Making our history one step at a time
"It is no exaggeration to say that the only thing I learned about slavery during my British education was that we 'ended' it." ~ Zadie Smith French asks us to re-evaluate the centrality Africa and Africans have played in the narrative of modernity in this ambitious book.
When I'm not teaching math or programming, I'm reading books about teaching math or programming to get a bit of inspiration. At least, that's what I'm dedicating my reading to this semester. Here's the first!
Do you remember Rutherford B. Hayes? What about Grover Cleveland? *American Colossus* covers a fascinating and underappreciated era of American history, which Brands interprets as a period of capitalism overpowering democracy.
Rating: 3/5 G. K. Chesterton's Robert Louis Stevenson is another biography that isn't a biography. It's more of a work of literary criticism for a man Chesterton perhaps didn't always agree with all the time, but certainly held in deep respect. Chesterton finds common ground with Stevenson in what he refers to as the "sharp... Continue Reading →
Rating: 5/5 G. K. Chesterton was an Anglican who converted to Catholicism later in life, and also one of the most prolific writers to have ever lived. He also has a running at becoming a Catholic saint here. Chesterton, along with C. S. Lewis, are my two favorite authors, but I'm having to hunt down... Continue Reading →
Rating 3/5 Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent argues that, while America's free press is generally believed to be a constraint on government, keep it honest, and provide opposing viewpoints, the exact opposite it true in practice; America's press becomes an organ of the state sticking to the narrative structure provided by the federal government, and providing justification... Continue Reading →
I forget exactly where this book popped up initially-- but I assume it was a Goodreads recommendation based on some of the politically oriented books or German history books I've been into as of late. Here's the Goodreads blurb: This is a study in the pathology of cultural criticism. By analyzing the thought and influence... Continue Reading →
I believe I encountered William Blake for the first time in a high school honor's English class. But the name really meant nothing to me, other than that he was one of the Greats next to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, and Lord Tennyson. They were all just poets who had achieved greatness sometime in... Continue Reading →
I first encountered Stephen Peck on an LDS Perspectives podcast entitled A Religion of Both Prayers and Pterodactyls. The interview conducted by Laura Harris Hales dealt with the intersection of science and religion and how Peck, a scientist himself, reconciles the two. I added several of his books to my reading list, including A Short... Continue Reading →
I added this one to my reading list after I found it in the references of a compelling article at Times and Seasons on the development of the LDS hymnbook. The LDS Church recently announced that they are beginning the process of compiling a new hymnbook, and the documented history of how hymns have been... Continue Reading →
History Engineers 