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from
mefi
The wonderful online history journal
Common-Place is presenting a special issue entitled
"Early Cities of the Americas." Nineteen essays, each concerning a particular incident, person, place or encounter in the early life of a city, together provide a "worm's eye view" of what urban life was like in early postcolonial North and South America. Learn about vigilante justice and press sensationalism in 1856
San Francisco, or about a day in the life of a peasant family in
Lima of the 1760s. Other essays concern the 17th-century "treasure city" of
Havana, searching for salvation as a slave in 1647
New Amsterdam (New York), and capital punishment in colonial
Paramaribo, Suriname. "Reading these essays cannot but help readers gain some historical perspective on the modern condition," especially as you see how many of the issues we associate with modern urban life (poverty, crime,
bowling?) are not exactly recent developments.
posted to MetaFilter by arco
at 11:47 AM on July 15, 2003
(5 comments)
In honor of the centenary of the artist's death, the Centre for Whistler Studies at the University of Glasgow is releasing an
Online Centenary Edition of the correspondence of James McNeill Whistler
(bio, images). Part I of the edition, just released, includes about 1,700 fully annotated and cross-referenced letters from 1855-1880, which can be
searched by, among other things,
subject and the
work of art discussed--including the famous "
Portrait of the Painter's Mother"
(image). By next year, the edition will include over 8,000 letters that together illuminate the life of one of America's first master artists.
posted to MetaFilter by arco
at 2:56 PM on July 3, 2003
(4 comments)
“A nation is little more and nothing less than a conversation. [T]he conversation that is the United States has continued for more than 200 years as a lover's quarrel between equality and justice.” A gallery of ways this “conversation” is still taking place in the ways we
live the Constitution’s 27 Amendments every day.
posted to MetaFilter by arco
at 8:18 AM on November 27, 2002
(9 comments)
Time was, American society had at least a loose pecking order, with the Rockefellers and Vanderbilts, et al, setting standards for snobbery and WASP-y elitism. Now, says David Brooks,
“we’ve democratized elitism in this country,” with everyone finding their own niche in which to be a snob. [more inside…]
posted to MetaFilter by arco
at 7:59 AM on November 1, 2002
(19 comments)
American Heritage magazine's fifth annual
Overrated and Underrated list is out, with this year's experts weighing in on the most overblown
poet, underappreciated
pirate, and overadmired
Roosevelt, among many others. (See the Metafilter
discussion of last year's
list for more dichotomies.)
posted to MetaFilter by arco
at 9:32 AM on September 30, 2002
(17 comments)
A 19th-century Internet
love story.
posted to MetaFilter by arco
at 9:52 AM on February 12, 2002
(10 comments)
"But at some point along the path to discovery, the reader confronts his or her
reading mortality. There's only so much time. And there are so many great books." I must come to grips with this myself, even as I anxiously await the inaugural
book club discussion. I must admit, though, that people like
this [NYT link] make me feel my own "reading mortality" more acutely. (I
wish I could read that much so quickly...)
posted to MetaFilter by arco
at 11:45 PM on December 25, 2001
(18 comments)
Did many of the "great masters" of Western art, well, cheat? Not exactly, says David Hockney, but they were close. In his
new book, entitled
Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters, Hockney fleshes out a theory that he's been
toying with for years: that artists from Raphael to Caravaggio used devices similar to a
camera obscura (specifically, a
camera lucida), to "assist" them in making near photograph-quality reproductions of their subjects. The
theory (and the resulting
debate) is fascinating: if these artists did, in fact, benefit from "technical assistance," how should this affect our view of them, and of art history in general?
posted to MetaFilter by arco
at 10:41 PM on November 10, 2001
(16 comments)
Seeing as Camp David has now taken on
new importance for President Bush [NYTimes link], now might be a fun time to take a
tour (sort-of) of the
highly secretive compound. Or perhaps you would like a more detailed
history of the Presidential retreat, or even some personal
stories as told by people "in the know." (Though for the life of me I can't find more info on the person who developed these sites.)
posted to MetaFilter by arco
at 9:06 AM on November 5, 2001
(5 comments)
Considering marriage? Now, with the RPG
You Stupid Bitch! you can experience the bliss of marriage (or, as the author of the game puts it, "the struggles between two manipulative vipers") with only your imagination and some old D&D dice. In a more literary mood? Try the
Wuthering Heights RPG. [Original link via
Portal of Evil.]
posted to MetaFilter by arco
at 7:00 AM on September 29, 2001
(1 comment)
I just came from a terrific set by the local (Pittsburgh) band
Boxstep and was curious, do you have a favorite "local band" or two (i.e. probably unheard of outside your city/area) you would recommend? What makes them worth checking out? [more inside]
posted to MetaFilter by arco
at 12:06 AM on September 9, 2001
(23 comments)
