Photo by Ed Ortiz - It’s still kind of cold, so the mug is trying to stay warm. 😀 I’ve mentioned in other posts that I don’t usually read much fiction, but I’m gradually adding more to my reading list. I’m discovering that biographical and historical fiction can be especially captivating. Following my instincts, I … Continue reading Book Reviews: The Weight of Snow and Regret and Traveling Through History
Tag: History
Book Review: The Hardest Job in the World – The American Presidency
Photo by Ed Ortiz It’s interesting to learn how the office of the president of the United States came to be and how it has changed over time, mostly due to Congress’s neglect. I have been reading about the Founding Fathers and the important documents they produced that have guided this country. So when I … Continue reading Book Review: The Hardest Job in the World – The American Presidency
“Third World” Is Outdated—and Dangerous: It’s Time to Change How We Speak
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I heard the term “Third World” quite a lot. I think this is one of those expressions that needs to be erased from our vocabulary, since there is only one world, and all countries belong to it. Using that term promotes discrimination and disdain toward people living in countries with fewer … Continue reading “Third World” Is Outdated—and Dangerous: It’s Time to Change How We Speak
Reforming American Democracy
Last night, I finished reading the book Tyranny of the Minority by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. It’s an excellent book that provides not just good background information about what is currently going on politically in the United States, but also a list of actions the authors propose to improve our Constitution and strengthen our … Continue reading Reforming American Democracy
Judging the Judges
“A good judge must not be a young person but an old one, who has learned late in life what injustice is like and who has become aware of it not as something at home in his own soul, but as something alien and present in others, someone who, after a long time, has recognized … Continue reading Judging the Judges
Book Review: John Adams
Photo by Edward Ortiz It really gives me a lot of joy when I start reading a book to learn about a particular subject and discover something I wasn’t expecting. That is exactly what happened with the biography of John Adams written by Page Smith. I’m setting a goal to read the biographies of the … Continue reading Book Review: John Adams
Rewriting the Past: The Threat of Historical Denial
Why people want to refute historical events that have been validated by eyewitness accounts and studied deeply by reputable historians and scholars is beyond comprehension. It is either an attempt to seriously influence people in order to do something nefarious, or just to create controversy to get more clicks on their websites and generate income. … Continue reading Rewriting the Past: The Threat of Historical Denial
Book Review: Democracy In America
Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville was a heavy read, to put it mildly. Tocqueville visited the United States in 1831 to study the country. Initially, his focus was the prison system, but his study expanded to include the government structure and the socio-economic conditions of the country. Once he completed his research, he … Continue reading Book Review: Democracy In America
Rockin’ Thursday LXVII
Today is Juneteenth, a day that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. The holiday's name, first used in the 1890s, is a portmanteau of the words June and nineteenth, referring to June 19, 1865, the day Major General Gordon Granger ordered the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas at the end of the … Continue reading Rockin’ Thursday LXVII
Book Review: The Forgotten Americans
For the past 20 months or so, I have read several books focused on the subject of marginalized citizens. This interest partly comes from my desire to understand how social scientists, political theorists, and historians perceive our current problems and the solutions they propose. Books such as Poverty, By America, Evicted, There Is Nothing for … Continue reading Book Review: The Forgotten Americans
Thoughts about leadership, history, and more 