Category Archives: History

Subin, who studied at Harvard Divinity School, clearly delights in such curious details, and Accidental Gods is brimming with them though in addition to the strange, almost scriptural stories she tells, she also has some connections and ideas to explore. This roving and ambitious book is focused on the making of modern gods instead of ancient ones on the way that Western thought in the modern age was supposed to reflect a progressive disenchantment, a rejection of irrational impulses, but was nevertheless built upon two altars, of Greco-Roman classicism and Christian creed, Subin writes, both of which had men-becoming-gods at their centers. Belief, in other words, was at the core of modernity, even if that belief was (hypocritically) denied. The philosopher Bruno Latour has defined the modern person as someone who believes that others believe.

Accidental Gods doesnt follow a strict chronological order, but its overall sweep moves backward in time, starting with 20th-century deifications in a decolonizing world and ending several hundred years before, with divinizations of European explorers in the New World. In between are several chapters on the British Raj, including a fascinating explanation of how Britains imperial reach with its bureaucracy and data collection allowed the study of comparative religion to flourish, giving rise to European scholars who proclaimed their expertise on the belief systems of various colonies even without ever stepping foot in any of them.

Subin shows how these scholars theories of religion owed quite a lot to their own preoccupations, like a fixation on the notion of pure religion and belief, and the assumption that Christianity was the one rational faith. This concept of religion as a private mystical germ, stripped away from any political or economic context meant that the Europeans viewed the locals willingness to see the divine in any manner of people and things as proof of an inherent backwardness. She gives the example of the German philologist Friedrich Max Mller, whom she depicts as so caught up in his own pristine theories that he paid no attention to the actual conditions under which his evidence was collected: The professor erased the mosquitoes, and the sleepless nights, and the violence of an army coming over a hill.

Part of what Subin sets out to do is to restore some of this texture, showing how each apotheosis was embedded in a particular historical context. She explains that Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the supreme commander for the Allied powers, was in fact deified four different ways in Japan (after encouraging Emperor Hirohito to undeify himself), Panama, New Guinea and South Korea. And therein, she says, lies the paradox of how some autocratic figures were worshiped democratically, against their own will: General MacArthur was American destruction incarnate, and he was four ways of imagining the earth renewed.

If there is a pattern that emerges in this book, it has to do with divinizations double-edge. On the one hand, Subin says, deification has been used to subjugate, to colonize, to oppress. It was used by the Europeans as evidence that Indigenous people were so childlike that they could mistake white explorers for gods. Subin also reminds us that reports of these deifications were often delivered by the explorers themselves, who recalled being asked if they had descended from the heavens even though this recollection could have itself constituted a minor miracle, given that the explorers often didnt speak a word of the Indigenous language.

Read more:

A Roving History of Mortals Considered Gods - The New York Times

Democrats are faced with a sticky problem: The economy is nearing full employment after businesses added 210,000 jobs in November, labor force participation climbed to its highest level since the pandemic and wages are rising across many industries. Yet most voters are increasingly pessimistic about President Bidens economic stewardship.

Im not exactly sure why whats happening isnt being characterized as a booming recovery from a worldwide shutdown, Hawaii Sen. Brian SchatzBrian Emanuel SchatzBiden is delivering the fastest economic recovery in history. Why hasn't anyone noticed? Congress should reject H.R. 1619's dangerous anywhere, any place casino precedent Alabama Republican touts provision in infrastructure bill he voted against MORE (D) mused in a tweet last month. The answer involves a bit of Democratic over-optimism and a whole lot of Republican messaging the Biden administration has been slow to counter.

Schatz is largely right: Under Biden, the American economy has recovered from its Trump-era lows with remarkable speed. Just a year ago, the unemployment rate sat stubbornly at 6.7 percent. Today, only 4.2 percent of Americans are out of work. Similar economic recoveries have normally taken three times as long. The Biden administration is delivering on the fastest sustained economic recovery in American history, yet its messaging struggles to tell that story.

More important for Democrats is that this isnt a paper recovery, where unemployment rates fall because more Americans simply give up looking for work. Much to Democrats relief, the opposite is true for the Biden recovery. The labor force participation rate, the percentage of Americans 16 and older who are working or actively looking for work, just hit pre-pandemic levels. Thats a hugely reassuring development for analysts who initially feared the global pandemic would be a drag on the labor force rate for years to come.

But a surging economic recovery doesnt mean that all is well for regular Americans, and if Democrats want to make jobs and the economy a 2022 campaign issue, theyll need answers for some of the recoverys potholes. Chief among them? Inflation.

