Longread #417 -- Nelson Mandela -- 12/9/13

An excellent obituary written by Bill Keller, former Executive Editor for NYT.

"Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s Liberator as Prisoner and President, Dies at 95" by Bill Keller
Published in the New York Times, December 5, 2013

Eric

Longread #289 -- All of the Lights -- 4/4/13

I don't think I will ever read an entire book about the history of neon, but I really enjoyed this review of some of the books on the topic. Our associations with neon are pretty interesting ranging from the basic "Open" sign to the largess of Las Vegas to the cliche clothing of the 80s.

"Illuminated Manuscripts: On the History of Neon" by Ariana Kelly
Published in the Los Angeles Review of Books, March 14, 2013

Eric

Longread #263 -- Bones of Contention -- 2/26/13

I guess it shouldn't come as a huge surprise, but I had no idea about the black market in dinosaur bones. This is a great story about the twists and turns in the trail fossils can take once they've been removed from the ground and helps to understand the significance of fossils beyond just their monetary value.

"Bones of Contention" by Paige Williams
Published in the New Yorker, January 28, 2013

Eric

PS -- I'm testing a new link format...let me know if you have any problems!

Longread #207 -- The Dark Side of Thomas Jefferson -- 12/4/12

Thomas Jefferson is one of the most iconic figures in American history. In addition to having served as an important actor in the independence movement and as the third President, Jefferson is also known for being a leader in driving early American political ideals (as represented in the Declaration of Independence). This historical article takes a closer look at Jefferson's legacy and identifies the divergence of his words and deeds with regard to slavery. As the author argues, Jefferson's opposition to slavery withered when it came into conflict with his own financial interests. After the last few years of our country's history, the cynic in me can't help but wonder if sacrificing the good of "the people" to individual financial interests that isn't the true nature of American political ideology.

"The Dark Side of Thomas Jefferson" by Henry Wiencek
Published in Smithsonian Magazine, October 2012
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/The-Little-Known-Dark-Side-of-Thomas-Jefferson-169780996.html?c=y&story=fullstory

Eric

Longread #206 -- A Cracked Code -- 12/3/12

Last night, I was watching an episode of the BBC TV series "Sherlock." In the episode, Sherlock Holmes is trying to determine the meaning of certain messages written with a cypher. At one point, he makes a comment about needing to creatively approach the code since modern technologies won't be able to break down the ancient cypher. Today's longread proves Holmes wrong -- modern code-breaking tools can in fact be extremely useful in decoding ancient cyphers. This story from Wired is interesting in analyzing both the process of breaking the code and what the code revealed.

"They Cracked This 250-Year-Old Code, and Found a Secret Society Inside" by Noah Shachtman
Published in Wired, November 16, 2012
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/11/ff-the-manuscript/all/

Eric

Longread #167 -- The Wife of Jesus? -- 10/5/12

You may have seen these headlines popping up a few weeks ago, so I'll admit that I'm a bit behind on this story. In some ways, though, I think it might be for the better. When I first saw news articles describing new findings about the wife of Jesus, I dismissed them and figured it was much ado about nothing. But then this article from Smithsonian Magazine came through one of the aggregators that I follow, and I figured it would be a good way to try to understand what had been released and get a better sense of its significance. I'm really glad that I chose to read this article because it does an excellent job of contextualizing this most recent -- and as it turns out, fascinating -- discovery.

"The Inside Story of a Controversial New Text About Jesus" by Ariel Sabar
Published in Smithsonian, September 18, 2012
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/The-Inside-Story-of-the-Controversial-New-Text-About-Jesus-170177076.html?c=y&story=fullstory&src=longreads

Eric

Longread #162 -- Ancient Manuscripts -- 9/28/12

The preservation and archiving of manuscripts provides tremendous resources for historians and researchers of all types. This longread looks at one particular archive located in the Sinai Desert that houses an enormous collection of one-of-a-kind manuscripts. Of particular focus are what are known as palimpsests -- texts that have been erased or overwritten. New imaging techniques have allowed more and more of these to be revealed. I think this is an interesting project especially in light of the article earlier this week about author's who disown their work. We tend to think of that applying only to relatively modern authors, but wouldn't it apply here as well? What are the ethics of uncovering texts that were erased thousands of years ago? I tend to think that these texts serve a greater purpose to society and academia by being revealed, but it is a challenging issue because clearly those texts were never meant to be discovered.

"In the Sinai, a global team is revolutionizing the preservation of ancient manuscripts" by Mark Schrope
Published in the Washington Post, September 6, 2012
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/in-the-sinai-a-global-team-is-revolutionizing-the-preservation-of-ancient-manuscripts/2012/08/30/1c203ef4-ca1f-11e1-aea8-34e2e47d1571_print.html

Eric

Longread #151 -- How Slavery Ended -- 9/13/12

I don't read or post that many articles that are historical in nature, but I found this one to be really fascinating. It is an excerpt from the author's book about the Civil War, and it looks at a very specific sequence of events that led to an influx of slaves living among Union soldiers. At many points in this history, one different decision -- by the people on the ground, by politicians, etc. -- could have dramatically affected the way that events unfolded. Instead, what seemed like one small happening (a few slaves who escaped and took refuge at Fort Monroe in Virginia) significantly changed the course for slavery, race relations, and the Civil War in American history.

"How Slavery Really Ended in America" by Adam Goodheart
Published in the New York Times, April 1, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/magazine/mag-03CivilWar-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Eric