Monthly Archives: September 2011
Effects of the Papal Visit to Cuba in 1998
From Looking for History: Dispatches from Latin America, by Alma Guillermoprieto (Vintage, 2001), pp. 97-99: The issue of Granma I acquire from a vendor in front of the cathedral is eight pages thick, tabloid-size. There is such a severe paper … Continue reading
Filed under Cuba, nationalism, publishing, religion, U.S.
Initial Soviet Attitudes toward Israel
From Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, by Timothy Snyder (Basic Books, 2010), Kindle Loc. 6369-6392 (pp. 345-346): After the Second World War, it was much harder for the Soviet leadership to control the mental world of Soviet citizens. Although … Continue reading
Che’s African Farce, 1965
From Looking for History: Dispatches from Latin America, by Alma Guillermoprieto (Vintage, 2001), pp. 81-82: Che was unable to deal with his disapproval of the course that Fidel was taking and his simultaneous love for the man; with his disillusionment … Continue reading
Competitive Victimology in the Bloodlands
From Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, by Timothy Snyder (Basic Books, 2010), Kindle Loc. 7393-7441 (pp. 402-403): Without history, the memories become private, which today means national; and the numbers become public, which is to say an instrument in … Continue reading
Rosa’s Route to Apostasy
From Looking for History: Dispatches from Latin America, by Alma Guillermoprieto (Vintage, 2001), pp. 33-35: [Rosa's] family was well off by the standards of the provincial backwater she was brought up in, but her father, a devout Catholic, had strong … Continue reading
Wordcatcher Tales: Menbei, Yuzusco, Hakugei
While we were shopping for light, comestible omiyage (souvenirs) to bring back from Japan this summer, we came across three products of linguistic as well as gustatory interest. Menbei < mentai senbei – Korea is the source of one well-known … Continue reading
The Making of Evita Duarte
From Looking for History: Dispatches from Latin America, by Alma Guillermoprieto (Vintage, 2001), pp. 6-8: The facts of Evita’s early life coincide nicely with those of the poor she came to represent: she was, like so many others, born of … Continue reading
Soviet Contributions to the Holocaust
From Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, by Timothy Snyder (Basic Books, 2010), Kindle Loc. 6313-6365 (pp. 343-345): During the war, the Soviets and their allies had been in general agreement that the war was not to be understood as … Continue reading
Wordcatcher Tales: Dorui, Kangou, Funkyuubo, Fujo
The first tourist site we visited on our most recent trip to Japan was Yoshinogari Historical Park in Saga Prefecture, on a stretch of open countryside that turned up lots of artifacts from the Yayoi-period (roughly 300 B.C. to A.D. … Continue reading
