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The Coolness of Deirdre McCloskey
Deirdre McCloskey, professor emerita of everything, once wrote a book chapter titled “The Coolness of Alexander Gerschenkron” about her mentor in the economics department at Harvard. I’m beginning to think someone ought to write a full-length piece about the “Coolness of Deirde McCloskey.” I once wrote an article criticizing a small bit of McCloskey’s work, […]
Zeno’s Tax Paradox
I wrote a short article for FEE.org, the website of the Foundation for Economic Education.
Book Event – Netherlands East Indies
I’m hosting a book event this Thursday for Fred Borch, a historian who has written a new book on war crimes of the Japanese in the Netherlands East Indies (when Indonesia was still a Dutch colony). I’ll be serving as the interviewer/ moderator for the discussion. More information about the event is here:
Introducing the Hampshire County History Podcast
I’m starting a podcast about local Hampshire County, West Virginia, history, partly to educate myself about my new home region, but also with the goal of increasing historical consciousness for community building. I believe that awareness of history is central for overcoming problems of social alienation and disregard for the local environment. Join me in […]
How to Find the Perfect Antique Store
In about 2011, I became interested in using antiques for group discussions in my history classrooms. I was living in central Illinois at the time, and since I didn’t have much else to do, I began to make long antique-hunting trips across the plains. I began to devise strategies to find the perfect antique store, […]
Comparing Peer-review Across Disciplines
So far, for 2017, I have published 4 peer-reviewed articles, linking a variety of disciplines: history, economic history, philosophy of history, and law. I’ve noticed a clear difference in the peer-review standards across disciplines and journals. My article on the linguistic evolution of the term “The Bill of Rights” called “How the First Ten Amendments […]
Meeting the Neighbors by Talking about History
Yesterday, I stopped at a yard sale about a mile from where I live. There was nothing I wanted to buy (although I discovered that it is legal to sell guns at yard sales in West Virginia!). Anyway, I introduced myself as a new neighbor from down the way, and that I had purchased land […]
Twice the Processing Power
Word processing. On the left is s Remington Portable Model 5, and on the right a Remington Noiseless model seven. The seven was considerably more expensive than the 5, but the 5 is my favorite. It’s a full education trying to figure out all of the levers on these things.
Perspective
With my historical vision, I can see clearly hundreds of years into the past. But, looking forward, I don’t have a clue what I have scheduled next week Tuesday. All I know is that Wimpy is supposed to pay me back for a hamburger.
