I try to be amused…
History may not repeat itself, but it rhymes
– Mark Twain
A newsletter about the moments the news, life, times and absurdities rhyme with the past or, stranger still, the present
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Only The Worst Parts of History Repeat Themselves
We not only repeat history, we copy it I’m told that studying history is a good way to avoid repeating it. But, as a whole, it’s not working out that way. Studying history has done little to prevent us from repeating…
The Madmen May Change, But The Headlines Don’t
Some things in history do repeat themselves History doesn’t repeat itself, it rhymes. Mark Twain originally wrote that. Or not. This being the post-truth age, his authorship, too, has been questioned. But some things in history do repeat themselves…
World War II’s Guests: Enemy Soldiers Living in the U.S.
Like, 425,000 of Them I’ve been talking to book clubs and groups about “Something Like Treason,” which, of course, is about some pro-German U.S. soldiers during World War II. Until climate change became evident to enough people, World War II…
The strange allure of World War II and meat-grinding
One Man’s War is another Man’s Movie I do love World War II. No, not the meat-grinding blood, torture, cruelty, death, and heartache that it was. But let some character seem to die or spy in a war book, movie…
Only SOMETHING like treason?
I thought I had settled on a good book title. Among other things, however, it also seemed to produce an apparently irresistible urge for people to ask, “why was it only something like treason.” World War II was well before…
Flattery always enthusiastically embraced
When I was researching the book, I ran across a really interesting military historian named Fred Borch. I cited some of his work in “Something Like Treason.” Now I’m ready to do something modest like worship at his feet because…