history pragmatic historian

Historic vs. Historical

A quick blog post for today. When I was writing my post on the Historical Method, I kept typing the term as the “Historic Method.” When I double-checked the term upon editing and saw that I had gotten it wrong, I got to wondering what the difference was between “historic” and “historical.” Seems like such an easy thing that a historian/writer ought to know, but there is a slim difference between the two and it…

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history pragmatic historian

Backwater Historians & Invisible Historians

I had another post prepared for today, but a kerflapple* arose on Twitter this weekend about an opinion piece in The Atlantic by Andrew Ferguson that I cannot leave unremarked. The title alone should help you understand why: Historians Should Stay Out of Politics. Let me take a deep breath. I’ll try not to vibrate about the mere title alone. But the opinions expressed in the article are going to make it hard to keep…

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history pragmatic historian

Are You Familiar With the Historical Method?

The Scientific Method Show of hands. Who here has heard of the Scientific Method? Likely, without looking it up, most everyone could list a few of the steps involved with the Scientific Method. There’s coming up with a question and making a hypothesis and testing the hypothesis and … how many steps are there? Even if you can’t list all the steps in order, you’ve at least heard of the Scientific Method because it has…

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history pragmatic historian time

Maps Are More Than Roads

It has happened. I’m writing a blog post after my self-imposed deadline of Monday morning at 8:33 CST. Normally, I pre-write and schedule my blog posts a week or several days ahead. Due to a giant project at work, repainting a room at home, and a couple of snowstorms (including one last night), my time has been captured by other things. Also, because these other things (including the giant project at work) have been physical,…

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history pragmatic historian

A History-Love Letter for My Husband

At the end of October/beginning of November 2019, my husband Erik called my attention to the astonishing accomplishment of one of our high school classmates, Steve Peck. Steve, who was known as Casey as a kid, grew up the street across from me. He became an architect and one of his buildings made the news recently. Steve designed a building that is a giant guitar for the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood,…

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