Odd Bits

Another Chance to Win a Copy of Mankind

December 13, 2012

Those of you who didn’t win a copy of Mankind: The Story of All of Us have a second chance. I’m blogging about Big Bang, Big Brains, Big History over at Wonders & Marvels today as part of the 12 Books of Christmas give-away. Leave a comment on the blog post over there to be [...]

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Twelve Days of Christmas ( or Holiday of Your Choice) at Wonders and Marvels

December 5, 2012

One of my favorite history sites on the internet, Wonders and Marvels, is celebrating the holidays by giving away twelve signed copies of books by regular contributors, including Mankind:The Story of All of Us.  It’s a great selection of history and historical fiction, if I do say so myself. A new book will go up [...]

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Lest We Forget

November 11, 2012

              It’s Veterans’ Day. Thank a veteran for serving his country. Pray for peace.

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The Thrill of the Vote

November 6, 2012

This post first ran on election day in 2008.  My feelings on the subject haven’t changed: It’s election day in Chicago.  I just walked home from voting for a new mayor and a new alderman–and I miss my old neighborhood. For ten years I lived in South Shore:  a white graduate student/small business owner/writer in [...]

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You can’t vote because…

November 2, 2012

Photograph from the Library of Congress From sixth century Athens on, who has the vote and why has been a touchy and evolving subject in democracies.  People who already have the vote have hesitated to extend it to others for two basic reasons.  Those with the vote don’t think those without the vote have the [...]

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Mankind: The Story of All of Us

October 31, 2012

I hope you will indulge me in a bit of blatant self-promotion. The book I spent much of this last year writing, agonizing over, and swearing about is finally out and I’m pleased as punch. In fact, I don’t much like punch so I’m pleased as a good bourbon at the end of a long [...]

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A Dance Through Time

October 25, 2012

Those of you who know me In Real Life know that I’m as passionate about dance as I am about history and that I never met an art museum I didn’t like. So it’s not surprising that I was quick to say “me, me” when Shelf Awareness was looking for a reviewer for  a quirky [...]

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Blog Love

October 16, 2012

I’ll warn you ahead of time: today’s post is going to be a little different than my normal posts. Instead of blogging about history, I’m going to blog about history bloggers. If your eyes are beginning to glaze over, you can leave now and my feelings won’t be hurt. But you’re going to miss out [...]

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Adventures with John Buchan

September 27, 2012

Yesterday I decided not to finish a novel by one of my all time favorite authors, John Buchan. It was a hard choice to make. Most of you have probably never heard of Buchan, unless you’re given to reading popular fiction from the first half of the twentieth century. He wrote biographies, adventure novels, historical [...]

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Sita Sings the Blues

September 25, 2012

The Ramayana is one of the classic Indian epics. Ascribed to the great Sanskrit poet-sage, Valmiki, it’s a love story, a moral lesson, and/or a foundation myth, depending on what kind of reader you are. Boy gets girl. Boy loses girl to demon king. Boy rescues girl with the help of monkey-god. Boy worries that [...]

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