More grist for the orals mill:
| Nancy Cott, The Grounding of Modern Feminism. William Gillette, Retreat from Reconstruction: 1869-1879. Matthew Josephson, The Politicos. W.J. Rorabaugh, The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition. |
Category: The Twenties
A Second Opinion.
Historians and medical researchers wonder if FDR suffered from Guillain-Barre syndrome rather than polio. Either way, the splendid deception worked like a charm.
O.D…Original Dubya.
“He is the actuality of the schoolboy notion that anybody has a chance to be President.” Dubya? No, Warren Harding, but close enough. Hey y’all…sorry it’s been quieter than usual around here lately. Most of my time right now is spent in my summer research employ, which basically involves going down to the NYC Public Library at 40th St. and reading as many TIME magazines from the early 1920’s as possible. (In effect, I’m blogging 1923 at the moment.) I’ve also started getting serious with the orals prep, although not so serious that I didn’t create a goofy subsite to monitor my progress (and impel me to read faster.) Either way, I expect updates here will remain lighter than usual for the next few weeks, but y’never know.
Learning is Fundamental.
Sent to me via one of my students (we discussed the Scopes trial last week), this NYT editorial has some perhaps-surprising poll numbers about Americans and evolution. Apparently, 48% of Americans – including our crusading President – believe in creationism (although I would like to see how the question is worded.) Reminds me of middle school back in the day, when I was one of three students in my 30-person history class that believed in evolution. Yes, Virginia, things are different outside of BosWash.
Same tricks, different decade.
Used in section this week: J. Edgar Hoover hones his later anti-civil-rights strategy as the FBI goes after Marcus Garvey. (In fact, the first black FBI agent was hired by Hoover to infiltrate Garvey‘s UNIA…what a victory for progress.) Speaking of which, if you haven’t been reading Caught in Between lately, CiB’s been collecting superlative black history links all month long, including items on Reconstruction, the Middle Passage, Juneteenth, Lynching, Harlem, and the Dred Scott Decision, among others. All worth a look, in February as in any other month.
Second-Class Citizens, First-Class Surveillance.
Sketching an eerie parallel to Ashcroft’s current war on libraries, Derrick Jackson surveys the FBI’s long and ignoble history concerning Black America.