Super Bowl 50 Commercials, American Revolution style
Here we are again, with that wonderful sports/consumer/corporate/bread-and-circuses phantasmagoria that is the Super Bowl, and, with that, and in fact, central to the real purpose of it, namely, money, all those wonderful commercials. And wherever there is a great (or garish, or both, take your pick) American tradition, the American Revolution won’t be far behind. So, […]
My head’s gonna be a talkin’ on Bob Zadek Show, 2/7
This Sunday, Feb. 7, at 12 ET 9 PT, I’ll be talking about Fighting over the Founders with Bob Zadek on KKSF 910 AM. Read more here, where you can link to the live stream.
What the musical of the $10 founding father without a father says about fatherhood
Hamilton, that musical about the “ten dollar founding father without a father” actually has a lot to say about the changing nature of fatherhood in the Anglo-American world of the late 1700s. The funny thing is, it does so least in places you might expect, and most cogently in what would seem like just a few […]
Unknown knowns: Why we think we love Hamilton and Adams
Like many historian-types, I love Hamilton, the musical, and am ambivalent about David McCullough’s John Adams. The American public apparently agrees with the former, and is more positive about the latter. John Adams was one of the publishing best-sellers of the last quarter-century. As for Hamilton, anything that has to do with public life that’s been praised by […]
Storified: Panel on Facing the Founders
This past week, I attended the 2015 United States Intellectual History conference in Washington, DC, and participated in a panel sponsored by the wonderful folks at The Junto. Read more for the whole megilla, as storified by Michael Hattem.