Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor / Hiroshima / 9-11 / Iraq
Following on my several readings of the use and misuse of history regarding the American Civil war (The Half Has …
Author Archives: Will Kirkland
Looking For the Good War — Elizabeth D. Samet
World War Two is, as we all know, “the Good War,” and those who fought it, “The Greatest Generation.” In …
Forget The Alamo – History Surfacing
History, it is said, is written by the winners. Well, not always. The history of the Alamo, as it has …
The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism – Edward E Baptist
The international slave-trade from Africa to the New World was banned by England in 1807, America in 1808, Spain, Sweden …
“Blood Done Sign My Name” & “Down Along With That Devil’s Bones” – Two Stories of the White South
Following my reading of Susan Neiman’s, Learning From the Germans, in which she examines America’s and Germany’s differing responses to the …
Quick Recommendations
A quick note to applaud Will Smith’s “Amend: The Fight for America” now on Netflix. A very well done six …
Learning from the Germans – Susan Neiman
Walk the streets of Berlin, or any other German city, and you will not see a statue or any other …
They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-45 — Milton Mayer
Milton Mayer’s They Thought They Were Free, had long been on my reading list. By unhappy coincidence this turned out …
Twelve Years a Slave – Solomon Northup, and other Slave Narratives
Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, published in 1854, was somewhat of a sensation that year, selling over 30,000 …
The Man Who Lived Underground – Richard Wright
Richard Wright’s recently published The Man Who Who Lived Underground, (2021),was itself buried for years in the catacombs of Yale’s …
Their Eyes Were Watching God — Zora Neale Hurston
The title line in Zora Neale Hurston‘s Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) comes a good way into the novel. …
Black Boy – Richard Wright
It occurred to me as I was listening to a wonderful reading of Richard Wright’s Black Boy (1945) that it …