A CNBC All-America Economic Survey released this week found that while Americans plan to spend 13 percent more this holiday season great news Bidens media surrogates should be shouting from it also found that more Americans are concerned about rising inflation than about the pandemic. While thats a promising sign that were moving forward from the coronavirus, Democrats are now faced with rising prices and unhappy consumers.

CNBCs survey found 4 in 10 Americans are pessimistic about where the economy is headed, but it should concern the White House that 7 percent more Americans think the economy is getting worse today than did a year ago at the peak of the third coronavirus wave. Not only is that incorrect, it points to Democrats' biggest problem: a conservative media machine pumping out economic disinformation on a 24/7 production schedule.

Republicans want voters to think of their economic gains as temporary and the inflation pinch as permanent. They get the story exactly backwards. That hasnt stopped some conservative outlets from crafting the bogus narrative that inflation is a result of Democratic spending priorities not a side effect of an economy rapidly expanding after a year with its head held underwater. They also fail to mention that wages recently rose by the largest amount in two decades, and American workers will still be pocketing those gains when our post-coronavirus economic supercharge wears off and inflation drops back to regular levels.

If the conservative medias framing is wrong, its also ruthlessly effective in scaring Democrats away from discussing all of the good happening in our economy since January. And like clockwork, skittish moderate Democrats are taking the GOP bait.

We urge additional action by the House of Representatives to further address the disruptions and higher costs our constituents are experiencing, a group of centrist House Democrats, including over a dozen in vulnerable 2022 races, wrote in a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) last week. If Democrats cant get their economic messaging together to convince their own moderates, how do they intend to persuade voters?

At this point, only Biden has the bully pulpit necessary to contain the jitters overtaking his partys lawmakers. Instead of focusing on the numbers, Biden should play to his strengths by connecting each element of the economic recovery to the stories and lived experiences of real Americans the recovery is helping.

It isnt enough to quote charts at Americans who think the economy is worse than it was a year ago Democrats must show them how the Biden administration has stewarded one of the most impressive economic turnarounds in recent memory. Bidens knack for one-on-one connection is an asset to humanizing Democrats economic message, but only if the party has the courage to counter months of unchallenged Republican disinformation.

Americas rapid-fire economic recovery is a historic event. Its time Democrats treated it like one worth celebrating.

MaxBurnsis a Democratic strategist and founder of Third Degree Strategies, a progressive communications firm. Follow him on Twitter @themaxburns.

See the article here:

Biden is delivering the fastest economic recovery in history. Why hasn't anyone noticed? | TheHill - The Hill

See AlsoDescriptionBrowsingHistoryView is a utility that reads the history data of different Web browsers (Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Opera)and displays the browsing history of all these Web browsers in one table.The browsing history table includes the following information: Visited URL, Title, Visit Time, Visit Count, Web browser and User Profile.BrowsingHistoryView allows you to watch the browsing history of all user profiles in a running system, as well as to getthe browsing history from external hard drive.You can also export the browsing history into csv/tab-delimited/html/xml file from the user interface, or from command-line, without displaying any user interface.

The following Web browsers are supported:

After you run BrowsingHistoryView, the 'Advanced Options' window is displayed. By default, BrowsingHistoryView offers you to load the history of all Web browsers and all user profiles in the last 10 days,but you can change the options according to your needs.

After pressing 'Ok' in the 'Advanced Options' window, BrowsingHistoryView loads and displays the browsing history according to theoptions you chose.

Examples:BrowsingHistoryView.exe /shtml "f:temphistory.html" /sort 2 /sort ~1BrowsingHistoryView.exe /shtml "f:temphistory.html" /sort "URL" /sort "Visit Time"

For example:BrowsingHistoryView.exe /VisitTimeFrom "10-01-2012 12:00:00" /VisitTimeTo "18-02-2012 10:00:00"

Here's some command-line examples:BrowsingHistoryView.exe /HistorySource 4 /HistorySourceFolder "H:Documents and SettingsUser01" /stab "c:temphistory.txt"BrowsingHistoryView.exe /HistorySource 3 /HistorySourceFolder "G:Documents and Settings" /VisitTimeFilterType 3 /VisitTimeFilterValue 10 /scomma "c:temphistory.csv"BrowsingHistoryView.exe /HistorySource 1 /LoadIE 1 /LoadFirefox 0 /LoadChrome 0 /LoadSafari 0 /shtml "c:temphistory.html"BrowsingHistoryView.exe /HistorySource 2 /VisitTimeFilterType 4 /VisitTimeFrom "01-01-2011 00:00:00" /VisitTimeTo "01-01-2012 00:00:00" /stab "c:temphistory.txt"

Be aware that you can use any variable stored in tne .cfg file as command-line parameter, even if it's not specified in the above command-line list.

