Just on principle, I pretty much like ALL living history experiences. When done well, 21st century participants can feel part of history – usually meeting and interacting with ordinary people going about their everyday lives. These are often real craftsmen demonstrating skills that are no longer required, and have taken… read more >
Have you ever wondered why Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus in December, especially since scientists determined long ago (based on celestial charts) that he was actually born in the Spring? It probably comes as no surprise that I view nearly everything through the eyes of a historian, and that… read more >
I have history envy. I doubt that it’s a very widespread malady, though possibly infectious. Therefore, in the public interest I have compiled a list of symptoms to watch for: I often wonder what it would be like to go to work in a historic building situated on a narrow… read more >
Two hundred years after the first Pilgrims, Dutch East Indian employees and English Cavaliers arrived on these shores (and began the long, agonizing process of wresting it from its original owners) 90% of the non-Indian population still lived within 50 miles of tidewater. Despite America’s well-known penchant for looking westward,… read more >
I consider my own education to be woefully incomplete and with the days dwindling down – as the song goes – is taking on a sense of urgency. Therefore, I rarely re-read books (see paragraph one) but for some reason last winter I picked up a two-volume book I had… read more >
When I was in junior high, my history teacher planted a trick question in a pop quiz that made a lasting impression on me. He asked us to name the oldest democracy in the world. Sadly, not one of us had a clue, and undoubtedly that was the point. He… read more >
History teachers and trivia buffs are fond of posing trick questions to their respective audiences. So here goes: I was leafing through a magazine article about the many restored Virginia homes of our founding fathers recently and when I got to James Monroe, our fifth president, I learned that not… read more >
My grandfather was an original subscriber to American Heritage Magazine, the classy hardbound history magazine written and edited by some of America’s most distinguished historians and scholars of the fifties and sixties. Civil War historian Bruce Catton, was the founding editor, and remained at his post for many years. David… read more >
Italy did not colonize North America, notwithstanding Christopher Columbus (an Italian who was actually working for Spain when he stumbled upon the western hemisphere), yet Italian Americans made their mark on this continent. Can you imagine popular culture without Frank Sinatra or Joe DiMaggio? PBS produced an entire documentary recently… read more >
It must be a human impulse to seek out water, whether searching for a new home or looking for an appealing vacation destination. Travel veteran Shebby Lee relates this tendency to an upcoming tour which follows the Rio Grande River in New Mexico on El Camino Real.
