MetaFilter posts tagged with history

"Then I see how they treat Ronald Reagan—he needs to get credit for saving the world from communism and for the good economy over the last twenty years because he lowered taxes."

defenestration — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:49:17 -0800

Revisionaries: How a group of Texas conservatives is rewriting your kids’ textbooks.

Great Dad? Or Greatest Dad?

stupidsexyFlanders — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 20:01:50 -0800

In 1940s New York, Harry Dubin and his teenage son went out every weekend to take color pictures of people doing different jobs in the city. Well, not people...Harry Dubin, switching places with people and pretending to do their jobs. "Dad would say, 'Let's do a fireman this week or a street sweeper.' But a plan was one thing; inducing the target to remove his clothes in a nearby alley and hand them over to a total stranger was another." Thirty of those pictures survive, brilliant, ultra-hi-res color shots of a goofy Dad from another time out entertaining his son, and are being posted in batches at a newish blog that's full of great artifacts and NYC history. For instance, stories of loogies and porn on NYC's Radio Row (Cortlandt St), a long-gone neighborhood you know today as Ground Zero, or a fascinating 1946 New Yorker profile (PDF) of one of the first NYC families with television, and what it's like to watch it. (That family, by the way? The Harry Dubins.) -- via Monkeyfilter

1942 maps of the invasion of the United States

Rumple — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 12:11:51 -0800

Metafilter's own JF Ptak has an interesting post on the Life magazine issue of March 2nd, 1942, readers of which were confronted by some startling maps detailing possible Axis invasion strategies for North America. There was invasion down the St. Lawrence valley, there was invasion via Trinidad, via Bermuda, full frontal west coast, and down the west coast as well - note the mapping of the large "fifth columns". As Ptak notes, maps such as these with huge arrows pointed menancingly at the American homeland were very much not the norm of the day. In a second post on his marvellous site, Ptak discusses Life's dioramas of imaginary battles in the United States between Axis and Allied troops, and also outlines the development of the "Amerika" German heavy bomber.

A decade of digital music

skylar — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 05:30:34 -0800

A decade of digital music Vaguely styled as a timeline, this end-of-the-decade blog post (from UK digital music news source Music Ally) could prove valuable to anyone studying the music business or the intersection between entertainment and technology. The piece links to ten years of stories on digital music - from Napster through to Spotify - allowing us to look back on the issues without the 20/20 vision of hindsight. Gems include the Bluematter scheme from Universal Records in 2000, which comprised 60 non-transferrable, non-burnable tracks for $1.99 each.

"White Death moving down the mountainside"

litlnemo — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 06:36:58 -0800

"It... picked up cars and equipment as though they were so many snow-draped toys, and swallowing them up, disappeared like a white, broad monster into the ravine below." Nearly 100 years ago, on March 1, 1910, the deadliest avalanche in United States history struck the small town of Wellington, Washington. Ninety-six people died as a massive wall of snow struck two Great Northern trains stopped at Wellington to wait for the tracks to be cleared, rolling them nearly 1000 feet into Tye Creek and burying the victims under huge piles of snow, trees, and debris. Later that year, the town of Wellington, associated in the public mind with death and sorrow, changed its name to Tye. Changes were proposed to make the Cascade crossing safer, and eventually a new tunnel route was completed. Now the town itself is a ghost; when the new Cascade Tunnel was built, Tye's tracks and station were abandoned, and the last remaining building burned in 1930. The original, abandoned Cascade Tunnel is now the Iron Goat Trail. Photos related to the Wellington disaster at the Washington State Historical Society, in the Asahel Curtis collection. More 1910 photos. Photos of the area today. The story of the "Great Slide" by a railroad man who was at the scene. Contemporary news stories.

creative dissatisfaction, that elusive fire in the belly

infini — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:55:38 -0800

MAN is one of a number of animals that make things, but man is the only one that depends for its very survival on the things he has made. That simple observation is the starting point for an ambitious history programme that the BBC will begin broadcasting on January 18th in which it aims to tell a history of the world through 100 objects in the British Museum (BM). A joint venture four years in the making between the BM and the BBC, the series features 100 15-minute radio broadcasts, a separate 13 episodes in which children visit the museum at night and try to unlock its mysteries, a BBC World Service package of tailored omnibus editions for broadcasting around the world and an interactive digital programme involving 350 museums in Britain which will be available free over the internet. The presenter is Neil MacGregor, the BM’s director, who has moved from the study of art to the contemplation of things. “Objects take you into the thought world of the past,” he says. “When you think about the skills required to make something you begin to think about the brain that made it.” via The Economist Of the 100 objects, only one has not been selected yet. Mr MacGregor is waiting until the last possible moment to pick out the best symbol of our own time. Suggestions, please, on a postcard to: British Museum, London WC1B 3DG.

