American history

Wash-day

Books Bygone: Wash DayMarica Bernstein My library contains a lot of old books by Great Thinkers addressing life’s most profound questions. What does it mean to flourish as a human being? How can we believe in a benevolent God in the face of brutish evil? What is the proper relationship of the state to the …

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“What does history mean to you?”

What does history mean to you? Is it alive, or is it dead and buried in the past? Is it a list of dry happenings with drier dates, or is it full of exciting or solemn moments and people doing the things you do, only in a finer, bigger way?”

These simple questions, asked of boys and girls in grades 5-8, begin Eleanore Hubbard’s Citizenship Plays: A Dramatic Reader for Upper Grades (1929). She continues, “If you had been present at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, do you suppose you would ever think of it as an uninteresting document of long words?” Of course not!…

‘Self-made’ Means More Than Ever

Books Bygone: ‘Self-made’ means more than everMarica Bernstein Did you know “there are at present time three types of motor vehicles—steam, gasoline, and electrical?” Regarding electrical vehicles: “its sphere of usefulness is confined to city traffic or very short tours out of town” because its battery must be charged after 40 miles. Did you know …

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“Pride of Ownership”

Books Bygone: “Pride of Ownership”Marica Bernstein Shopwork on the Farm by Mack M. Jones (1945) “should be valuable to farmers” concerned about the upkeep of machinery and equipment, but it is a textbook “intended primarily for the use of vocational agriculture students and other farm youth, who will be the farmers of tomorrow, and for …

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A Psalm of Life

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow What The Heart Of The Young Man Said To The Psalmist. Tell me not, in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty dream! For the soul is dead that slumbers, And things are not what they seem. Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal; Dust thou …

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Need Direction?

McGuffey’s Newly Revised Eclectic Fourth Reader with Rules for Reading and Exercises in Articulation, Defining, Etc. William H. McGuffey. Winthrop B. Smith & Co., Cincinnati. 1853. Look at how many entries are from The Bible. I count twelve. Read down through the selections. Why, it’s as if Wm. H. McGuffey, Doctor of Laws, was trying …

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Angels’ Wings | Horizon November 1960

Why do angels have wings? In early Christian times God’s messengers walked as men. But after the sweeping conversions of the pagan world Christian artists found inspiration in the flying deities of ancient faiths.

I’m Dreaming…

of a White Christmas… As far as I’m concerned, white Christmases can stay in Vermont, but I want you to have that tune in your head as I tell the story of little Israel Baline, and the man he came to be. Israel was born in Temun, Russia in 1888. His family was Jewish and …

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