Sunday, January 18, 2009

Quote of the Day (Stephen Prothero, on “Religious Literacy”)

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“Americans are doomed to repeat their earlier mistakes if they do not start to reconstruct the chain of memory that bound their ancestors to...
Saturday, January 17, 2009

This Day in Supreme Court History (VCRs Ruled Acceptable)

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January 17, 1984—By the narrowest of margins, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that video cassette recorders (VCRs) did not infringe on Holl...

Quote of the Day (Larry Kirwan, on the late Irish Public Intellectual Conor Cruise O’Brien)

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“He was a scholar, diplomat, educator, politician, author, memoirist and general agent of change. He may also have been just slightly off hi...
Friday, January 16, 2009

This Day in Theater History (“Hello, Dolly!” Opens)

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January 16, 1964—Look at the old girl now, fellas: The musical Hello, Dolly ! opened at the St. James Theater, the first of 2,844 performanc...

Quote of the Day (Tacitus, on “History’s Highest Function”)

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“This I regard as history's highest function, to let no worthy action be uncommemorated, and to hold out the reprobation of posterity as...
Thursday, January 15, 2009

Book Review: Christopher Buckley’s “Supreme Courtship”

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Confirmation hearings for the new administration are rolling out, and a predictable pattern is emerging: some nominees waltz in (welcome t...

Quote of the Day (Donald Creighton, on History)

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“History is the record of an encounter between character and circumstances." -- Historian Donald Creighton , Toward the Discovery of Ca...