Category Archives: history
Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer (James Swanson)
I’m always impressed when a writer takes a familiar story and inflates it with details I never knew. Textbooks edit history for brevity — after all, how many high school kids want to read two hundred pages when two paragraphs … Continue reading
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Washington Disasters (Rob & Natalie McNair-Huff)
Most folks living in the Northwest today remember the Nisqually Earthquake of 2001. I was in my office, for instance, mildly eavesdropping on a class in the next room. I stood up when the shaking began and rode it out … Continue reading
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Lincoln and Darwin Dual Bicentennial
A remarkable coincidence will be observed next week. Two men who made enormous impacts on the world were born on the same day two hundred years ago: February 12, 1809. Abraham Lincoln, arguably the greatest American president, was born in … Continue reading
Circumference (Nicholas Nicastro)
When I first learned about Eratosthenes from some long-forgotten astronomy book in my youth, roughly age 10, I fell in love with the name: Air-uh-TOSS-the-knees. I’ve always enjoyed pronouncing long words and names like that. Once I had the name … Continue reading
How the States Got Their Shapes (Mark Stein)
I devoured maps as a kid. The endless intersecting lines within an atlas could entertain me for an hour at a time, and I’d recreate the the curves and jagged edges with paper and pencil. The United States map is … Continue reading
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