Erstwhile’s Alessandra Link offers up a brief meditation on Thanksgiving. For many Americans, Thanksgiving is about history. It’s a revealing, idyllic chapter of America’s past. Children across the U.S. learn about a historic feast between New England Indians and Pilgrims that took place in the fall of 1621. They cut feathers out of colored paper.…
This week, friend of the blog, Travis R. May (Ph.D. student, University of Colorado Boulder), talks Disneyland and the exoticization of the tropics. Just ahead, a rickety wooden bridge crosses a narrow stream, and the footpath beyond leads into a primitive village of wattle-and-daub buildings crowned with high thatched roofs. Tropical birdcalls and animal growls echo…
Erstwhile’s Sara Porterfield reviews a recent lecture given by Marsha Weisiger on her research-in-progress. Q: How do you know a raft guide is lying? A: His lips are moving. Boaters, professionals and recreational alike, are notorious showmen and -women who are known for their tall tales and ability to entertain a crowd. This, it turns out,…
Erstwhile blogger Caroline Grego presents a grab-bag of the most intriguing history and environmental writing from across the vasts of the Internet each month, according to her subjective and limited perspective. The Ottoman Empire’s First Map of the Newly Minted United States by Nick Danforth This remarkable map shows us how the Ottomans saw the newly birthed United States.…
Erstwhile: A History Blog 