history pragmatic historian

How Did You Come to History?

I recently ran across an article on my Twitter feed shared by Century Past History (@lienhart85). The article, called “Why I Am a Historian: A Response to Mary Beth Norton,” is by Lillian Guerra, professor of Cuban and Caribbean history at the University of Florida. Compelled to History Guerra explains how studying history was a necessity for her because she wanted to understand the racism she experienced as a Cuban immigrant in the United States.…

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A Manifesto for the Sensible Center

The Mini-Manifesto from Gapingvoid Manifestos seem to have been co-opted by the unhinged or extremists, but they are merely public statements of policy aims, beliefs or views. As such, a manifesto is a good way to succinctly state what guides you or your group. In 2006, I wrote a couple of manifestos for my very first blog, Filter & Splice, after reading a challenge from Hugh MacLeod of Gapingvoid to write a manifesto of 500…

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history pragmatic historian

History in Numbers

Within organizations, there are people who enjoy playing with numbers, and then there is everybody else. Those in the Everybody Else category react to financial statements with a glazed look at best or utter terror at worst. Often, people who feel they don’t have a hope of understanding financial statements are disconnected from the source of the numbers on those statements. The numbers are merely theoretical to them, which makes them difficult to grasp. Here’s…

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