BrowsingHistoryView is also available in other languages. In order to change the language of BrowsingHistoryView, download the appropriate language zip file, extract the 'browsinghistoryview_lng.ini', and put it in the same folder that you Installed BrowsingHistoryView utility.

Read the original here:

BrowsingHistoryView - View browsing history of your Web ...

A lively and magisterial popular history that refutes common misperceptions of the European Middle Ages, showing the beauty and communion that flourished alongside the dark brutalitya brilliant reflection of humanity itself.

The word medieval conjures images of the Dark Agescenturies of ignorance, superstition, stasis, savagery, and poor hygiene. But the myth of darkness obscures the truth; this was a remarkable period in human history. The Bright Ages recasts the European Middle Ages for what it was, capturing this 1,000-year era in all its complexity and fundamental humanity, bringing to light both its beauty and its horrors.

The Bright Ages takes us through ten centuries and crisscrosses Europe and the Mediterranean, Asia and Africa, revisiting familiar people and events with new light cast upon them. We look with fresh eyes on the Fall of Rome, Charlemagne, the Vikings, the Crusades, and the Black Death, but also to the multi-religious experience of Iberia, the rise of Byzantium, and the genius of Hildegard and the power of queens. We begin under a blanket of golden stars constructed by an empress with Germanic, Roman, Spanish, Byzantine, and Christian bloodlines and end nearly 1,000 years later with the poet Danteinspired by that same twinkling celestial canopywriting an epic saga of heaven and hell that endures as a masterpiece of literature today.

The Bright Ages reminds us just how permeable our manmade borders have always been and of what possible worlds the past has always made available to us. The Middle Ages may have been a world lit only by fire but it was one whose torches illuminated the magnificent rose windows of cathedrals, even as they stoked the pyres of accused heretics.

The Bright Ages is illustrated throughout with high-resolution images.

Original post:

History Books - Goodreads

On April 2, 1792, Congress passed the Coinage Act, establishing the first national mint in the United States. Congress chose Philadelphia, what was then the nations capital, as the site of our first Mint. As gold fever spread across the U.S., branch Mints and assay offices opened to serve the needs of a growing nation. Although the Mint currently operates production facilities in Philadelphia, San Francisco, Denver, and West Point, and a bullion depository at Fort Knox, many other facilities opened throughout our history. Use the resources below to learn more about Mints 225 years and counting as one of the federal governments oldest agencies.

Watch one of our videos below, which feature1940 footage from the U.S. National Archives.

This page contains the following video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/FnRboZn7Zvg

This page contains the following video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/FnRboZn7Zvg

This page contains the following video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/FnRboZn7Zvg

This page contains the following video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/FnRboZn7Zvg

Watchone of ourvideosbelow to learn more about the U.S. Mint in San Francisco.

This page contains the following video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/FnRboZn7Zvg

This page contains the following video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/FnRboZn7Zvg

This page contains the following video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/FnRboZn7Zvg

Go here to read the rest:

History | U.S. Mint

The roots of the Cleveland Museum of Natural Historyconnect back to a wooden cabin on Public Square.

In the 1800s, men gathered at a small Cleveland club called the Ark,planting just a seed of whats now the citys natural history museum.

The Ark was really about a gathering place for a bunch of people that were interested in natural history, very early in the history of the area, said Gavin Svenson, director of research and collections at CMNH.

Those interests made way for the creation of the museum in 1920.

The Ark in Cleveland's Public Square was a gathering place in the 1800s. [CMNH]

More than a century later, the museum celebrates its own history, highlighting ambitious explorations and up-close nature studies in the new 100 Years of Discovery exhibition.

This exhibit is really about the efforts and individuals that built a natural history museum for the Cleveland community through the collection of all the specimens that we have and the sharing of that science with the people that come here, Svenson said.

Museum visitors, for instance, can see some of the specimens Dr. Sonja Teraguchi found studying moth diversity. The exhibit features a recreation of her deskwhere she worked from the 1970s to 1990s.

She was working with tens of thousands of specimens of moths that were collected during her sampling season across northeast Ohio, Svenson said. She would need to identify all those moths. She would need to pin them and make them museum quality and label them and database them.

Moth specimens as seen on a recreation of the desk ofDr. Sonja Teraguchi. [Carrie Wise / Ideastream Public Media]

Historic photos and videos help tell the stories behind whats on display. This includes the tale of asled dog namedBalto,who led a heroic mission in the 1920s when a diphtheria outbreak hit Nome, Alaska.

The nutshell is that they had to get the serum to treat the diphtheria to Nome, and it had to go acrosslarge expanse of frozen wilderness to get there. And they used dog sleds at the time, said CMNH Museum Archivist Joe Tait.

Balto was one of the dogs who helped deliver the serum. A couple of years after that mission, Balto ended up in need.

