Some of you may remember our interview with historian Larry Eskridge in Episode 113 of The Way of Improvement Leads Home Podcast. Larry is our foremost authority on the Jesus People and he is the author of God’s Forever Family:...
I recently saw a social media post asking readers to identity the first pop song they remember hearing as a kid. I am pretty sure my song was this 1973 classic from Neil Sedaka. How about you?...
John Wigger is Professor of History at the University of Missouri. This interview is based on his new book, The Hijacking of American Flight 119: How D.B. Cooper Inspired a Skyjacking Craze and the FBI’s Battle to Stop It (Oxford...
Michael Kazin is one of the best political historians working today. Check out our interview with him in Episode 41 of The Way of Improvement Leads Home Podcast. We discussed his work on populism. Back in 2021, Current published his...
Since war broke out in Israel and the Gaza strip over the weekend, writers and journalists are comparing it to the 1973 Yom Kippur War. (For those unfamiliar with the Yom Kippur War of 1973, get up to speed here.)...
In 1974, the famed filmmaker interviewed his parents and turned it into a documentary film. I thought I was sitting in the room with my own Italian grandparents. Oh the stories! I could listen to Catherine Scorsese talk all day....
American historians know New York University historian Martha Hodes for A Sea Captain’s Wife and Mourning Lincoln. But her latest book is different. In My Hijacking: A Personal History of Forgetting and Remembering, Hodes writes about the time her plane...
It sure looks like it. In 1976, four teams from the American Basketball Association joined the National Basketball Association. Learn more about the ABA and the merger here or you can listen to our forthcoming podcast interview with Theresa Runstedtler,...
Head over to Livia Gershon’s piece at JSTOR Daily to learn more about the 1970s “cow mutilation mystery” and the work of historian Michael J. Goleman. Here is a taste: In the 1970s, ranchers all over the country began reporting...
Here is Lori Amber Roessner at The Conversation: Carter continued to share his understanding of the gospel with journalists and their audiences in a plain-spoken manner, even though it was not always advantageous to his political fortunes. For instance, after...
Columbia Records released Greetings from Asbury Park on January 5, 1973. Jim Cullen, the dean of Springsteen scholars, reflects at The Washington Post: Fifty years ago this week, a scruffy young artist from New Jersey released his first album. In...
Back in September we called your attention to a 1972 conversation between Billy Graham and Richard Nixon that was, according to researcher Mike Hertenstein, “quietly posted on the Nixon Library website.” The conversation reveals Graham talking about Jews as part...
Current editor Eric Miller will appreciate this post. The Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh is celebrating the history of Franco Harris’s “Immaculate Reception.” Here is a taste of WPXI’s coverage: This December marks 50 years since the greatest play in...
The Graham-Nixon conversations were much worse than we originally thought. In late July 2018, the full conversation of a 1972 Billy Graham-Richard Nixon conversation was, according to researcher Mike Hertenstein, “quietly posted on the Nixon Library website.” It was labeled...
I finished Jonathan Franzen’s novel Crossroads over the weekend. I don’t read too much fiction, but this was a book I couldn’t put down. Perhaps I will write a review of it when I get the time, but for now...
Springsteen’s “Darkness on the Edge of Town” that is. Backstreets recently posted the Columbia Records’ advanced marketing plan for the album (see above). It was released June 4, 1978....
Joe Biden wants to reform the Supreme Court. This kind of judicial reform also happened in the 1790s, 1850s, 1890s, 1930s, 1970s, and 2010s. Here is a taste of Syracuse University political scientist Thomas Keck‘s piece at The Washington Post:...
I learned the preamble to the United States Constitution from watching School House Rock on Saturday mornings. (I often break into the “The Preamble” song when I cover the Constitution in my lectures). Historian Paul Ringel wants to revise the...
I’ve always been a Jimmy Carter fan, so I was eager to watch Mary Wharton‘s documentary “Jimmy Carter: Rock and Roll President” last Sunday night. On one level, it did not disappoint. I knew very little about Carter’s relationship with...
Everyone knows what this means. But if you want more information I encourage you read these posts. Here and here. So how should we think about Trump’s call to save the suburbs in the light of American history? Today I...
