Category: history

history pragmatic historian

History Is Searching for Its Voice

By Mary | by Mary

STEM, STEM, STEM … Education is all about Science, Technology, Engineering & Math. That’s it. Just topics that are directly applicable to the needs of Corporate America. This is a direct quote from the U.S. Department of Education’s webpage on STEM: In an ever-changing, increasingly complex world, it’s more important than ever that our nation’s youth are prepared to bring knowledge and skills to solve problems, make sense of information, and know how to gather…

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challenge history pragmatic historian

Bog Coat Success – Finally!

By Mary | by Mary

I’m nothing if not persistent (some might call it stubbornness). After encouragement and advice from Liz Haywood of The Craft of Clothes blog, I took another stab at making a bog coat. I used the tweedy fabric I cut out during my last experiment. This is fabric I really liked, but the lining fabric I had cut out for it did not line up properly. I didn’t want to abandon that tweedy piece of fabric,…

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history pragmatic historian

Can You Recommend a Good History Podcast?

By Mary | by Mary

Sampling the World of Podcasts Within the past month I have taken the plunge into podcasts. Yes, yes, I’m horrendously late to the podcast party. There’s so much else going on online, plus there is real life to live and loads of music to listen to and TV to watch, that I simply haven’t had time to explore podcasts prior ’til now. (Growing tired of the social media scene certainly is part of my shift…

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history pragmatic historian time

Trendspotting: Moving Beyond a Traditional Lawn

By Mary | by Mary

In last week’s post, I discussed how breakfast in bed seems to be disappearing as a common activity in the United States. In order to spot trends such as this, you have to have a good sense of the past … what has come before or been a part of the cultural landscape and now is shifting. (That’s an important use of history – trendspotting!) Another trend I have noticed recently is within lawn care.…

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history pragmatic historian

Whatever Happened to Breakfast in Bed?

By Mary | by Mary

After decades of excessive consumption following World War II, Americans have swung toward a balancing trend of minimalism in terms of collecting stuff. While there are certainly plenty of people who indulge in purchasing unneeded items or shopping for shopping’s sake, we have reached a point in which people claim they would rather have experiences instead of stuff. Given this experiences trend, I’m curious about an observation I made recently upon waking. (Because isn’t “upon…

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