Balto posing for a statue. [CMNH]

He wound up kind of in a sideshow in California, where a Cleveland businessman saw him and the survivors of his team and they were really in bad shape and badly treated, Tait said.

Northeast Ohioans chipped infundraising to rescue Balto and the other dogs.

Balto and his comrades spent the last years of their lives at the Brookside Zoo in Cleveland, Tait said.

This celebration of the past comes as the museum is in the midst of a $150-millionexpansion. Looking to the future, Svenson said the museum is changing the way itpresents science to the community.

We've moved away from a timeline, and we've really talked more about case studies and processes and the questions that people really ask about science, Svenson said.

Visitors should notice those changes in 2024 when the museum opens all new galleries.

100 Years of Discovery runs through July 24, 2022.

The rest is here:

Cleveland Museum of Natural History celebrates its '100 Years of Discovery' - ideastream

Jacob U. Gordon| Guest columnist

In the span of human civilization, the American story is a short one. However, America is a beacon of light and hope to people around the world. Our story is unique, E pluribus Unum: Out of many One. A nation of immigrants.

Although much has been written about America, we lack a national history. Teaching American history has become controversial. Hysteria has developed over Critical Race Theory, a legal theory focused on the impact of race on Americas legal system.

We need a national history that reflects America. Our national history must be based on research and facts, not fiction, fake news and misinformation. It must include the best, the worst, the ugly, the beautiful: contributions of many racial and ethnic groups, including indigenous peoples; the tragic stories in the transatlantic slave trade; the Civil War and its legacies; the many triumphs.

I urge President Joe Biden and Congress to establish the Office of National Historian, like the Office of Surgeon General. This office would: 1) engage historians from diverse backgrounds, in documenting an inclusive American history; 2) promote teaching our national history throughout our educational systems; 3) make annual reports on the state of our national history to Congress and the American people.

We must write our national history.

Jacob U. Gordon is president of the Alachua County African and African American Historical Society and the United Nations Association Gainesville. He lives in Gainesville and is a professor emeritus at the University of Kansas.

Send a letter to the editor (up to 200 words) to letters@gainesville.com. Letters must include the writer's full name and city of residence. Additional guidelines for submitting letters and longer guest columns can be found at bit.ly/sunopinionguidelines.

Get a digital subscription to the Gainesville Sun. Includes must-see content on Gainesville.com and Gatorsports.com, breaking news and updates on all your devices, and access to the Gainesville.com ePaper. Visit http://www.gainesville.com/subscribenow to sign up.

Continue reading here:

We need a national history that reflects America - Gainesville Sun

Two centuries ago, King Kaumualii was faced with an impossible decision: relinquish his island kingdom or doom his people to slaughter. With savvy diplomacy and a lot of careful maneuvering, Kaumualii was able to avoid either fate. Adored by his people and respected by foreigners, Kaumualii was, by all accounts, a king to rival all kings. But history has largely forgotten the man who would become the last ruler of Kauai. Many children on Kauai today only recognize his name because the islands Highway 50 is named for him. But a local organization, Friends of King Kaumualii, is determined to change that. Almost 200 years after his death, Kaumualii has returned to Kauai once morethis time as an eight-foot bronze statue overlooking the site of his royal compound and an adjacent star-shaped, basalt fort on the Hawaiian island.

There was a lot of rain and lots of rainbows, when the statue was finally installed, says Keao NeSmith, a descendant of Kaumualii who posed for the statue. It was spooky in a good sense. We believe that the elements of nature are blessings in Hawaiian culture, and rain and rainbows are signs of alii, Hawaiian royalty. Asked if he feels like Kaumualii was there for the dedication, NeSmith is quick to respond: Absolutely! We all felt it.

Theres nothing left of Kaumualii royal compound, but just 50 yards from the imposing bronze statue are the crumbling ruins of the fort he had presided over. Precarious piles of red volcanic rocks form the outer, star-shaped wall, and the remains of a few interior structures. If not for the informational panels at a nearby kiosk, it would be hard to tell what youre looking at. Perhaps the most impressive part of the fort today is its location, at the mouth of the Waimea River, looking out toward the smaller islands of Niihau and Lehua. Its immediately clear why a fort was built there.

But since the fort and surrounding grounds became a state park in 1972, there has long been a Kaumualii-sized hole in the history told there. As tourists drive out to hike in 14-mile Waimea Canyon, they might just catch a confusing glimpse of a wooden sign with yellow lettering that reads, Russian Fort Elisabeth: State Historical Park. Confusion, it turns out, has swirled around the forts history since it was built in 1817. It has had many names: Pulaula, Fort Elizabeth, Old Russian Fort, and, finally, Russian Fort Elizabeth. Each tells a different piece of the history. Today park employees, scholars, Russian Americans, and the Kauai community are all reassessing what those worn, yellow letters ought to read, and reckoning with the history that a name can simultaneously tell and erase.

