Aug 7, 2023 | History, Salon.com
When we typically think of an ice age, the first thing that comes to mind is often prehistoric humans hunting wooly mammoths or battling saber-toothed tigers. Technically, an ice age is a prolonged period of colder climates when polar and mountain ice sheets are unusually extensive across the earth’s surface and on geological timescales, they happen regularly....
Originally posted on salon.com
Jun 4, 2023 | History, Salon.com
Abraham Lincoln referred to it as “the ludicrous incident of sewing up the hogs eyes.”
“As a youngster he shot a wild turkey and was so disgusted he claimed he never again raised a weapon to kill an animal.”
The story comes from a short autobiography that the future president co-authored for his 1860 election campaign....
Originally posted on salon.com
May 22, 2023 | History, Salon.com
Believe it or not, there once was a time when trans people could be the stars of popular fiction without arousing nationwide controversy and manufactured outrage.
“Even though it’s ‘just’ a short story, it must have resonated with readers because it appeared in one of the most popular magazines of the day.”
May 20, 2023 | History, Salon.com
President Lyndon B. Johnson is one of American history’s most enigmatic figures. Although he is rightly criticized for bungling the Vietnam War, he was also one of the most productive progressives to ever inhabit the White House. Thanks to his knack for parliamentary maneuvering, Johnson passed some of the most important liberal legislation in American history: the landmark civil rights laws of the 1960s, Medicare, Medicaid, consumer protections, federal funding to education and the arts and protecting the environment....
Originally posted on salon.com
Dec 24, 2022 | History, Salon.com
When Ulysses S. Grant was inaugurated for his first presidential term in 1869, thousands of people showed up to celebrate. It was one of the grandest and swankiest parties held in generations, with pricey tickets and a level of pomp befitting the figurative coronation of the general who had preserved the Union....
Originally posted on salon.com
Sep 4, 2022 | History, Salon.com
Hippopotamus Getty Images/pjmalsbury
The hippopotamus is arguably one of the great physical comedians of the animal world. With its roly-poly body, Shrek-like ears and squat nostrils smushed into a giant snout, it’s easy to forget that the absurd-looking creatures are actually quite dangerous to humans. According to the BBC in 2016, hippopotamuses killed an average of 500 people each year in Africa — far more than lions, which tend to inspire far more fear....
Originally posted on salon.com
Sep 4, 2022 | Abortion, History, Salon.com
Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Joe Biden Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images
Future historians may well remember 2022 as the year when the U.S. Supreme Court permanently went off the rails. This goes well beyond the tormented, quasi-religious reasoning used by the court’s conservative majority in Dobbs v. Jackson, the case that officially reversed the nationwide abortion rights established in 1973 by Roe v....
Originally posted on salon.com
Aug 14, 2022 | Elections, History, Salon.com
Abraham Lincoln Speaking During one of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, Charleston, Illinois, USA, September 18, 1858. Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
When Joe Biden met last week with a “select group of scholars” for a “Socratic dialogue” about America’s future, the esteemed historians compared the current crisis facing our democracy with two other historical periods: The years immediately preceding the Civil War, which broke out shortly after Abraham Lincoln’s victory in the 1860 presidential election, and the years before World War II, when proto-fascist or explicitly fascist movements like those led by aviator Charles Lindbergh popped up all over the land....
Originally posted on salon.com
Jul 24, 2022 | History, Salon.com
Joe Biden and Jimmy Carter Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images
In a column published over the Fourth of July weekend I compared Joe Biden to America’s founding fathers — in particular to George Washington and Thomas Jefferson — because they all supported ambitious economic policies that were not realized in their lifetimes....
Originally posted on salon.com
Jul 3, 2022 | History, Salon.com
Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Joe Biden Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images
Many years ago, a young man named Frank Bourgin, a graduate student in history at the University of Chicago, wrote a dissertation arguing that founding fathers like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson had taken economic positions that, by modern standards, were highly progressive....
Originally posted on salon.com