The Worst Pope in History
A little over a year ago, I spent a week living and studying at the Vatican as a guest lecturer at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, a university-like organization of scholars that explores ideas of interest to the Vatican. Last year, the Academy addressed...
Harriet Tubman stripped, then restored to US National Park Service site for Underground Railroad
The National Parks Service has reversed course and restored references of celebrated abolitionist Harriet Tubman to its webpage about the Underground Railroad. A quote and image of the legendary freedom fighter — who also served a pivotal role in Beaufort County and...
Are Any of Us Safe Now?
In a couple of months, I am planning a business trip to Europe. I don't scare easy, but despite the fact that I'm an American citizen and have committed no crime, I am worried about what might happen when I attempt to come home. Will Customs and Border Patrol agents...
News From Around the South, 4/14 to 4/21
NORTH CAROLINA: New N.C. bill would introduce AAPI history to school curriculum A new bill in the N.C. General Assembly is calling for Asian American and Pacific Islander history to be taught in public schools. House Bill 835 would launch a statewide K-12 curriculum...
Taking Easter Seriously
"That God, which ever lives and loves, One God, one law, one element, And one far-off divine event To which the whole creation moves." — Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) When American colonists were oppressed by British monarchs, the word most frequently uttered in...
South’s Best Barbecue Joints
Each year in our South’s Best poll, we ask our readers to name their picks for the South’s Best barbecue joint in each state. The results have been fairly consistent in recent few years, with a familiar cast of old favorites tending to bubble to the top. There are...
Obama Speaks Out. Where is George W. Bush?
President Barack Obama finally did last week what so many of us have been waiting for him — and Bill Clinton and George W. Bush — to do. He stood up and spoke out about the threat to our constitutional democracy posed by Donald Trump. There is a very nice tradition...
News From Around the South, 4/7 to 4/14
SOUTH CAROLINA: Furman U researchers uncover 1,238 racially restrictive deeds connected to former board chairman In the post-World War 2 era, Alester G. Furman Jr. was in charge of the family’s real estate business in Greenville. A few years later, he served as...
Tariffs and the Constitution
"No doctrine involving more pernicious consequences was ever invented by the wit of man than that any of [the Constitution's] provisions can be suspended during any of the great exigencies of government." — Ex Parte Milligan, Supreme Court of the United States, 1866....
Volunteer Archivists Decipher Thousands of Untold Stories from the American Revolution
In 1777, drunken British soldiers stormed into Sarah Martin’s home in Woodbridge, New Jersey and demanded that she cook them ham and eggs. Hostile and impatient, the soldiers threatened to kill her youngest child, who cried as she prepared the meal. One of the...
Obiter Dicta
A little over a year ago, I spent a week living and studying at the Vatican as a guest lecturer Read More
Recent Posts
NORTH CAROLINA: New N.C. bill would introduce AAPI history to school curriculum A new bill in the N.C. General Assembly is calling for Asian American and Pacific Islander history to Read More