When Kaumualii became king of Kauai and Niihau in 1794, he inherited a precarious situation. The Big Islands ambitious ruler, Kamehameha I, had invaded Maui five years earlier, a conflict so bloody that bodies of the fallen dammed a stream. In 1795, Kamehameha invaded Oahu, where his forces drove 300 warriors off a 1,100-foot cliff to their deaths. As the only major island not under his control, Kauai was clearly next.

In mid-1796, Kamehameha set sail for Kauai with 1,500 canoes filled with 10,000 warriors, half of whom were armed with muskets. Kaumualii, just 18, possibly with the help of his mother, Kamakahelei, were only able to muster a small force, 40 swivel guns, and three cannons. The invasion looked like it would be a disaster for Kauai. But then a big storm swamped all of [Kamehamehas] boats trying to cross the channel, says anthropologist and archaeologist Peter Mills of the University of Hawaii at Hilo, who wrote his dissertation on the fort and cowrote an article detailing much of this history. In 1803, Kamehameha tried again to invade Kauai, only to have an illness descend on him and his warriors. To Kaumualii, it seemed like the gods were protecting the island of Kauai, says Mills. By 1805, Kamehameha began to consider diplomacy as a way to extend his dominion over the Kauai.

In April 1810, a 32-year-old Kaumualii, by then the sole ruler of Kauai, finally met with Kamehameha to negotiate. While dodging assassination attempts from Oahu priest Kaumiumi and several coconspirators (an act not apparently sanctioned by Kamehameha), Kaumualii agreed to a treaty that would see him continue to govern Kauai as a vassal to Kamehameha until his death, after which control of the island would be transferred to Kamehamehas descendants. It wasnt what he wanted, but he realized he was sort of being overpowered, says Mills. Kaumualii saw negotiation as a way to avoid a bloody conquest, but that didnt mean that he intended to abide by the treaty.

Two years after the treaty was signed, the War of 1812 erupted. Kaumualii found a new ally: The Americans turned to Kauai to hide from roving British warships. This emboldened Kaumualii to stop sending tribute to Kamehameha and reassert Kauais independence. But then the Americans left in 1814, exposing Kaumualii to Kamehamehas vengeanceuntil the Russians showed up.

In early 1815, the Russian American Company (RAC) trading vessel Bering shipwrecked on Kaumualiis doorstep. He had just lost all the cannons and munitions that the Americans had had and now a storm picks up and basically pushes this vessel ashore, not anywhere on the island, but right outside his own residential compound, says Mills, at the mouth of the Waimea River, the site of the yet-to-be-built fort. To Kaumualii, the ship seemed another gift from the gods. He claimed all the weapons and cannons on board, while the surviving crew members eventually hitched a ride on another ship up to the RAC headquarters in Sitka, Alaska.

Then along came ambitious German surgeon and RAC agent Georg Anton Schffer, sent by the company to befriend Kamehameha, secure trading rights, and negotiate the return of Berings cargo. Upon reaching Oahu in late 1815, Schffer gained favor with Kamehameha after treating him and one of his wives for a severe illness. But soon he lost patience with the slow pace of trade negotiations and decided to head to Kauai himself.

In summer 1816, he met with Kaumualii, who says essentially, Hey, welcome! If you want to help me to protect my kingdom from Kamehameha, I will sign over my kingdom to Russia, according to Mills. This is where Schffers eyes must have gone all bug-like. He immediately agreed to the proposal, and sent letters to the RAC and the Russian government in St. Petersburg announcing his diplomatic triumph.

Kaumualii gave the RAC land on Kauais North Shore, which Schffer eagerly renamed Schfferthal, or Schffers Valley. There, the RAC, with some help from locals, built Fort Alexander, named after Russian Emperor Alexander I, and the smaller Fort Barclay-de-Tolly.

Today, little remains of these installations. Fort Barclay-de-Tolly was probably not much more than what a lot of people call a redoubt, which is just a small cannon emplacement with some fortification, says Mills. At least the Russians had their priorities straight though; the redoubt was likely set up to defend, among other buildings, a distillery.

On the opposite side of the island, a largely Hawaiian workforce built another fort in Waimeathe fort at the center of the recent brouhaha, as Mills puts it. Unlike the wooden stockade structures of Fort Alexander, Fort Barclay-de-Tolly, and all other RAC installations from this period, this one was made of volcanic rock and earth, traditional Hawaiian building materials. Schffer called the fort Elizavetinskaya krepost, or Fort Elizabeth, a nod to the emperors wife. Hawaiians, meanwhile, called it Pulaula, literally red enclosure. Schffer saw it as his fort [and] Im convinced Kaumualii saw it as his fort, says Mills. And this is where the confusion began.

