As I’ve said before, I’ve grown fond of cruising Wikimapia, the collaborative website that lets visitors mark and describe sites on satellite photos. The other day I was idly engaged in some virtual historical tourism and started looking up presidential homes.
Check out Jefferson’s Monticello and Madison’s Montpelier. Their entries are pretty much bare bones. Jackson’s tomb and the museum [...]
Archive for September, 2008
Dropping in on the chiefs
Posted in Abraham Lincoln, American Revolution, History and Memory, History on the Web, Museums and Historic Sites, tagged Hermitage, Lincoln Home National Historic Site, Monticello, Montpelier, Mount Vernon, presidential homes on September 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Interview with Saratoga author
Posted in American Revolution, Historiography, tagged John Luzader, Saratoga on September 29, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Earlier I posted about an upcoming Saratoga study by John Luzader, due out soon from Savas Beatie. While visiting the publisher’s website, I just ran across an interview with Luzader, which is well worth reading. He speaks favorably of both Horatio Gates and Benjamin Lincoln, two generals that haven’t gotten much favorable press.
This book looks [...]
The short list?
Posted in Civil War, Historiography, History and Memory, tagged Andersonville, Confederates in the Attic on September 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
At Civil War Bookshelf there’s an interesting item about a short list of Civil War titles recommended by Barnes & Noble. The blogger in question is rather cynical of this endeavor, and in this case I’d have to agree.
One of the five–five, mind you–titles that made the cut is Confederates in the Attic, a journalist’s account of [...]
Gettysburg Museum Controversy Marches On
Posted in Civil War, History on the Web, Museums and Historic Sites, tagged Gettysburg Museum and Visitor Center on September 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
And the uproar over the new Gettysburg Museum and Visitor Center just keeps on coming. Paul Taylor questions the role that context should play in battlefield exhibits, Eric Wittenberg agrees, and Kevin Levin has some updates here and here. On a related note, WordPress allows me to track the traffic coming to specific posts on my blog, [...]
New history blog
Posted in History on the Web, tagged historical novels, history blog, Steven Wilson on September 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Steven Wilson is the curator and assistant director of the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum here in East Tennessee. He also happens to be my former mentor and ex-boss, and one heck of a nice guy. He’s just started a new blog called A Novel Idea of History, to which I humbly direct your attention.
Besides his work [...]
Teaching and Technology: The Rise of the Machines
Posted in Teaching history, tagged PowerPoint, smart classrooms on September 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I’m not an especially big fan of TV, and there are only a handful of shows I watch on a regular basis. One is the original “Law & Order,” which I enjoy because it’s very story-driven. One of my new favorites is “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” based on the film franchise in which a [...]
Illinois Governor Sticks it to Historic Sites
Posted in Abraham Lincoln, Museums and Historic Sites, tagged Governor Rod Blagojevich, Illinois Historic Preservation Agency on September 16, 2008 | 1 Comment »
If you haven’t already, head over to the Lincoln Studies blog and check out the most recent post about the $2.8 million budget cut that Gov. Blagojevich slapped on the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. It’s already resulted in hour cutbacks and layoffs. Protestors marched outisde the governor’s house this past weekend, and more power to [...]
What can you do with a photograph?
Posted in Civil War, History and Memory on September 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Stephen King once said something to the effect that his highest aim in writing horror stories is to engage readers’ deepest, psychological fears, while grossing them out with explicit nastiness is strictly a last resort. That sums up my general attitude toward public history content. Make ‘em laugh and cry if you must, but do [...]
Reading the Revolution
Posted in American Revolution, Historiography, Teaching history, tagged American Revolution, Revolutionary War, textbooks, The Glorious Cause on September 12, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Next semester I might get the chance to design and teach a class on the American Revolution. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and I’ve had the assigned reading for a course like this worked out in my head for years.
My favorite one-volume history of the Revolution is Robert Middlekauff’s The [...]
Virtual tour of the French and Indian War
Posted in Colonial America, History on the Web, tagged Wikimapia, French and Indian War, Fort Ticonderoga, Fort Carillon, Fort William Henry, Fort Necessity, Fort Duquesne, Fort Pitt on September 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I’m working my way through a book that’s been on my reading list for a long time: Fred Anderson’s Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766. It’s a fantastic piece of work that’s set me to thinking about the French and Indian War.
Some time ago, [...]
