Departments

;

Cliopatria

  • Jul 28, 2005

    What We Can Learn from TR

    by Cliopatria

    Reading Kathleen Dalton's biography of TR--the one thing every American knows about American history is who TR was--has reminded me of all the things there are not to like about him. His love of war (he said that war with Spain was a good thing because it would toughen up Americans; like many intellectuals of the time he was convinced that civilization was weakening men's moral fiber). His indifference to women's rights (he favored as governor the slow granting of women's right to vote but opp
  • Jul 28, 2005

    Cooking in Scottsdale (perhaps the first in a series)

    by Cliopatria

    It was in the 90’s all of last week in Rice Lake. Those who had air-conditioning used it. All who didn’t moved much more slowly.

    I missed that heat wave because I was down in Scottsdale, helping my sister close my father’s house. (Ann had already done the lion’s share of the work, bless her.) It was hot. The highs ranged from 109-113. Lows were around 90 degrees. It’s monsoon season so it wasn’t a dry heat. There were some scattered thunderstorms with strong winds each night, strip

  • Jul 27, 2005

    Scott McClellan on the Hot Seat

    by Cliopatria

    White House spokesman Scott McClellan either lied to the press corps or he was lied to by Rove 2 years ago when he dismissed speculation that anybody in the White House was behind the leak of Plame's identity. Either way his credibility is shot. He'll have to go. Probably, to save face (and this is thought to be a Japanese phenomenon?), the White House will wait until another issue has taken hold and then quietly announce that he is moving on "to spend more time with his family" or
  • Jul 27, 2005

    Dog Days at the OAH ...

    by Cliopatria

    I don't know about you, but it is dog days here in Atlanta. That means it's the bottom of the summer and I'm only thinking of how to escape, not how to get more work done. We had two weeks of torrential rains, so the ground is soaked with water; and now a heat wave sweeps over it, so the steam just rises from the earth, mixes with particulates, and makes breathing difficult.

    My friend, Paul Harvey of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, finished up a morning's conference here in t

  • Jul 27, 2005

    An Open Letter to the OAH's Vicki Ruiz and Lee Formwalt

    by Cliopatria

    Mr. Luker, an Atlanta historian, was co-editor of the first two volumes of The Papers of Martin Luther King. He also contributes to HNN's blog, Cliopatria.

    Dear Drs. Ruiz and Formwalt,

    I've been a member of the Organization of American Historians for about 35 years. For all those years, it has been a center of my professional identity and pride. Its Journal of American History has kept me apprized of the lates

  • Jul 27, 2005

    Psychological Armor?

    by Cliopatria

    I'd like to hear from those of you who have a military background or expertise. What do you think of this?

    Basically, when the US military was looking to outfit various vehicles with armor, it seems they tried to do so on the cheap. The writer had designed a lightweight but, he argues, effective form of armor that he called FLEA (Forward Light Escort, Armored). He submitted it for consideration when the military was in search of a con

  • Jul 27, 2005

    Edition blogging

    by Cliopatria

    Have the bibliographers and textual editors among us said anything about the blog-as-edition? We have Stoker blogging, Pepys blogging, Isaac D'Israeli blogging--and, I've just discovered, Thoreau blogging.  When the blog has comments enabled, the text becomes an interactive edition...a semi-wiki, if such a

  • Jul 26, 2005

    Prediction: Romney is Running in 2008

    by Cliopatria

    I'll bet dollars to donuts, as my grandfather used to say, that this op-ed piece in today's Boston Globe means that Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is running for the Republican nomination in 2008. I can think of no other reason why this high-profile and obviously ambitious man would both change his views on abortion and privacy so quickly and why he would then go
  • Jul 26, 2005

    History Carnival Reminder

    by Cliopatria

    History Carnival ButtonThe next History Carnival will be hosted on Monday 1 August by Will Franklin at WILLisms.

    Email your nominations and self-nominations for recently published posts (since 15 July) about history to the host
  • Jul 25, 2005

    The Failed States Index and Africa

    by Cliopatria

    Foreign Policy and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace have issued their disquieting first "Failed States Index." We need to pay serious attention to the index and its findings. More than a third of the countries are African nations, including seven of the ten most failed states. perhaps the most alarming fact is how deep the list goes. It is 60 deep, and I wouldimagine that most of you would have little int
  • Jul 24, 2005

    Dougie Flutie's Story

    by Cliopatria

    Doug Flutie is a legend in New England. The scrappy little quarterback from Natick who almost single armedly put Boston College on the national college football map will forever be 22 years old, slinging the ball through the Miami night to Gerald Phelan to beat the Hurricanes in one of the greatest college football games. Jackie McMullen has a wonderful story in tod