Because of the agreement with Kaumualii, Schffer considered all the Hawaiians building the Waimea fort Russian citizens, says architectural historian Alexander Molodin, who has studied the site extensively. It is for this reason that Fort Elizabeth can justifiably have the name Russian, he says.

Mills doesnt think it should, believing that Kaumualii built the fort as his own. Schffer was sort of picturing that he had control of the island in some sort of joint alliance and that he was somehow equally important as Kaumualii. I know Kaumualii didnt view that relationship that way, says Mills. If anything, Kaumualii saw Schffer as his subordinate, allowed to be on Kauai only because of the kings benevolence. Regardless of the confusion around the forts ownership, Kaumualiis hospitality was about to run out.

When the RAC and Russian government finally received Schffers letters announcing his opportunistic territorial grab, they too went bug-eyedbut not for the reasons Schffer had. Neither wanted anything to do with Kauai or to get involved in the machinations of rival Hawaiian kingdoms, especially not while the United States secured a firmer toehold in the islands.

As one might expect, this revelation put quite the damper on Kaumualii and Schffers budding relationship. Mills imagines Kaumualii went to Schffer and said, Look, you are more trouble than youre worth. Weve got to cut our losses and kick you off this island and try to work with diplomacy with Kamehameha again. So on May 8, 1817, less than a year after Schffers arrival, Kaumualii, along with thousands of his people, ran Schffer and his men off Kauai. Schffers escape boat, Kadiak, was leaking so badly that the crew ran it aground on Oahu. After several months of waiting, Schffer was finally able to secure passage out on the American ship Panther, leaving behind 64 fellow RAC employees, who wouldnt get off the island until 1818.

Kaumualii would continue to rule Kauai and its surrounding islands for the next seven years, until his death in 1824. He would see Kamehamehas son, the impulsive Kamehameha II, take the throne in 1819. The younger Kamehameha even kidnapped Kaumualii and coerced him into marrying his widowed mother, Kaahumanu, an episode missionary Hiram Bingham recounted in his 1855 A Residence of Twenty-One Years in the Sandwich Islands. Whether Kaumualii was regarded as a king or a captive, writes Bingham, it was not easy to decide.

For more than four decades after the departure of the Russians, Kaumualii and his descendants occupied the Waimea fort. Hawaiians garrisoned the fort with their own troops, used it as an administrative center for Kauai, and sometimes used it as a burial ground and a prison, writes Mills in his article. Then, in the 1860s, it was abandoned and the buildings dismantled, leaving behind only the outer walls and a few foundations.

As the fort transitioned from an active Hawaiian military garrison to a historical site, its history started to morph. Russias involvement in the fort was highlighted while its Hawaiian history was largely forgotten or overwritten. Mills says this started happening as early as 1885, when surveyor George Jackson drew a rendering of the site as it stood probably at the time the Doctor [Schffer] was its commandant, writes Mills. Since Schffer hadnt been at the site for almost 70 years, Jackson was taking what might be considered interpretive, Western-centric liberties. Though much of his characterization has been disproven by modern scholarship, the name on his rendering stuck: Plan of Old Russian Fort, Waimea, Kauai.

Almost a century later, the fort became a Hawaii state park with the name Russian Fort Elizabeth. Hawaii State Parks Martha Yent, who worked on the forts interpretive panels back in the 1980s, says the Jackson map is probably a large part of where the name came from when we named [the park] Russian Fort Elizabeth. Back then, Yent was working with the materials available, namely historian Richard Pierces 1976 book Russias Hawaiian Adventure, 18151817.

Both the panels and Pierces book foreground the Russian story on Kauai, only mentioning King Kaumualii offhandedly and completely omitting the forts Hawaiian name, Pulaula. The panels call the fort Russian and say it was built under the direction of Georg Anton Schaeffer. Kaumualiis rationale for the fort is never mentioned, and the signs only state that the Russians wanted it to secure a provisioning station in Hawaii for the Russian-American ships. After the interpretive panels were installed in 1987, the park was largely left alone, with only the occasional tourist stopping by, sometimes just to use the parks public restroom.

In recent years, thanks to Molodin, Russian-Hawaiian Mihail Gilevich, and self-described aging hippie Jay Friedheim, theres been renewed interest in the fort, especially from Russians and Russian Americans. For Gilevich and Friedheim, who work together in maritime law, it all started with a drunken bet. Friedheim, who has a knack for befriending some extraordinarily cool people, as he puts it, bet Gilevich he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. How? By rebuilding the Waimea fort, which he had recently visited. Our vision was to try to figure out how to get it rebuilt like [Californias Fort Ross] so that it would be a really high-quality tourist destination, says Friedheim. Together the pair traveled the world pitching the project, from San Francisco to Siberia, including a meeting with Russias Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov.

