This post is a commentary on an essay by James Sweet, president of the American History Association, which appeared recently on the AHA site, along with an author's note in which he responds to the intensely hostile reaction his essay provoked from other historians on social media in just the two days after the original … Continue reading Commentary on James Sweet’s Essay about Historical Presentism
This post is a short essay about language by Suzannah Lipscomb, which was recently published in History Today. Here's a link to the original. In it she traces the history of curse words in English. In medieval English, the most offensive expletives were profanities. More recently they became obscenities. Don't miss the first documented use of … Continue reading Suzannah Lipscomb — The History of Curse Words in English
This blog post is a recent essay by Niall Ferguson published in the Washington Post. Here's a link to the original. The prompt for the essay is the current surge in inflation and the difficulty of trying to predict how this round of inflation will develop over time. But the most interesting part is the way … Continue reading Niall Ferguson — How Complexity Trumps History
This post is a piece of mine that was published last year in Inside Higher Ed. Here’s a link to the original. It's about an inherent tension in the act of writing between arrogance and humility. An Exercise in Arrogance and Humility To be a good academic writer, you must deploy a judicious mix of two … Continue reading Writing as an Exercise in Arrogance and Humility
This post is a piece by David Brooks that was published recently in Atlantic. Here's a link to the original. It's all about the art of humblebragging, which is rampant on twitter and other social media platforms but which has been a core skill for many years among academics. The whole point of humility display is … Continue reading David Brooks — On the Art of Humblebragging
David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing 