Posts by Professor Buzzkill
Programmed Inequality: Women and British Computing
Professor Marie Hicks joins us to talk about gender and employment in the emerging field of computing in Britain, and all the historical myths that surround them. In 1944, Britain led the world in electronic computing. By 1974, the British computer industry was all but extinct. We examine why this happened in the tense post-war…
Read MoreGeneral Curtis LeMay, “Bomb the North Vietnamese Back to the Stone Age” Quote or No Quote?
Many of you Buzzkillers have asked us to do shows about the Vietnam War, especially with the Ken Burns multi-part documentary that’s finishing its run on PBS. And the quote we’re going to examine today is one of the most well-known phrases supposedly to come out of that war. But there’s another reason why we…
Read MoreMuhammad Ali: “No Viet Cong Ever Called Me Nigger.” Quote or No Quote?
Muhammed Ali: No Vietcong Ever Called Me Nigger Buzzkillers by the score have asked us here at the Institute for shows on the Vietnam War. The Ken Burns film on PBS, The Vietnam War, the 18-part, 10-hour interview-thon, is provoking many of you to ask questions about the war and about the protests against it.…
Read MoreThe Irish Slaves Myth
Ah, Buzzkillers, all of you know the depth of my love/hate relationship with the internet. On the one hand, I love the internet and the crazy history stories that fly around it via email and blog posts. They provide grist for the Buzzkill Institute mill, and, of course, keep us floated financially, as well as…
Read MoreChief Seattle “We Do Not Inherit the Earth from Our Ancestors; We Borrow It from Our Children.” Quote or No Quote?
Chief Seattle, “We Do Not Inherit the Earth from Our Ancestors; We Borrow It from Our Children” Quote or No Quote? It’s probably a sin, Buzzkillers, to think of some historical figures as job security for me and for those who work at the Buzzkill Institute. But an avalanche of words and sentiments are mis-attributed…
Read MoreMark Twain: “Life is just one damn thing after another” Quote or No Quote?
Sometimes, Buzzkillers, the stars just seem to align. There’s a meteor shower and a rainbow on the same day. And a whole bunch of writers, pundits, journalists, and aphorists come up with roughly the same idea at roughly the same time. Or at least they come up with it over a couple of decades, and,…
Read MoreCause of the Civil War
Cause. Singular. Not plural. We talk about the cause of the American Civil War because there was one overwhelming cause — slavery. Not tariff disputes. Not states’ rights. The Civil War was fought over the preservation of slavery in the south and its expansion to the west. But, perhaps no other aspect of the history…
Read MoreLincoln: “Government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Quote or No Quote?
Ah, Buzzkillers, I have so much in common with Abraham Lincoln. Height (well, almost), a refusal to suffer fools (hence the founding of the Buzzkill Institute), we’re both excellent wordsmiths, and we have a healthy man-crush on the 19th century Unitarian theologian Theodore Parker. (More on him later.) I must be getting soft in my…
Read MoreConfederate Statues, Memorials, and Flags
When and why were statues to Confederate soldiers, generals, and politicians put up across the American south? Why is the Confederate Battle Flag so proudly waved and displayed in many parts of the US? Professor Nash joins us to explain why all of this happened, who was selected for commemoration, and what it all means…
Read MoreWoodrow Wilson: “It is like writing history with lightning.” Quote or No Quote?
Upon seeing “The Birth of a Nation,” the ground-breaking, if highly racist, piece of cinematography in 1915, President Woodrow Wilson is often quoted as saying, “It is like writing history with lightning.” Nearly every American Buzzkiller out there has probably heard this in a 20th Century US history class, or a cinematography class, or on…
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