Category Archives: history

Forty Years Later, Ohio Can’t Outlive Its Anthem

Sometimes when I walk across my university campus, it’s hard to remember how America was so angry and violent forty years ago. Other times I think, this is Ohio, the proverbial battleground state of national politics, and it isn’t so hard to remember. The fear- and hate-mongers are still with us. Continue reading






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Cranking Up Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine

Some years back when I read The Difference Engine, the “alternate history” novel by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, I thought Charles Babbage was just a fanciful blip in the authors’ metaverse. Later I learned that Babbage was the real … Continue reading






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Franklin D. Roosevelt’s First Inaugural Address

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s First Inaugural Address: Part 1 | Part 2 On March 4, 1933, FDR delivered one of the most quoted affirmations in the history of American political rhetoric: This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the … Continue reading






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