The writing may still be on the wall, but a different story is being written in our block.
What is a Nation, Anyway?
Proper forgetting depends on the idea of a nation itself. For Renan, “a nation is a soul, a spiritual principle” built on two things, the past and the present.
Ode to Gettysburg at 161
To prove the American proposition, we must dedicate our lives to its truth with our deeds every day, and maybe someday with our lives themselves.
Joan of Arc’s Grief
My grief would overwhelm me if I were not in God's grace. — Joan of Arc, February 24, 1431
Living in Language (a Reply)
I heard it then, followed by a man’s agonizing cry. I hear it now in every Franco-Norman word we unknowingly pronounce: that arrow piercing King Harold’s eye.
An Ode to the “Rest Is History”
For the task of understanding the past demands honesty, humility, and respect for all aspects of human nature, from the material to the intellectual and volitional and—above all—the spiritual.
American Holland and Dutch America: On the Exoticization of Culture
Culture is the ever-evolving play that takes place on that stage, as new props come and old props are replaced, even as the theater remains the same. Of course, the…
Past, Future, and Breeding Out of Captivity
Perhaps in the coming decades we shall have, so to speak, not a straightforward demographic slope downward, but more of a dip and a levelling off in the next century.
Marie Antoinette and the Stories We Prefer to Tell
The execution of Marie Antoinette and the treatment of her family is nothing for France to be proud of. Her punishment is the first evidence of a revolution run amok.
Safe at Last
As the sun rises over the Nile or my daughter’s grave, it occurs to me that the ancient Egyptians may have been onto something. Jess lives on, her soul soars…
From Culture Warriors to Agrarians
Can the rest of us afford such inaction? Yes—and that’s the point. For the travesty of modernity is its constant demand—from left or right—for action, control, and efficiency. But the…
The Epic England Never Had: A Review of eÞanðun
But I reckon that eÞanðun can mix with Beowulf and Paradise Lost and not feel out of place.
Grief in Eternity
Yet at times, if only for a moment, I feel the shadow over my days is transformed into pure spirit. Such thoughts give me a surprising sense of quiet joy.
Remembering Family History: A Mess, a Murderer, and a Matriarch
Knowing your family’s past fugitives and pretty boys is the kind of localism anyone can aspire toward and practice.
A Garden of Children
If you understand that a child’s growth comes from a spark within, just as does the growth of a flower, a crystal, or a mighty oak, you might take a…
Lincoln’s Grief
The healthy sorrow of our most melancholy president
Localism and Justice: A Review of The Story of Clyde Kennard
Kennard himself, though worrying about his legacy during his last illness, seemed remarkably free of bitterness. Concerning a prison guard who had abused him, he thought that the abuse had…
Laughter is Courageous: A Review of Empire Between the Lines
As such, these papers provide the means for understanding how imperial concerns shaped the way Entente soldiers perceived themselves and the war. But even more importantly to my mind, the…
Eisenhower’s Grief
Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower found solace in their dead son’s favorite color
Politics Before History
It is an MSNBC segment with pseudo-historical gloss. Billed as a warning to American democracy, it is a simple yet pretentious work that will do nothing to solve the problems…
Ruddy Glory: The Resonance of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Was May demonstrating, knowingly or not, that even the isolated and disparaged—on the very nose of their ridicule—could be pointing the way brightly ahead through a dark and foggy future?…
Gatsby: Grasping for Transcendence
Gatsby’s character yearns for the infinite; he sparkles with something unusual in the midst of the lavish wealth and chaotic parties of Long Island’s frivolities. Gatsby has “one of those…
A Right to Imperfection
Lauck is unambiguous that he is engaged in a project of “civic retrieval,” to “remind us of our ideals and how many battles we have already won” and promote the…