by Hailey De Jong. Eva Kiss, our Hungarian professor of Communist history, yanked down the screen in front of the classroom and projected old film footage of the violent, anti-Communist revolution in Timișoara, a large city in western Romania. It was an apt conclusion to her lecture series on the 1989 Revolution in Romania, and …
Continue reading The Presence of the Past in Eastern Europe
by Jim Bratt. Part I of this feature considered three classic novels and memoirs about the front lines of World War I. This entry considers two more and examines women's experience of the war. World War I being a total war, it’s important to gauge home-front experiences as well. Two English novels for your consideration, …
Continue reading World War I Novels and Memoirs (Part II)
by Jim Bratt. Following up on Bob Schoone-Jongen’s reflections about the outbreak of World War I, I thought I’d pass along mine on some classic memoirs and novels that came out of the war.The following doesn’t pretend to be a definitive list of greatest hits; more of what I’ve been sampling by way of book …
Continue reading World War I Novels and Memoirs (Part I)
by Bob Schoone-Jongen. “Celebration” does not seem to be the right word for marking the centennial of the Great War. “Observance” is better, less celebratory. Maybe solemn should be added to convey the somberness the great tragedy deserves. At any rate, the academic book binge that generally accompanies chronological mileposts has begun in earnest. …
Continue reading Book Note: The War that Ended Peace by Margaret MacMillan
by Bert de Vries. Much of my career as historian-archaeologist has been focused on the question of how overpowered populations and culture groups - the conquered, the occupied, the colonized, the enslaved – coped, and how a historian could know that. This interest was actually shaped by my own experience as a child in occupied …
Continue reading Paradox of Power: How the Weak Prevail Against the Strong
by Bob Schoone-Jongen. For the past eleven years I have ended my History 152 classes with a homily on history and this Christian’s view of what it all means. I make no claims as to profundity, but I will lay claim to its sincerity. This is what I believe history teaches: We are debtors: to …
Continue reading Homily on History
Historical Horizons 