Tag Archives: History

Like music and dancing, virtually every human culture has created images of dragons, even the Inuits who live where there aren’t even any reptiles. Why is this so? The NY Times has an interesting look into this phenomenon: A huge scaly serpent, usually with the wings of a bat or …

In a PW Daily interview, historian Niall Ferguson discusses his new book Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power. PWD: Can global empire be avoided? NF: I don’t think it’ll be possible for an even partial isolation. Globalization transforms economic and …

The truth be known I am emotional and pretty damned squeamish, so when it comes to aspects of life that touch heavily on both – like war – I try pretty hard to concentrate on the macro view and not get too caught up in the micro, where it ALL …

Nice overview of Napster history – did it really happen? – in LA Times excerpt from new book All the Rave: The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning’s Napster by Joseph Menn: It all began with a poor Boston-area kid who came west to Silicon Valley and started a revolution. …

Anti-war left, check your assumptions. Leftist Paul Berman: in Islamism we face a threat not unlike such 20th century totalitarian movements as fascism and communism. Berman feels similarly about Baathism, the nationalist ideology of Iraq’s ruling party. In fact, Berman believes that Islamism and Baathism emerged from the same great …

Going on right now, and tomorrow at 6:30AM, and Sunday night-Monday morning at 12:30 AM on Book TV: 2003 Virginia Festival of the Book – Dreams of War Panel Description: From the Virginia Festival of the Book, in Charlottesville, a panel discussion on the nature of war featuring discussants Chris …

Blondes – it’s always the blondes, but what is it about them? Chris Cotner just put up a post about smoking hot BLONDE softballer Jennie Finch replacing super hot BLONDE Anna Kournikova as the Hottest Female Athlete. Coincidentally, the NY Times ran a story about blonde power over the weekend: …

Though it’s probably unfair to indulge in such comparisons, I’ve got to admit that I felt a stronger affinity to the late Bill Mauldin than I did recently deceased caricaturist Al Hirschfeld. Mauldin was the first editorial cartoonist that I paid regular attention to. I’ve mentioned the influence Walt Kelly’s …

We have been neglecting Book TV of late, the weekend mini-network on C-SPAN2 concentrating on serious nonfiction. This weekend’s feature is “24 Hours of History”: Join Book TV this weekend for 24 hours of History starting midnight on Saturday December 21st to midnight Sunday December 22nd. Authors will discuss the …

I have complained here rather vociferously that many entertainers are ill-informed, naive, and/or just good old-fashioned stupid regarding politics and policy. They are, of course entitled to their opinions, but the danger lies in the fact that entertainers hold much sway over fans, and are at minimum going to have …