The Top 12 Books For Understanding The World
Or, Why A Critical Reading of History Is Now Critically & Urgently Needed The details are important, but an understanding of the major patterns of history are even more important.…
history
what i’m reading: ghosts of gold mountain, the epic story of the chinese who built the transcontinental railroad
Ever since reading, in 2006, The National Dream and The Golden Spike, Pierre Berton’s books about the building of the Canadian railroad, I’ve been interested in the Chinese railroad workers.…
Medieval Society – Then and Now
“You’re still fucking peasants as far as I can see.”- John Lennon Great short video, linked below, but the view of medieval peasant life is too one-sided – as is…
fact: you cannot wave the confederate flag or the swastika flag and rightly call yourself a patriotic american
This post has been half-written and sitting in drafts for many months. Days after an armed mob tried to violently subvert the results of an election seems like a good…
what i’m reading: beaten down, worked up: the past, present, and future of american labor
Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor by Steven Greenhouse is exactly what the subtitle says: a history and analysis of the rise, decline, and…
africans were involved in the slave trade. why do you think that matters?
The statement If you are exposed to any bigoted, right-wing media or social media — whether by misfortune, sport, or a delusion that you must counter their arguments — and…
Settler forgetting in Saulnierville: the Sipekne’katik Mi’kmaw fishery as reminder
By Mercedes Peters One of the first things you’re taught when you’re training to be a historian in Canada is that Canadians have a memory problem. It can be a…
On Sir John A. MacDonald, Conservatives, Vergangenheitsbewältigung and Working Through Canadian History: the Approach Conservatives should take to Canada’s past
I believe that History matters. History matters because it teaches us how to be better. History provides us with the very best and worst lessons of what people are capable…
The Failure of Propaganda, The Crisis of Legitimacy, and The Resort to Fascism
The propaganda is hitting Goebbels level, it is getting that obvious and stark. The elite are losing the propaganda war – hence, the increasingly shrill and panicked, desperate measures. Keep…
"fine. biden. but this is bullshit."
I’ve said before and I’ll say it again: Donald Trump is the single greatest gift the Democratic Party could ever hope to receive. The Democrats have finally achieved their most…
The War On Democracy
(Comment below after listening to the most important three minutes of info you are likely to hear in decades, or have likely ever heard. Noam Chomsky on The Crisis Of…
Lessons from History
It is common practice to look back and conflate the events of the past with those of the present, seeking parallels, resonance, and answers from previous events that help explain…
the deadliest organized-crime and terrorist enterprise in the history of humanity: the catholic church
In the entire history of human beings on this planet, has there ever been a criminal enterprise more devastating — to as many people, over as long a period of…
Little House on the Prairie Books and the Problem of Messy History.
It is a perennial questions in homeschool circles, whether one should read the Little House on the Prairie books with one’s kids or whether the racism in it makes those…
wmtc "what i’m reading" posts to celebrate black august 2020
I thought Black August was something newly created by Black Lives Matter, but it turns out it has existed since the 1970s. I’m sorry I haven’t heard about it sooner,…
rotd: love and labor in alliance
Revolutionary thought of the day: Wherever capitalism appears, in pursuit of its mission of exploitation, there will be socialism, fertilized by misery, watered by tears, and vitalized by agitation. It…
The truth about history
What is historical truth? To get at the truth of history, we must know it and we must understand it, and these are two very different things. We can know…
Who Are The CIA?
Who are the CIA? This will tell you everything you need to know. Here’s where things really started to go wrong: 1947, the National Security Act, which created the National…
Overviews of philosophy, religion, politics, history & sociology: where one might begin – or continue in more depth
Fascinating look here, in this BBC podcast (linked below), at the history, sociology, psychology, theology and politics of fundamentalism, evangelism, millennialism & apocalyptism. See also, Michael Grosso’s, The Millennium Myth,…