December, 2007
Book Review (Somewhat): Some Family
I’ve posted a couple of “thoughts” that I found provocative from a book called Some Family–The Mormons and How Humanity Keeps Track of Itself. Usually, one waits until one has finished reading a book before reviewing it. But because of the nature of this book, I think it appropriate to say something about it even though I’m just half way …
December 10, 2007 Monday at 8:18 pm
Genealogy: Art or Science? A Thought
. . . [G]enealogical narratives . . . often take a form that deserves to be denominated as literature. The best genealogies are artful and achieve the status of consciously crafted art. Donald Harman Akenson in Some Family–The Mormons and How Humanity Keeps Track of Itself (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2007)
December 10, 2007 Monday at 8:10 pm
An Historian Comments On Historians and Genealogy
Professional historians, like all skilled tradespeople, have their own status rules. One of the most basic of these–so basic that our postgraduate students do not even need to be told, so clearly do we silently communicate our snobbery– is this: do not ever become involved with the practice of genealogy: it is a necropolis of the mind and anyone who …
December 7, 2007 Friday at 6:44 pm
That Sunday Morning
December 7, 1941 . . . was a Sunday. The two persons who would eventually become my parents had yet to meet, lived 800 miles apart, and were just nine years old.That day would be the most important day of my then yet-to-be life. On December 7, 1941, America, isolated by geography and an idiosyncratic culture, was drawn not just …
December 7, 2007 Friday at 4:34 pm
The Most Important Day of My Life . . .
. . . occurred thirteen years before I was born . . . . Dispatch from Pacific Fleet 7 Dec 1941 USS Arizona Images from Library of Congress, American Memory collection
December 7, 2007 Friday at 4:33 am
A Most Unique Law Lesson
For this lesson, you have to visit my friend the footnoteMaven. Enjoy!
December 6, 2007 Thursday at 9:58 pm
Sankt Nikolaus Tag
When I lived in Germany as a child, we celebrated every year Sankt Nikolaus Tag. On the night of December 5, we would place our shoes outside the door. If we had been good that year, Sankt Nikolaus would leave chocolates, fruit, and other goodies in our shoes. If we had been bad, then we would find wood switches in …
December 6, 2007 Thursday at 5:18 pm
