Category: Historical Topics

Historical Topics

The History of Masculinity in China

Zhanhao Zhang In 2020, during the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, committee member Si Zefu  criticized male teenagers for being too “feminine.” The Ministry of Education responded by promoting physical education and research on the influence of popular culture on the “feminization of male adolescents.” Suddenly, the concept of masculinity (阳刚之气) and its traditional meanings became a hot topic on Chinese social media. Many people, … Continue reading The History of Masculinity in China

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Historical Topics

Finish That Riff: A History of Musical Borrowing in Three Quarter Notes

Casey Donahue Tap your feet to the tempo of a brisk walk—about 110 beats-per-minute, depending on your gait. Now count out measures of four. Next, imagine the warm staccato thud of a bass guitar punctuating the first three quarter notes of each measure. If you loop that beat in your head, you may start to hear something familiar. What you hear is not a test, … Continue reading Finish That Riff: A History of Musical Borrowing in Three Quarter Notes

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Historical Topics

We Said, They Sed: Accents and When We Spell Them Out

Casey Donahue Accents are identities, and everybody’s got one.  With pinched vowels or dropped consonants, we give hints to each other about our home, heritage, class, gender, and age. But how would you spell your accent? Do your trademark pronunciations sound as the dictionary says they should? If not, do you ever spell your shibboleths differently, changing get to git or smart to smaht when … Continue reading We Said, They Sed: Accents and When We Spell Them Out

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Historical Topics

“Heed Their Words”: Using the WPA Slave Narratives to Address Challenging Sources

Victoria Lewis Rachel Sullivan walked up the steps of her front porch, kicked off her shoes, and plopped down in her rocker. In her eighties, she just didn’t get around like she used to. As she sat on the porch of that two-room house on Reynolds Street, Rachel could not help but reflect on her life: her early years on the plantation of Governor Pickens … Continue reading “Heed Their Words”: Using the WPA Slave Narratives to Address Challenging Sources

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Historical Topics, Op-ed

Steering Past “The Ivory Tower”

Devinie Lye-Ukwattage Ivory Tower: “an impractical often escapist attitude marked by aloof lack of concern with or interest in practical matters or urgent problems” The term Ivory Tower has an unusually long history. Dating back to antiquity, the phrase has been associated with everything from saints and poets to giant white buildings (surprise!). Today, the Ivory Tower is a metaphor that describes an unaffordable, inherently … Continue reading Steering Past “The Ivory Tower”

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Historical Topics

Spiced: The Historical Impact of Medieval Desserts

Nathan Tashjy There is nothing in the gastronomic world that is more lustful than dessert.  It is the exclamation point of an evening out on the town and the self-prescribed elixir for a broken heart. Dessert is decadent, emphatic, and gratifying. The moment when sweet meets tongue is undefinable, as the world around you is completely lost.  But why is this the case? What ties … Continue reading Spiced: The Historical Impact of Medieval Desserts

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Historical Topics, Op-ed

Forgetting the Forever Wars

John Ramming Chappell Nearly two decades after 9/11, a consensus has emerged: the United States needs to end its forever wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. This month, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill to repeal the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), the sweeping legislation that authorized the War on Terror. Legislators have also proposed bills to repeal the 2002 … Continue reading Forgetting the Forever Wars

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