At the same time, Molodin was organizing the 2017 Fort Elizabeth Forum commemorating the forts bicentennial. Yent, Mills, and Molodin were all featured speakers. Gilevich and Friedheim both attended, and Friedheim participated in a roundtable discussion about the future of Russian-Hawaiian cultural heritage.

The forum was the impetus to creating a working group, says Yent, of about 12 to 15 individuals representing different organizations, including Russian-American organizations, as well as representatives from Hawaii and the Waimea community. As this working group got started, says Yent, I think everyone realized one of the first priorities needed to be updating these interpretive signs.

As Hawaii State Parks interpretive program supervisor, I was working with the group, coming up with some drafts, says Yent. People are on vacation in many cases so, you know, they are not there to read all of these paragraphs, she adds, so the challenge becomes condens[ing] it into an easy-to-understand brief history. New temporary panels that highlight the Hawaiian contribution to the fort will be going up before the end of 2021, and more permanent signs will be installed in early 2023. These panels correct past mistakes with statements such as, Kaumualii directed the construction [of the fort]. The panels also talk about what happened after Kaumualii drove the RAC out, and how he continued to build and improve the fort in the decades to come.

Its exciting, says Yent, to see the culmination of four years of work and discussion come together in the new interpretative panels. Along with the statue of King Kaumualii, this is an important step in recognizing the long-standing ties of the Hawaiian people to this special place and the fact that it was a Hawaiian fort constructed by Hawaiian people and garrisoned by Hawaiian soldiers, she says.

The question of what the fort and park should be named remains open. You know, with the presence of the Russians not even spanning an entire year, thats too little to be given the entire name, says NeSmith. You want to compare less than a year to how many centuriesseven, nine centuriesof our presence being there? We have earned that right to give the name the way we see fit. For him, theres only one option: Pulaula.

Many agree. I very much feel that the name Russian Fort has buried the Hawaiian history of that place, says Mills. If youre a tourist and you see the highway sign Russian Fort, you pull in expecting to see something that Russians built and Russians occupied. And neither of those things happened here.

Molodin and Gilevich, on the other hand, would like to see the Russian presence at the fort remain in the name. Taking into account the fact that the name Pulaula appeared chronologically later than the name Fort Elizabeth, the name of the state historical park should reflect this peculiarity and be written only as Russian Fort Elizabeth / Pulaula, writes Molodin. We want to keep the original name so people will not get confused, Gilevich agrees. We are trying to find a compromise to preserve history on both sides.

Ultimately the decision about what to call the site rests with Hawaii State Parks. Administrator Alan Carpenter says that the name change is going to happen. Putting the traditional Hawaiian name first in a place that was Hawaiian both before and after the brief Russian stint there, it just has to happen, says Carpenter, but he says there are still questions around what ought to follow Pulaula. Will it be Pulaula / Fort Elizabeth? Will it be Pulaula / Russian Fort Elizabeth? Will it just be Pulaula? You know, theres no willful intent here to erase any of the Russian story, says Carpenter, but only to have it be put in its proper context in a much greater story.

For now at least, King Kaumualii once again presides over his home, his people, and his story. Having the King Kaumualii statue up like that I think, for me, it helps to correct the very biased narrative of our own history, says NeSmith. As a Hawaiian language scholar and educator, he knows plenty about how the Hawaiian story often is glossed over in schools.

He hopes the statue will begin to change that. [The statue] gives us a reason to celebrate, to be happy knowing that our culture really was as rich and pervasive as it was. It was the only culture of the island at the time. And now that culture seems to be more of a behind-the-scenes sort of a thing. So theres a big shift in paradigm thats happening.

Go here to read the rest:

Excavating the Hawaiian History of Kauais Russian Fort - Atlas Obscura

The Library: A Fragile History by Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwe

Published in November of 2021.

The Library: A Fragile History is ambitious in its scope and detail-oriented in its execution. The book traces the entire history of libraries, inclusive of private, state, public, and academic libraries.

The Library can be read in several ways. The book is a history of the idea of the library, but also as a chronicle of how the physical form of the library has evolved. The Library helps us understand the place of libraries throughout history in nations, communities, and institutions (such as colleges and universities), as well as what the evolution of the library says about the places and cultures in which they are embedded.

The Library can also be read as a history of the book. From manuscripts (most often created by skilled monastic scribes) to the 15th-century invention by Gutenberg of movable type printing to the current digital e-book age, the stories of the library and the book cannot be separated.

