by Rich Wandschneider | Jan 16, 2020 | Australian fires, Brian Fagan, Cahokia, chaco canyon, climate, great warming, little ice age, Philippines volcano
With fires raging and people fleeing to the sea in Australia, and evacuations in the Philippines in the face of volcanoes, I think about all the instances of weather and climate that have changed the shape of world populations. The few that I know about are certainly...
by Rich Wandschneider | Nov 24, 2016 | alt right, Cabeza de Vaca, Columbian Exchange, cranberries, little ice age, Richard Spencer, Thanksgiving, wild turkey
“Wild” cranberries “America was until this last generation a white country designed for ourselves and our posterity. It is our creation and it belongs to us.” That’s a quote from Richard Spencer, self-appointed spokesman for the “alt-right” in a gathering of...
by Rich Wandschneider | Feb 24, 2014 | Alfred Crosby, Alvin Josephy, Brian Fagan, chaco canyon, climate change, global warming, greenland, little ice age, Medieval warming
In my last blog I wrote about an interview I came across with Alfred Crosby, historian and author of “The Columbian Exchange.” Crosby said that he had tired of teaching the standard American history of Washington and Jefferson, and, looking for deeper stories of early...
by Rich Wandschneider | Nov 16, 2012 | Alvin Josephy, American Indian diet, Civil War American West, colonialism, commodity foods, demise of buffalo, Indian diet, little ice age
I’m stretching my Josephy Library legs, offering a class—“Introduction to Indian Studies and the Nez Perce Story”—at the new Josephy Center. It’s based on Alvin materials—chapters from books, speeches, and journal articles he wrote over 50 years—and has become a...
