“Summer vacation” is a misnomer for what we academics do from mid-May to late-August. Most of us are not on vacation, but many of us are definitely a little unreachable.
Summer, Interrupted
The Rise and Fall of the Austin Dam
If you cross the Colorado River at Redbud Trail and look upstream toward Tom Miller Dam, there amid the tumbled rocks you can still see the wreck of Austin’s dream. In 1890, the citizens of Austin voted overwhelmingly to put themselves deeply in debt to build a dam, in hopes that the prospect of cheap waterpower would lure industrialists who would line the riverbanks with cotton mills.
A Dangerous Idea
Today, people who live in democratic societies take religious freedom for granted. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, most Europeans found the idea of “freedom of conscience” deeply threatening. How could the fabric of society withstand competing religious ideas? What would convince people to live moral lives in the absence of a single, state-supported church?
George on the Lege, Part 9 – Abortion Law in Texas
On May 19, Governor Rick Perry signed into law legislation further restricting abortion rights in Texas. H.B. 15, which passed by 2-1 majorities in both the Texas House and Senate, requires a physician to perform a sonogram on a woman seeking an abortion at least 24 hours prior to the abortion procedure.
Black Loyalists and “The Book of Negroes”
The Book of Negroes is an extraordinary historical resource, a meticulous list drawn up by the British authorities between May and November 1783, in which they recorded the personal details of some 3,000 African Americans evacuated from New York.
The Atomic Bomb and the Origins of the Cold War by Campbell Craig and Sergey Radchenko (2008)
Any work of history that attributes the start of the Cold War to a single factor will surely invite criticism, but Campbell Craig and Sergey Radchenko’s The Atomic Bomb and the Origins of the Cold War makes a compelling case for running that risk.
George on the Lege, Part 5 (continued) – School Finance
From 1949 to 1991, poor school districts had largely driven the debate over reform of the Texas school finance system. They had provided the initial impulse for Gilmer-Aiken, unsuccessfully sued the state in federal court, and ultimately triumphed at the Texas Supreme Court. Successive legislatures had responded to litigation and public campaigns by increasing total funding to public education and distributing that funding in a more equitable manner. Since 1991, however, the worm has turned.
The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy by David E. Hoffman (2009)
On September 26, 1983, satellites notified a Soviet watch station south of Moscow of inbound U.S. missiles. Stanislav Petrov, the officer on duty, had ten minutes to determine whether to launch a counterattack.
Yoav di-Capua on Egyptians Writing History
“History,” at least as Egyptians read, write, think, and know it today, is actually of surprisingly recent origins. As both an idea and a method, it was put to work only at the very end of the nineteenth century, and in a few short decades, it had managed to completely replace a rich and venerable nine hundred year-old scholarly tradition of Islamic historiography.
Liz Carpenter: Texan
Liz’s family moved to Austin when she was seven years old, so that she and her older siblings could ultimately attend the University of Texas. This was a transition that prepared her for the wider world. By the time she graduated from UT with a degree in journalism, she sensed that her prose and her spirit would enable her to make her mark. “Give me wide open spaces, a Model T, and a typewriter,” she wrote to her mother, “and I’ll see you in the hall of fame.”