history museums pragmatic historian

“Two Broken Hips Away from Closing”

This tweet by public historian Larry Cebula out of Spokane, Washington, is painful in that there are far too many small museum situations where this is true. Often local history museums have been started by older people in a community, folks at or near retirement who are thinking of their personal legacies or the legacies of their community. They’ve got the time and motivation to start a collection or save a building and put together…

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history pragmatic historian

The Search to Belong

This blog post has been rolling around my head for a few weeks. As I sit down to write it, I am recovering from the flu, which has given me sore leg muscles that make it difficult to stay in one position for long. If this seems distracted or all over the place, that is the nature of both the topic and my physical condition. In case you haven’t noticed, identity politics has heated up…

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history pragmatic historian

How Do We Deal with Historical Trauma?

Carried through the centuries Secrets locked up Are loaded on my back And it weighs me down Stanza from Exo-Politics from the album Black Holes and Revelations by Muse, lyrics by Matt Bellamy My husband gave me a couple of Muse CDs for Christmas, which I have been listening to obsessively since I received them. One of my favorite songs from the album Black Holes and Revelations is Exo-Politics for its gritty, rooty sound. The…

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challenge pragmatic historian

What if You’re in Survival Mode and Can Only Depend on What’s in Your Home?

I was sitting at my computer the other day and looked up at the shelf near my desk. Along with assorted writing implements, paper, flash drives, office supplies, and CDs, the shelf contains my sewing supplies and fabric. Behind me is a blue metal locker with thread and more sewing supplies. What with Donald Trump ordering the killing of Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani, which may potentially lead the United States into another war, and…

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history pragmatic historian time

The Importance of the Year – or Decade – in Review

I am writing this post on New Year’s Day 2020. My Twitter feed is afire with people sharing their reviews of the past year or decade. The decade review is especially popular because we just flipped to 2020, which many feel is the beginning of a new decade while others argue that it is the last year of the decade and the new decade won’t actually start until 2021. Yet others point out that time…

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