Author: Jonathan Dresner
“What I Read Over Summer Vacation” (part one?)
I’ve been on something of a tear through my to-read pile in search of… well, I’m not entirely sure some days. A lot of what’s in that st...
The Marie Kondo thing
I’ve been avoiding getting into the debate about Marie Kondo’s konmari brand of modernist orientalism, mostly because I’m not that interested,...
On the opening vignette as pedagogy
A passage I wrote for one of my online course discussion boards: One of my pet peeves about textbook, history, and journalistic writing is the use of the “...
Pedagogy In The Wild
In a thoughtful discussion of teaching at USIH, I commented In addition to all the other qualifications and tensions around teaching, there are gaps between dis...
Women Warriors in Japanese History? Yes, but…
The subtitle to this article tells you most of what you need to know: Christobel Hasting, “How Onna-Bugeisha, Feudal Japan’s Women Samurai, Were Era...
Why Read Wineburg?
Like a lot of people, I got my copy of Sam Wineburg’s new book Why Study History (When It’s Already on Your Phone) [University of Chicago Press, 201...
Too Many Men Again
There’s an article about China making the rounds: “Too Many Men” ; “In China and India, men outnumber women by 70 million. Both nations ...
President Trump’s Historical Consciousness: Bowling Ball Edition
President Trump, at a recent event, recycled an old chestnut I haven’t heard in years He accused Japan of using gimmicks to deny U.S. auto companies acces...
A brief note on Google Culture
Google Culture is apparently producing some original content: “A brief history of Kimono” https://shinpaideshou.wordpress.com/2018/01/19/fun-link-fr...
“North Korea: Hangover of the 20th Century”
Missouri Southern State, Pittsburg State’s rival/sister school across the state line in Joplin, does “international semesters” in the Fall, an...
On “Buddhist Atrocities”
One of the odd substrains of commentary on the ongoing Rohingya genocide in Myanmar is Americans (mostly, as near as I can tell) shocked that a Buddhist society...
Yi Soon Shin: Warrior and Defender and Yi Soon Shin: Fallen Avenger: Bad
At Planet Comicon in Kansas City last month, I came across a gentleman selling a comic book series based on the Hideyoshi invasions of Korea, known in Korea as ...
April History Carnival! #164!
Happy April! Most April Fools Jokes will fall into the May carnival, of course, but I can’t help noting two: American Historical Association, which really...
Delayed Reaction, or, I get mail.
In response to my review of The Last Samurai movie, I got the following email yesterday: The text reads: Message From: your mom Message: I read your review of &...