It’s a never-before-seen mythical beast: an eclectic links roundup of the week here at the Arena. This makes it a unicorn. Will I ever get organized enough on another Friday night to do this again? Unclear. But for this week at least, here are some good reads I have come across this week:
James Hankins at Public Discourse: “The Past As Enemy Country: Why Teachers of Great Books Should Be Teaching History, Too”
Dixie Dillon Lane at Hearth and Field would like to encourage you to talk more to strangers and makes a case for why it is a good thing. And there are some lovely stories here about her growing-up sojourn in France.
Ivana Greco at Hearth and Field: “The Job for Which All Others Exist: Let’s Bring Back the Term ‘Homemaker'”
Chance Bonar at the Conversation: “Dismantling the Myth that Ancient Slavery ‘Wasn’t That Bad'”
Lisa Clark Diller at the Anxious Bench: “Spiritual Travel: Biking the Camino on a Protestant Pilgrimage”
Finally, my 8-year-old gleefully marked the 100th anniversary of President Harding’s death earlier this week with a homemade banner, and then Dan took him to nearby Marion, Ohio for a community event marking this occasion. Why was Harding’s death such a big deal? Greg Daugherty at the Smithsonian Magazine explains. For the record, we have yet to take our children to more gruesome historical events/locales, unlike a former historian colleague who once took his ten-year-old to tour Lizzie Borden’s house (“It was cheaper than Disney World”). By the way, I will link again Dan’s essay at the Anxious Bench from a couple of weeks ago: “President Warren Harding’s Liberal Baptist Faith.”