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The BBC is running an interesting article about the oldest words in the English language. Researchers are currently saying that they believe the oldest words still in use in modern English are “I”, “we”, “two” and “three” which date back tens of thousands of years. They also cite words such as “squeeze”, “guts”, “stick” and … more →

For anyone who is going to be working with the memoirs of Reinhard Gehlen, do not use David Irving’s translation of it, entitled: The Service: The Memoirs of General Reinhard Gehlen. For a project I am working on, I have been dealing with both Irving’s translation as well as the original book in German written … more →

I found something quite amusing from an 1865 Boston newspaper: A man about 43 years of age giving the name Joshua Coppersmith has been arrested for attempting to extort funds from ignorant and superstitious people by exhibiting a device which he says will convey the human voice any distance over metallic wires. He calls the … more →

Today marks the 200th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s birth. He was born on February 12, 1809 in a one-room cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky. If you are interested there is some interesting information regarding some photos recently of Lincoln’s second inauguration. I’ve written about it before.

I have to say that I am quite disappointed with my Native American Studies class this semester. I was (apparently naively) assuming that we would focus more on Native American culture and more on the history of the Native American peoples before first contact with the European nations. I was, however, wrong. We spent the … more →

This semester I am taking a historical methods class in which the focus is the history of espionage. In this class, we are required to choose a topic related to the history of intelligence and do a research paper based on that. The topic I have chosen to do is Reinhard Gehlen who held a … more →

This really has nothing to do with history, but I thought I would be a staunch self-promoter here as well as my other blogs: As part of my on going adventures with the German language, I provide translation services from both German to English and English to German. If you are looking for someone who … more →

While browsing around the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, I ran across a series of interesting online exhibits. I’ve only had time to check out one of them, but I would highly recommend looking through them. They provide a very interesting look into Native American culture, art, etc. The exhibit I visited was … more →

Today is a historic day. Barack Obama has become the 44th President of the United States of America and has thus become the first black president. I have to say, congratulation, President Barack Obama!

Today I was reading The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America by James Wilson and in the first chapter of the book, Wilson brings up a very good point about the “stage of development” of the Native American tribes versus the European cultures. He discusses the fact that from our own Euro-American perspective, … more →