Masha Gessen’s talk at the Hannah Arendt Prize ceremony
Die Zeit has the full text of the talk in English, which makes several points about history, comparison, learning, memory, and politics—and their uses.
history
Specific eras: Antiquity, Middle Ages, 16th Century, 17th Century, 19th Century, 20th Century …
Why “Chicagoland”
WBEZ’s Curious City looks into “Chicagoland,” the term, its origins, purpose, and definition—its boundaries. Chicago Tribune publisher Robert R. “Colonel” McCormick commissioned James O’Donnell Bennett to write a series of Chicago region travel articles. That’s how the word made its first appearance nearly 100 years ago in the July 27, 1926 edition of the Chicago Tribune. … Read more
Weird Medieval Guys: “An 800 year old prayer book that’s decorated with puns”
Of course, there is still some ambiguity as to the purpose these puns served in relation to the text. Michael Camille seemed to favour a rather antagonistic interpretation, suggesting that the crudeness and irreverence of these illustrations were the artist’s way of hitting back at the scribe and even at the scripture itself and undermining … Read more
Oral History Metadata Synchronizer (OHMS)
I came across this by quite the circuitous route, but it’s very cool and I think exactly fits the bill of what I was looking for as a way to index—and increase discoverability of—and present audio and video content like interviews and first-person narratives—whether “oral histories” or not. OHMS is a two-piece system for, first … Read more