Erstwhile editor and long-suffering fan of the Washington NFL franchise, Beau Driver, discusses new developments in the ongoing controversy over the team’s nickname. In late January of 1988, I sat down to watch the football team I loved play in Super Bowl XXII. This was the heyday of the Washington Redskins. Coach Joe Gibbs had…
This past Sunday I went for a run in a tank top and shorts. In February. In Durango, a small town in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. This should be the time of year for snow boots and warm hats, for skiing and skijoring, not for California-like temperatures and thinking it’s just about time…
Erstwhile’s Keith Aksel discusses the foreign policy significance of the 2015 State of the Union Address. This past January, the nation tuned in to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address. His discussion of foreign policy, though unsurprising overall, included one specific note of historical relevance. Along with his overtures toward global “coalition building,”…
Erstwhile blogger Caroline Grego compiles a short list of history-related news links from the past month, which may or may not be exactly from January. The Virtue of Scientific Thinking by Steven Shapin For those history of science folks out there, Shapin explores the roots of scientific thinking, tracing its meaning and how it has…
Kyle Mays (Ph.D. Candidate, Department of History, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and managing editor, Native American and Indigenous Studies journal) weighs in on the recent fanfare over Rick Perlstein’s alleged plagiarism. I know everyone is still reeling from Rick Perlstein’s so-called plagiarism of Craig Shirley in his book, The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon…
Jeff Wermer (History M.A., CU Boulder, and incoming law student, Denver University) explains last week’s Grand Jury proceedings in Ferguson, Missouri, and why the jury’s verdict of No True Bill is particularly unusual. Last week, a grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri, delivered a verdict of No True Bill regarding the pursuit of charges for Officer Darren…
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.…
Last month, Ivory Tower was released online and on DVD. The film takes a serious look at the rising cost of college education and seeks to answer questions about the future of higher education in the United States. With college debt in the U.S. now over 1 trillion dollars and the percentage of graduating students…
Erstwhile’s Alessandra Link invites you to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day. She offers up a small serving of worthwhile reads on Native American pasts and presents. What are your favorite works in Indigenous history/contemporary life? Share them below and continue the conversation. This past Saturday the annual Columbus Day parade circled through Denver, led by “dignitaries” from the city’s…
While debates over high school curricula are heating up in Erstwhile’s home state of Colorado, Travis R. May (Ph.D. student, University of Colorado Boulder) explores the potential pitfalls of another teaching trend: “Big History.” There is a revolution in the offing in secondary education. Not one involving guillotines and cockades and (likely apocryphal) cake, mind you, but a…
Erstwhile: A History Blog 