What on earth is an “ice famine”? Well, if you were alive in the nineteenth century and the U.S. was experiencing winter as mild as this one in 2012-2013, the newspapers would be full of stories about a potential “ice famine.” The problem was not a shortage of ice in January and February, but rather … [Read more...]
America’s Last Ice Age (more recent than you think)
Why Do We Hold Presidential Primaries?
As the citizens of the United States follow this wild and often bewildering presidential primary process, few stop to ask a very important question: why do we have primaries in the first place? In the history of American democracy, political primaries are of relatively recent origin, so when and why … [Read more...]
Episode 004 The Abolitionist Movement & More
This week In The Past Lane podcast brings you four segments, two of which focus on the movement to abolish slavery. 1)Thinkpiece: The Daunting Challenge of Taking on Slavery 2) Interview with Historian Manisha Sinha about her new book, "The Slave's Cause": A History of Abolition 3) History Heads … [Read more...]
A Historian’s Defense of “Happy Holidays”
[NB: a version of this op-ed ran in the NY Daily News and Worcester Telegram in 2011] Here we go again. If it's December then it’s officially the beginning of that annual ritual established a few years ago — the month-long explosion of outrage on talk radio and cable TV over an alleged “War … [Read more...]
Nativism Yesterday and Today – The Case of the Irish
People who rail against immigrants and minorities these days would do well to study up on their American history. Take for example the case of the Irish. Today the descendants of Irish immigrants constitute one of the most prosperous (second only to Jewish Americans) and powerful ethnic groups in … [Read more...]
- Prev Page...
- 1
- …
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- ...Next Page