History – Excerpted

“Convenience as we now know it is a product of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when labor-saving devices for the home were invented and marketed”

25 March 201822 March 2018 Drew KaplanLiving

Convenience as we now know it is a product of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when labor-saving devices for the home were invented and marketed. Milestones include the invention of the first “convenience[…]

“We entered the war against Germany in 1941, but not because they were Nazis…”

29 August 201729 August 2017 Drew KaplanAmerica

We entered the war against Germany in 1941, but not because they were Nazis. We did so because the Japanese had attacked us at Pearl Harbor, and in response, Congress declared war on the Empire.[…]

“We imagine the villains of history as cunning strategists, brilliant masterminds of horror”

9 June 20177 June 2017 Drew KaplanUncategorized

We imagine the villains of history as cunning strategists, brilliant masterminds of horror. This happens because we learn about them from history books, which weave narratives that retrospectively imbue events with logic, making them seem[…]

“All history is retrospective”

8 January 201731 December 2016 Drew KaplanUncategorized

All history is retrospective. We’re always looking at the past through the lens of later developments. How else could we see it? We are ourselves, as subjects, among those later developments. It’s natural for us[…]

“The Shoah, it seems, has come to be read for portents and interpretation as much as for history itself”

2 December 201527 October 2015 Drew KaplanEurope

The Shoah, it seems, has come to be read for portents and interpretation as much as for history itself. Yet one reason that the small scholarly details matter is that they provide an arsenal for[…]

“Magna Carta’s unusual legacy in the United States is a matter of political history”

23 July 201522 July 2015 Drew KaplanPolitics in America

Magna Carta’s unusual legacy in the United States is a matter of political history. But it also has to do with the difference between written and unwritten laws, and between promises and rights. At the[…]

“To contrast history writing and storytelling as polar opposites is thus to distort the nature of both types of literature”

14 July 201513 July 2015 Drew KaplanHistoriography

Fraenkel’s approach would seem to create an unbridgeable chasm between historical writing and other sorts of literature, with Rabbinic tales irrevocably in the non-historical category. By contrast, as I have been arguing, the two types[…]

“When a version of a myth is told (orally or in writing), it is always an account of the past in intimate connection with some conclusion to be drawn in the present experience of the person recounting the tale”

25 June 201522 June 2015 Drew KaplanScholarship

When a version of a myth is told (orally or in writing), it is always an account of the past in intimate connection with some conclusion to be drawn in the present experience of the[…]

“There is often a tension between the quest for historical truth and the desire of communities of faith to pass on their religious message”

15 June 2015 Drew KaplanScholarship

There is often a tension between the quest for historical truth and the desire of communities of faith to pass on their religious message. This is because lifestyles and outlooks often change drastically over the[…]

“…the past has many uses, and one of them is to inspire the present”

2 April 201429 March 2014 Drew KaplanUncategorized

Journalism and history are about getting things right. But the past has many uses, and one of them is to inspire the present. People in my profession like to create an imaginary past, populated by[…]

Excerpted

Excerpts of Interest

Tag: History

“Convenience as we now know it is a product of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when labor-saving devices for the home were invented and marketed”

“We entered the war against Germany in 1941, but not because they were Nazis…”

“We imagine the villains of history as cunning strategists, brilliant masterminds of horror”

“All history is retrospective”

“The Shoah, it seems, has come to be read for portents and interpretation as much as for history itself”

“Magna Carta’s unusual legacy in the United States is a matter of political history”

“To contrast history writing and storytelling as polar opposites is thus to distort the nature of both types of literature”

“When a version of a myth is told (orally or in writing), it is always an account of the past in intimate connection with some conclusion to be drawn in the present experience of the person recounting the tale”

“There is often a tension between the quest for historical truth and the desire of communities of faith to pass on their religious message”

“…the past has many uses, and one of them is to inspire the present”