I posted this interview with historian Julie Flavell on Georgian London, a wonderful site created by Lucy Inglis: Here in the States we always think of Great Britain as the place America separated itself from; what is wonderful about When London Was Capital of America is how Julie Flavell (below) reminds us of how much …
“The public mood is kept in a constant state of excitement by what are called telegrams. They are short and spicy and can easily be inserted into country newspapers.” –President James Buchanan, December 1860
In the Times yesterday, Alison Leigh Cowan has a piece aboutThe Gentleman’s Directory, an 1870 Guide to Manhattan brothels that is currently among the holdings of The New York Historical Society. Listing 150 establishments, and delivering “insight into the character and doings of people whose deeds are carefully screened from public view,” the palm-sized book …
In conjunction with the AHA annual meeting in Boston, the History News Network of George Mason University announced the sixth annual Cliopatria Awards for History Blogging on Friday. The award for Best Series of Posts went to Jamie Malanowski, David Blight, William Freehling, Adam Goodheart, and others, for Disunion, on the New York Times Opinionator …
The Washington Monthly has just published my review of Moneymakers: The Wicked Lives and Surprising Adventures of Three Notorious Counterfeiters, the new book by Ben Tarnoff about three American counterfeiters who plied their trade between 1750 and 1865. In reading this entertaining, educational history, I was struck by how useful the idea of counterfeiting is …
In its special Christmas issue, The Economist has a report on an archeological excavation in the Town of Towton, in England. This is where, on March 29th, 1461, the House of York defeated the House of Lancaster in the climactic battle in the War of the Roses, delivering the English crown to the Plantagenets. The …
In Charleston last night, the 150th anniversary of the great slaveholders’ revolt that ended in America’s bloody Civil War was marked with a gala ball featuring dinner, dancing, and a theatrical reeanctment of the signing of the Ordinance of Secession. Protesters led by the NAACP gathered outside.
According to an article by Joanne Impey of AFP on the website Deutsche Welle, “a team of scientists identified an embalmed head as that of King Henri IV of France, who was assassinated in 1610. . . .The head was apparently lost after a mob of revolutionaries desecrated the graves of French kings in the …
I had the pleasure of appearing this morning on the National Public Radio program The Takeaway to talk about the Disunion blog I’m doing for The New York Times. The hosts were John Hockenberry and Celeste Headlee. The most highly motivated among you may feel free to listen.
A couple of years ago I had the pleasure of editing an article written by the investigative reporter Jefferson Morley for playboy.com that had to do with strange CIA connections to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, which happened, of course, 47 years ago today. I enjoyed working with Jeff; he was a patient, meticulous …