A major, current conversation within the history community is how to show people the relevance of history to their lives. There’s even a History Relevance campaign with an associated website. It is my belief that people don’t recognize history’s relevance because history is too much like air. It surrounds us and is embedded in our lives so deeply that we simply don’t notice it. History is the succession of events on earth. (Well, the succession…
Here’s a little secret . . . something historians talk about amongst ourselves, out of earshot of museums goers and the general public. We worry over the lack of appreciation for history. History is the Rodney Dangerfield of culture. It gets no respect in American society. We’ve heard all the aspersions against history. It’s boring. It’s hard to teach. There’s too much to know and, as high schoolers say about higher algebra, it doesn’t seem…
I’ve decided that 2018 is the year of rereading for me. That means revisiting books that have been favorites of mine throughout my life. I recently reread three childhood favorites: “Charley,” “A Wrinkle in Time” trilogy, and “The Secret Garden.” I read “Charley” when it was actually called “Charley,” but somewhere along the line, the publisher retitled it “The Girl Who Ran Away.” The local library used to have a copy and I reread this…