Thursday, November 30, 2006

Pine Trees and Penobscots

›
In my post of June 9th, I discussed Mark Peterson's article on the Pine Tree shilling, the first coin minted by an American colonial gov...
Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Voyagers to the East, Part X

›
For the previous entry in this series, click here . From the sixteenth-century Spanish viewpoint, North America was a backwater. Explorers...
Saturday, October 14, 2006

The End of History

›
In addition to other important historical anniversaries (Happy Birthday, Mom!), today is the 200th anniversary of the battles of Jena and A...
Monday, October 09, 2006

Arresting the Lollypop Guild

›
Many adjectives can be used to describe the American misadventure in Iraq, but "funny" has never really been one of them. Military...
Wednesday, September 20, 2006

The Cows, and Coming Home

›
This week (Saturday the 23rd) marks the 200th anniversary of the return of the Lewis & Clark expedition. Earlier in the month the Corps ...
Monday, September 18, 2006

The Latest Craze with All the Kids Today

›
In last week's post I mentioned that one of the Inuit who sojourned in Europe in the 1560s had facial tattoos, which were quite common a...
Monday, September 11, 2006

New Prey: Voyagers to the East Part IX (redux)

›
For the previous entry in this series, click here . For the original Part IX, click here . In their essay "This New Prey: Eskimos in...
Thursday, September 07, 2006

Plus ca Change...

›
While reading Georges Lefebvre's 1939 history of The Coming of the French Revolution , I was struck by the uncanny similarities betwee...
Thursday, August 24, 2006

Voyagers to the East: A Preliminary Head Count

›
For the previous entry in this series, click here . How many Native Americans visited Europe, willingly or unwillingly, during the first f...
Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Voyagers to the East, Part IX

›
For the previous entry in this series, click here . As educated Europeans' interest in the New World and its inhabitants continued to ...
Sunday, July 16, 2006

Target-Rich Environment

›
Several weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security caused considerable alarm by announcing substantial cuts in anti-terrorism fundi...
2 comments:
Friday, July 07, 2006

No Land War in Asia

›
Apropos of the United States' current round of mutual saber-rattling with North Korea, and for the edification of those who may feel tha...
Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Voyagers to the East, Part VIII

›
For the previous entry in this series, click here . A noteworthy feature of 16th-century French political culture was the ceremonial entry...
Saturday, June 17, 2006

Shocked, I Say

›
Occasionally, I come across a newspaper story so entertaining that it merits retelling without comment. The June 9th issue of the Chronicle ...
Friday, June 09, 2006

Pine Trees and Sovereignty

›
June 10th marks the anniversary of the issuance of the Pine Tree Shilling (1652), the first coin minted by English-speaking settlers in No...
Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Madisonian Legacies

›
Several weeks ago there was a scholarly exchange on H-NET (the Humanities Network at Michigan State University) regarding the current obscu...
Monday, May 22, 2006

Voyagers to the East, Part VII

›
For the previous entry in this series, click here . During the first half of the sixteenth century England was a minor maritime power, an...
Friday, May 05, 2006

Voyagers to the East, Part VI

›
For the previous entry in this series, click here . A year after Verrazzano completed his reconnaissance of the North American coast, ano...
Wednesday, April 26, 2006

A Stereotypical Ukrainian

›
In 1945 George Orwell reported that the British Army had recently captured two "German" soldiers whose actual nationality was inde...
Thursday, April 13, 2006

Jefferson and the Beringian Migration

›
In commemoration of Thomas Jefferson's 266th birthday, and as a follow-up to my post of March 15th , let me note that the Sage of Montic...