Do not capitulate to the authoritarian in advance. I have heard this advice from pro-democracy experts numerous times over the past few months. It’s critical advice when faced with an incoming President who promises to be a vindictive dictator from Day One. In the United States, all of us hold the freedom of speech dear, especially the freedom to criticize our government officials, and this is one area, among many, where we should not capitulate.…
One of the most important uses of history is to use it to work ourselves out of predicaments we are facing RIGHT NOW. It’s easy to assume that because history is about what happened in the past, we can set it aside. That it has nothing to say to us now because conditions were different in the past. Except that humanity seems to cycle through the same sorts of challenges even when presented with what…
It’s Indepence Day in the United States. Historian Heather Cox Richardson has a marvelous newsletter to mark the occasion, one that reminds us to live up to our highest ideals in this country, rather than sink into our lowest manifestations of a society. We haven’t been doing a good job of reaching the ideals of life, liberty, equality, or the pursuit of happiness lately. There’s a sliver of people who would rob the majority of…
I follow a fabulous #twitterstorian on Twitter. A #twitterstorian is simply a historian on Twitter, one who is willing to share history on the site. This particular #twitterstorian writes such impressive history threads that I’ve been moved to recommend her. She is Heather Cox Richardson and she describes herself as a “Historian. Author. Professor. Budding Curmudgeon.” (In this day and age, I, too, proudly belong in the Budding Curmudgeon Club.) Heather’s Twitter threads are not…