腾蛇乘雾，终为土灰

Abiezer — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 08:57:48 -0800

Man from the Margin: Cao Cao and the Three Kingdoms You'll perhaps have read or watched reports that archaeologists believe they have found the tomb of Cao Cao (曹操) (of course, not everyone agrees with the identification). Warrior, strategist, statesman and poet, Cao Cao lives on in the cultural memory of China, a by-word for cunning and of course a central character in the great historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms and hence also recent John Woo blockbuster Red Cliff. To understand the man in his historical context, there's little better in English than the 1990 George Ernest Morrison Lecture in Ethnology given by now-retired Professor Rafe de Crespigny, one of the foremost Western scholars of the Han Dynasty and Three Kingdoms periods of Chinese history. He makes several of his vastly erudite essays on Chinese history available at the ANU's website.

JSBlog

brundlefly — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:42:29 -0800

JSblog: on varied topics inspired by working in a secondhand bookshop.

The Digital Decade

sien — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:30:01 -0800

One way to look at the decade from 2000-2009 is as the digital decade. In this decade the world has gone from having about 300 million to 1.6 billion users . The number of mobile phone subscriptions has gone from about 750 million to 4.5 billion. The decade even started out being called the digital decade by none other than Bill Gates. Computers went from $2000 hundred megahertz machine to $500 multi-core laptops with dedicated 3D graphics accelerators and inbuilt wi-fi. At the start of the decade a mobile phone looked something like the nokia 6100. The push Blackberry phone came out in 2002. The iphone came out in 2007. Through the decade phones went from tiny black and white LCDs to having mega pixel cameras, GPSs, push email, net access and gigabytes of storage. On the net, from the first article linked:

During the decade the Internet has become accessible to all in the years since, giving birth to sites such as Wikipedia in 2001, MySpace in 2003, Facebook in 2004, YouTube in 2005 and Twitter in 2006.

The combination of ever cheaper electronics and the networking of the planet has been a notable feature of the decade. It will be interesting to see if the changes are as great over the next 10 years.

Daily Show: Decade in Review

milquetoast — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 03:29:31 -0800

The Daily Show's Decade in Review. [Single-link Comedy Central video presentation.]

Tremé

nola — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 18:59:04 -0800

Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans premieres Thursday, January 29 on PBS. Faubourg Tremé is considered the oldest black neighborhood in America, the origin of the southern civil rights movement and the birthplace of jazz. Trailer for Faubourg Tremé

WWII American St. Nick

netbros — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 07:02:05 -0800

Sometimes, the full meaning of a moment isn't realized until years later. Dick Brookins certainly had no idea what would come of that December day, back in 1944. Brookins and other members of the U.S. Army's 28th Infantry Division Signal Corps were in Wiltz, a small town in Luxembourg, just days before what would turn into the Battle of the Bulge. This U.S. soldier stood in for an absent Saint Nicholas... it was to change his life and help him find some meaning for the war in Europe. As it turns out, someone was filming that day when an Army jeep carried the American St. Nick through the streets giving treats to the local children. It brought him back 65 years later.

Studying the War to Prevent Southern Independence

Horace Rumpole — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 04:38:49 -0800

Secretive Scholars of the Old South. The Abbeville Institute is a scholarly society that seeks to promote a "distinctly Southern interpretation of American history and identity ... a valuable intellectual and spiritual resource for exposing and correcting the errors of American modernity." Founded in 2003 by Donald Livingston, philosophy professor at Emory University, the Institute will hold its 8th annual conference, "State Nullification, Secession, and the Human Scale of Political Order" next February.

Dubious Discoveries

amyms — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:25:57 -0800

Bogus! Why do fakes get made? Why do people fall for hoaxes? Greed, pride, revenge, nationalism, pranks, and gullibility mix in an archaeological setting. Archaeology Magazine examines eight classic cases, and more.

The Angel of Marye's Heights (or not)

marxchivist — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:42:12 -0800

Confederate soldier Richard Kirkland is known as the "Angel of Marye's Heights" for venturing in between the opposing army's lines to give water to his wounded foes. The Union soldiers were mowed down the previous day in a series of futile attacks against the Confederate positions. The story fits in with the narrative of post-war reconciliation and reunion and offers an inspiring tale of humanity amid the carnage of war. There is a statue at the Fredericksburg battlefield and a movie in the works.

