Restrictive covenants are back : The Chicago school system is selling excess property but requiring the deed to include a statement that it won’t be used for a “K-12 charter school.” John F. Harnes discusses such covenants in his RealClearHistory article, “How Chicago Has Revived Its Legacy of Jim Crow.”
Do you know the details surrounding Juneteenth? Howie Tanzman gives a good overview of its history on his blog, Parks, Presidents, and Parks.
Yes, History and Fantasy Can Be Mixed
Mountain Folk, the first in John Hood’s series about the early United States.On his blog, author John Hood discusses past examples of mixing history and folklore. He says doing so isMountain Folk: “Sounds crazy — but it works!”
Why did Napoleon lose the Battle of Waterloo? To Graeme Callister, the surprise is how the brave but “makeshift” French army came as close to winning as it did. In War on the Rocks.
Lessons from the American Indian Experience
Image of Osage Indian woman and child, courtesy of DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University. Paul Gottlieb considers the tragedy of the American natives and their cultures, and finds lessons for current American culture. On Chronicles.
History amateurs rediscover a long-lost Tudor palace in Collyweston, England, reports Megan Specia in the New York Times.
Egyptians were trailblazers in medicine, writes Jesse Greenspan in Inside History. Even the Greek poet Homer acknowledged their advances.
Yes, North Carolina has May 20, 1775, on its flag. But it may all be a big misunderstanding—even a hoax. I explain in the Carolina Journal.
In 1854, Pr esident Franklin Pierce vetoed the use of federal land to raise money for social welfare. A wise and courageous decision, says Lawrence Reed on the FEE website.
Could Beethoven’s deafness have been caused by cheap wine?
Bust of Beethoven on Wakefield (U.K.) Opera House. Image by Tim Green, licensed by Creative Commons SA BY 2.0. New DNA analysis suggests it may have, Gina Kolata explains in the New York Times.
The link between the invention of eyeglasses and economic growth has been known for years, says Peter Coclanis.
A new book by Evan Osborne describes the surprising history of economic liberalism in China. Sam Gregg reviews Markets with Chinese Characteristics on Law & Liberty.
Previously unknown art has been discovered at the ruins of Pompeii, in a banquet hall with scenes illustrating the Trojan War, Reuters reports in the Jerusalem Post.
Scene from Pompei ruins, taken by Lyn Gatel y and licensed under CC BY 2.0. A taste of the troubling history of sugar. Read an excerpt from a book on Coca-cola from DelaneyPlace.com
Slaves cutting sugar cane. From Ten Views of the Island of Antigua. (London: 1823). In the Flickr.com British Library collection. (And my discussion of sugar plantations here. )
How Vietnam has moved toward capitalism in one generation is told by Rainer Zittelman in Reason.
A Wall Street Journal article on a possible “brokered” Democratic convention in 2024 describes the down-to-the-wire selection of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. Author is Edward Achorn. (Behind a paywall.)
The famed Eisenstaedt photo of a sailor kissing a girl in Times Square was almost banned from use by the Veterans Administration. Here’s the story of the photo and the story of the “woke” decision.
To make you smile: Howard Tanzman has collected initial press reactions to a group of musicians who gave concerts in the 1960s. Among them: “appallingly unmusical,” “like a group of disorganized amateurs,” “not just awful . . .god awful.” And they are . . .
