To Find the Principles

"In fiction, the principles are given, to find
the facts: in history, the facts are given,
to find the principles; and the writer
who does not explain the phenomena
as well as state them performs
only one half of his office."

Thomas Babington Macaulay,
"History," Edinburgh Review, 1828

Monday, December 24, 2012

Why the lack of recent posts: I needed this like a hole in the head

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I must apologize for the recent lack of communication here: to be clear, for my sake, rather than yours (after all, it's not as if I ima...
2 comments:
Saturday, December 22, 2012

22 December 1620: Pilgrims Land at Plymouth Rock (and post-Thanksgiving postprandial link dump)

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Well, that's the traditional date, anyway: not necessarily the correct one, and to complicate matters, they were in any case of course ...
Friday, November 23, 2012

From the Vaults: Thanksgiving Retrospective (socialists, eels, eating pregnant insects, a shot and a brew, more)

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Most years, I've offered some little posts about Thanksgiving and history. This year, rather than scribbling together a new one, I'...

Those Darned Illegal Immigrants (the Pilgrims)

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From the office door. The traditional tale of the Pilgrims (a name by which they did not refer to themselves) and their arrival in America...
Thursday, November 22, 2012

Pardon Me! Another Thanksgiving Piece

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The eternal question: what to write about for this year's Thanksgiving piece? I haven't systematically scanned the news yet, but s...
Monday, November 19, 2012

Electoral Collage (and a big block of cheese)

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The Amherst presidential election results were not surprising: Obama: 83% Romney: 13% Stein (Green): 3% Johnson (Libertarian): 2% ...
Saturday, November 17, 2012

Weird Wild Weather Redux

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I was going to mention the following item earlier anyway, but now I have a new and unwelcome reason to do so.  While sorting through some of...
Friday, October 19, 2012

History: It's What's For Lunch (new Amherst History Museum lunchtime lecture series)

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As last spring: lame name, decent content . The Amherst Historical Society and Museum (full disclosure: I am a member of the Board) offers a...
Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Weird Laws? Compared With What?

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Fall Town Meeting is just over a month away. Although we here in Amherst love to complain about the complexities of our laws and politica...
Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Small Beer? Student Culture of Yore

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As a footnote to the recent posts on student culture and problem drinking culture , this account by Elijah Kellogg of commencement day in th...
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Jim Wald
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