But did it really happen? One writer takes a look at the records, and it doesn't seem likely. Blogger and history teacher Kevin Levin has been writing on Kirkland this week here and here. [previously]

A Guide To Rivers, Plains, Planets, Stars

The Whelk — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:26:04 -0800

Peacay of BibliOdyessey highlights some stunning examples of Victorian Infographics from the Rumsey Map Collection(previously). (Direct Flickr link)

Gory & Defeated? Never!

pjern — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 13:07:20 -0800

It's getting close to Christmas, and for many people that involves putting a train set running around the tree. Seasonal displays of elaborate layouts are popular as well this time of year. One man had the ultimate train set. His name was John Whitby Allen, and in the middle decades of the 20th century, he built what might have been the greatest model railroad of all time-so popular that fans keep memorial sites for it a half-century later. Put on your engineer hat and come see the Gorre & Daphetid Railroad. John Allen had a puckish sense of humor, and little details show up in almost every photograph. He created a wonderful world, to include such whimsy as a complete subway station, with a train you could hear coming, but never arrived; and an 0-4-0 stegasaurus locomotive. Not content with scratchbuilding almost every locomotive and building on the layout, he insisted on prototypical operation - to which end he built a hotbox detecting car - which had a ball bearing riding on a rocker-shaped set of upwardly curved rails inside an otherwise normal-appearing boxcar. If one operated a train so roughly that the steel bearing rolled off the end of the track inside, it completed a circuit to light a light underneath the train- to shame the hapless engineer for all to see. Sadly, John Allen died in 1973 of a myocardial infarction. Two weeks later, his wonderful railroad empire burned to the ground. Fortunately, there were photos and slides salvaged from the wreckage.

"Arbeit Macht Frei" Sign Stolen

zarq — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:14:21 -0800

Poland has declared a state of emergency, after the infamous bronze sign reading "Arbeit Macht Frei" at former Konzentrationslager (concentration camp) Ausch witz was stolen yesterday. In Brussels, European Parliament president Jerzy Buzek, a former Polish prime minister, appealed to the thieves to return the sign: "Give it back out of respect for the suffering of over a million victims, murdered in this Nazi camp, the biggest cemetery of humankind," Buzek said.
According to the Auschwitz Memorial / Muzeum Auschwitz Facebook page, "the Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum with approval of Minister of Culture and National Heritage Bogdan Zdrojewski has promised a reward of 100,000 zlotys (around $34,000)" for information about the theft leading to the sign's safe return. The Jerusalem Post reports that the Museum has replaced the original with a temporary duplicate.

Music That Changed The World

blue shadows — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:41:30 -0800

20 Pieces Of Music That Changed The World Sure to be contentious, but a fascinating and educational journey through the intersection of music, history, and culture nevertheless.

Another year in pictures

allkindsoftime — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:17:11 -0800

The year 2009 in photographs (boston.com, parts 2 & 3 coming tomorrow and the next day) prev

Secrets of The Great British Sex Clubs by Tony Perrottet

jason's_planet — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:18:40 -0800

(NSFW) So Much For the Stiff Upper Lip. Slate writer gets jiggy wit the history of Georgian Britain's aristocratic sex clubs.

Everything you know about U.S. involvement in Iran is wrong

lenny70 — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:54:37 -0800

The Great Satan Myth. We have discussed the US supported coup of 1953 on MeFi before. Now, Abbas Milani, provides some more context to the complex relationship of the two countries.

If you wouldn't like living that way (in the lowest status slot in the pecking order), you're doing it wrong.

The Whelk — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 08:47:48 -0800

Metafilter's Own Charlie Stross asks the question; " You, and a quarter of a million other folks, have embarked on a 1000-year voyage aboard a hollowed-out asteroid. What sort of governance and society do you think would be most comfortable, not to mention likely to survive the trip without civil war, famine, and reigns of terror?" engrossing commentary follows. (via)

Careless Women Never Appeal To Gentlemen

The Whelk — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 07:02:42 -0800

Tips For Single Ladies: Helpful hints on dating and romance from 1938, with photos. (via)

The Fortsas Bibliohoax

brundlefly — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:04:15 -0800

In 1840, book collectors from around Europe flocked to the Belgian town of Binche hoping to buy at auction the late Jean Nepomucene Auguste Pichauld, Comte de Fortsas's collection of one-of-a-kind books. Unfortunately for them, neither the man nor his collection ever existed. More recently, librarian and bibliophile Jeremy Dibbell posted the contents of the Fortras Catalogue to LibraryThing with English translation as well as an introduction to the collection. Scans of the original catalogue can be found on Google Books. via ZPi Previously