Tag Archive for ‘America’s Hidden History’
Don’t Know Much About History -21 Years, Still Going Strong!
My how time flies! When Don’t Know Much About History was first published in 1990, it was simply meant to serve as a fresh new take on American history. Busting myths, with a dose of humor and real stories about real people, the book was conceived as an antidote to the dull, dreary textbooks we [...]
A Case of “Loving” Revisited
Last week’s historic passage of a “gay marriage” law in New York state meant that six states and the District of Columbia now permit same sex marriage; a number of other states allow a form of civil union. The addition of New York doubled the number of Americans living in states with same sex marriage. [...]
America’s Founding Fathers: A List of Fascinating Facts
The “Founding Fathers” were real men, not those faces chiseled in stone on Mount Rushmore. Here are some little known but fascinating facts you may not know about some of the men who were present at the birth of the nation –including some whose names you may not know!
America’s “Other” Independence Day
America’s birthday is fast approaching. But let’s not wait for July 4th to light the fireworks. There is another Independence Day on the horizon. Juneteenth falls on June 19 each year. It is a holiday whose history was hidden for much of the last century. But as the nation now observes the 150th anniversary of the Civil War’s onset, it is a holiday worth recognizing
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Juneteenth-Our-Other-Independence-Day.html#ixzz1PXGpVxj8
Don’t Know Much About History… Still!
The latest in the perennial drumbeat of bad news about failing American History grades in American schools has just been released. And it is as bad as ever. So the first simple question is:Why Are we so Bad at History?
“Beam me IN, Scotty” –Library Visits with Author Kenneth C. Davis
AN OPEN LETTER TO LIBRARIANS— “BEAM ME IN, SCOTTY!” Apologies to Captain Kirk and Star Trek. I know it’s really, “Beam me UP, Scotty.” For more than 20 years, I have been traveling the country to visit libraries, bookstores, museums, schools and librarian conferences to share my love for history, geography and all the subjects [...]
Don’t Know Much About® Internment
On Mach 23, 1942 –167 years later– the United States government began taking away the liberty of more than one hundred thousand people–the Japanese Americans viewed as a threat after Pearl Harbor. On that date, the U.S. Army began removing people of Japanese descent from Los Angeles.
Don’t Know Much About® “Brown v. Board of Education”
Every day, eight-year-old Linda Brown wondered why she had to ride five miles to school when her bus passed the perfectly lovely Sumner Elementary School, just four blocks from her home. When her father tried to enroll her in Sumner for fourth grade, the Topeka, Kansas, school authorities just said no. In 1951, Linda Brown [...]
Don’t Know Much About® John Brown
Abolitionist martyr? Or terrorist? Born on May 9, 1800, John Brown has always posed that awkward question in American history. I am quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. –John Brown at his execution (November 2, 1859) Viewed through history as a lunatic, psychotic, [...]
