2000th Post Since Mid-2018: Time to Assess Where This Blog Is Going

Today marks the 2,000th post in a row on https://byaslenderthread.wordpress.com since May 28, 2018. It has been a good discipline and sometimes kept me sane as it provided a "place" to go beyond breathless and upsetting headlines of the day and the week, to avoid hysteria, and realize that the U.S. and the world have …

A Profound Reflection on D-Day, By Andy Rooney

60 Minutes: "There've only been a handful of days since the beginning of time on which the direction the world was taking has been changed in one 24-hour period by an act of man," Andy Rooney said about the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944." Rooney was a renowned commentator for CBS …

When Did Recorded History Begin, Taking Over from Pre-History?

Recorded history began with the invention of writing systems, on different continents at very different times, from 3500 BC to the 1400s, when Europeans encountered indigenous Americans, who did not have recorded history. "Protohistory refers to the transition period between prehistory and history, after the advent of literacy in a society but before the writings of the first historians. …

At Least 12 ‘This Day in History’ Online Sites

At least a dozen websites have standing features for "today in history." I have read these columns going back to elementary school or certainly middle school, but I have to confess they give the reader a shallow understanding of history. Yes, faithful readers of such a column probably learn to recognize names and remember some …

Periodization in History: Artificial?

Do we engage in the periodization of our lives, or is it just one darn thing after another, without focus, meaning, or a "plot"? And yet when we study history, educators and scholars have delineated certain periods, with themes, meaning, and often a sense of direction, progress, and plot of sorts. "Periodization is the process …

The Story of India From Ancient To Contemporary Times

In this six-part BBC series, the English historian and broadcaster Michael Wood "travels throughout the subcontinent, tracing the richness and diversity of its peoples, cultures and landscapes. Through ancient manuscripts and oral tales Wood charts the first human migrations out of Africa. He travels from the tropical backwaters of South India through lost ancient cities …

Latino Americans: Timeline Since the 1500s. Links to 6-Part PBS History Series

Latino Americans: Timeline Since the 1500s. 2013 PBS Series on Latino Americans. Episode Guide to Six-Part Series. After "Foreigners in their Own Land, 1565-1889, there's Empire of Dreams (1880-1942) War and Peace (1942-1954) The New Latinos (1946-1965) Prejudice and Pride (1965-1980) Peril and Promise (1980-2000) The series is available here on PBS.org.

For Most of Human History, Outbreaks of Disease, Disability and Death Were Commonplace

In the study of history since the 1970s, pandemics and fearful disease outbreaks have largely been ignored, left out or forgotten because we thought medical science extinguished them. Communicable diseases like the bubonic plague, small pox, polio, typhus, tuberculosis, cholera, rheumatic fever, scarlet fever and yellow fever have been all but eliminated. Antibiotics were first …

Authors Explain Philosophies of History

Why Study History? Without Herodotus and Thucydides, Historical Analysis Would Have Started Later, If At All. History's Highest Function, and Other Wise Words from Historians. Alexandre Dumas and the Origin of ‘Slender Threads’. ‘History Grounds Us’ + 20 Lessons on Tyranny. ‘People’s History of the US,’ Co-Authored By Oliver Stone: Leftist in 2013 But Now Mainstream? Popular Author Harry …

Each Century’s Timeline Available Online

Students of history will be pleased by the work of Kip Wheeler, Ph.D. at Carson-Newman University in Tennesee who has created timelines of the most important world events in each century from 0 to 1400 A.D. I found his timelines while in search of consequential events and people from 900 to 1000 A.D., located here. …