An interesting look at the history of history writing on the Renaissance, including some of the criticism of the concept and era.
http://www.hnn.us/articles/130958.html
Category Archives: doing history
History of the tomato in Italian food
A review and interview with the author of a new book on the history of the Tomato
History Carnival #89 (2010 July)
Welcome to my World History blog, which I primarily use as a teaching platform. And welcome to the 89th History Carnival! Before I start, I have to thank those who nominated posts — Jeremy Young, Penny Richards, Sharon Howard, Brett Holman and Ffion Harris. I’ll highlight their fascinating nominations first, plus a few bonus tracks, and then I want to take a jaunt through about two dozen categories of the Cliopatria History Blogroll and pick out of each one a blog starting with ‘j’ or ‘d’ (Yes, they’re my initials: I had to pick some filter) which has an interesting June post to share. I hope this might inspire you to broaden your reading, and, more importantly, to nominate more posts next month!
NOMINATED POSTS
A real historical challenge. Or is it?
Malcolm Gladwell’s review of a new book on Operation Mincemeat demonstrates the difficulties of interpreting self-interested and partial sources, of determining cause and effect, and generally writing any kind of coherent history. This is a history of British intelligence efforts during WWII to feed misinformation to the Germans in a way that they would find it convincing. (Extra credit for non-gratuitous James Bond history)
A meditation on the rise of the internet
The intellectual culture journal “n+1” has a thoughtful and long discussion of the cultural implications of the rise of the internet. [via] They argue that the internet is a transformative technology, altering the directionality and economics of information and culture. They cite the “post-60s” culture of participation, but don’t mention the cassette tape and photocopier. Can’t get everything right, I guess.
For fun: Five Myths of WWII
Cracked Magazine produced this list of Five Myths of WWII History [note: vulgar, rude language. But good history]
Cold War Records
East Germany’s secret service, the Stasi, tried to destroy their records when the Communist regime collapsed. German researchers are still putting them together, now with digital assistance.
Historical Perspective on “The Hurt Locker”
Historian James Livingston has an interesting discussion at HNN of the Will James character in the Oscar-winning movie “The Hurt Locker” and his historical namesake, philosopher William James. In the process he discusses pragmatism 20th century war, industrialization and changing ideas about masculinity. Very interesting stuff. I haven’t seen the movie, so I have no idea whether he’s being reasonable on that score, but the historical material is great.
Looking Back: Race question on the US Census
Josh Begley has collected images of the race question on decennial census forms going back to the very beginning — 1800 — which is a fascinating snapshot of historical and social change.
Edwin Black v. Wikipedia
Why isn’t wikipedia respected by academics? This sort of thing doesn’t help.