Category Archives: Historian in the World
Trump has a Good Old Fashioned American Fortune
I have been fascinated by the debates raging about Donald Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns, and the related debates about the size of his fortune and the source of his wealth. The consensus seems to be that he … Continue reading
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The Grammar of Inevitability; Or, Why TED Speakers Write Like Undergraduates
I have always distrusted TED Talks. They masquerade as scholarship for the masses, when they are in fact pretty much the exact opposite of scholarship. They radically simplify rather than embrace complexity. They rush towards answers without stopping to consider … Continue reading
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Enough with March Madness. Scholarship Isn’t a Sport
Let me start by stipulating that I really like The Junto, which is “a group blog on Early American history.” I think it makes a great contribution to the online life of early Americanists … more collaborative than solo outlets like … Continue reading
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The “Scorecard” Bites Back
Like much of academia I have been riveted over the past 24 hours by the saga unfolding at Mount St. Mary’s in Maryland. (Imagine me, late last night, trying to peer around the paywall at the Frederick News-Post while feeding a … Continue reading
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Debating Downtown Development and Preservation
My last post on the tension between preservation, development, and economic inequality in Fredericksburg attracted quite a bit of attention around town, which was gratifying. By far the most interesting and engaging reaction came from Michael Spencer, Associate Professor and Director of … Continue reading
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Fredericksburg’s Small-town Fetish and Economic Inequality
The city of Fredericksburg has 28,000 people and is the fastest growing municipality in the state of Virginia, and it is the hub of a region has over 300,000 people, which is also the fastest growing the state. Nevertheless, many of the city’s residents, especially … Continue reading
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Tagged development, downtown, Fredericksburg, income inequality, Politics
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A Brief Respite From a Season of Terrible Historical Analogies
Something about this political season has encouraged a string of blockbuster new hits at the Bad Historical Analogy Theater. All political seasons introduce a handful of entertaining new acts, but something about the unpredictability of national political life in the Age … Continue reading
Ahab Among the Innocents
The oddest intellectual disjuncture of parenting so far has come during my quiet hours of feeding the baby her bottle. I’ve been listening to books on tape audiobooks* while she drinks, because bottle feeding requires two hands, considerable attention, and a healthy dose of … Continue reading
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Trump the Small-‘r’ Republican?
As Frank Rich pointed out in his recent meditation on the political phenomenon of Trump, political observers and pundits have struggled to identify historical precedents. The most popular, according to Rich, have ranged “from the third-party run of the cranky billionaire … Continue reading
