The Wisdom of Napolitano

I have always had a vaguely positive fealing about Janet Napolitano, former governor of Arizona and current holder of one of the Official Thankless Jobs of modern America, Secretary of…

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Virginia Festival of the Book

At noon on Saturday, I’ll be in at the university book store Charlottesville for the Virginia Festival of the Book, on a panel titled “American History: Our Government at Work.”  I’ll be talking…

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The Benefits of Fellowship

I am halfway through a remarkable opportunity, the Hodson Trust/John Carter Brown Library Fellowship.  The grant supported me for two months of research at the library in Providence (where there…

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On to Providence!

Beginning in early January, I will take up two months of residence (most weekdays) in Providence, Rhode Island, thanks to the Hodson Trust-John Carter Brown Library Fellowship.  The fellowship is granted…

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The Wages of Mendacity

Fed up with bestselling authors who plagiarizes and just make up facts?  Me, too.  I let it rip on Huffington Post today.  After a day spent struggling with the microfilm readers…

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Speed Kills

Nope, not talking about meth, but about writing — specifically, writing in the twenty-first century. Like everything else in life, writing is accelerating.  We don’t have to sharpen the goose…

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