Most of the attention in The Library is paid to the evolution of the physical book and of printing and the impact of these changes on the purpose and design of libraries. It is perhaps ironic then that the optimal medium to read The Library is likely as an audiobook.

At 528 pages, The Library may deter even the most dedicated bibliophile and library enthusiasts from tackling. While long at 15 hours and 24 minutes, the audiobook is an absolute pleasure to spend time with, thanks in no small part to the compelling narration of voice actor Sean Barrett.

I listened to The Library during a series of long e-bike rides on the rural roads surrounding the academic library where I have my office, an experience that I highly recommend no matter where your office (or academic library) is located.

One of the themes of The Library is the consistency of predictions throughout our history of the imminent death of the library.

Libraries, and especially public and academic libraries, are perhaps most notable for their resiliency. To read the global history of the library is to understand how skilled libraries, and the librarians that create and animate these spaces, are at overcoming adversity and adapting to change.

The library has survived each successive change in technology. From scrolls to parchment, manuscripts to printing, and CDs to e-books, the library has persisted without ever losing its essential place in our institutions and our culture. The library has also made it through every attempt to destroy its buildings, burn its books, and defund its services.

Reading The Library will be deeply satisfying for any reader who believes that the academic library is at the heart of academic life.

Our academic libraries will not prosper without allies and advocates. We should not lose sight of the necessity for all of us in academia to fight for the resources and respect our libraries deserve.

At the same time, reading The Library should give us some confidence that our academic libraries will be as cherished and referred by future inhabitants of our colleges and universities as they are today and have been throughout the history of higher education.

What are you reading?

More:

Our Academic Libraries and 'The Library: A Fragile History' | Learning Innovation - Inside Higher Ed

Bornean communities locked into 2-million-hectare carbon deal they dont know about 9 Nov 2021, Mongabay

This was the headline Sabah woke up to on the morning of November 10th. Before the Mongabay story broke, I heard from Australian friends and allies as early as July that something was afoot. Forests, carbon, climate and communities are core to our collaborative work between civil society and government. I asked colleagues in government if they had any information but did not hear a clear response.

Over the weeks, I heard increasingly ominous whisperings. On 28 October, I received an email from international partners who had seen a Sabah deal claimed to be signed in August mentioned by external corporate entities in presentation materials. They were curious if I knew anything about it.

The materials were presented by Tierra Australia, Hoch Standard and Global Natural Capital (GNC) seemingly Australian, Singaporean and Malaysian entities. Here are two slides from the 43 pages I received:

A month later, Im still struggling to understand why and how this happened and why we had to learn about it from outside Sabah.

Much has been revealed since then. Weve now read numerous press articles, social media posts and reposts. Weve seen online videos of the home offices of our new partners and footage of Hoch Standards Corporate Advisor Stan Golokin representing Sabah at COP26 in Glasgow, explaining carbon. Weve read fact sheets and due diligence reports and realized that we dont know who Sabah has signed this deal with. And some of us attended a briefing where Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan and team mansplained the deal to the public and civil society, after the deal was made.

But we have not heard the truth.

I identify as a community member of Sabah. I care about what happens to this tanahair(homeland) we belong to, over the next 100 years and then 100 years beyond that and onwards. I worry about whether our future communities can have food and water, and can be safe, self-determined, and sovereign. I aspire to be a good ancestor.

I, like many people in Sabah, yearn for true leadership that I can trust. I have zero tolerance for vague, unintelligible platitudes and half-truths disguised as leadership. It is an insult to our intelligence.

When will we finally stop with messiah/savior politics? With leaders who only have one tune in their repertoire divide and rule with promises of wealth and whose approach to fighting Federal Patriarchy, nationalism and ketuanan (patronage) involves using the exact same rhetoric? I urge us to get out of this delusional and dysfunctional trance before we lose everything and ourselves with it.

With the British North Borneo Chartered Company/Hoch Standard/Tierra Australia, is history repeating itself? Are we not yet free or healed from our colonial and wartime histories? Are we still riddled with illusions of inferiority and such self-doubt that we will step away from responsibility and sovereignty again? And hand our power, our rights, to those who have no idea who we are and what tanahair means?

Has patronage politics disempowered us and debilitated our agency? How can we stand back while discourse and democracy are replaced by silence and blind loyalty to the lord (Tuan, Datuk, Tan Sri, Bos, etc.)?

The more our doors are closed, the less transparent our processes become, and the wider the division between us. The more divided we are, the more future-altering decisions are made for the majority by a disconnected few. The more this is normalized, the smaller and less human we become, and more corruption breeds.

Two million hectares is more than a quarter of Sabah, two million hectares of forests is more than half our forests, 100 years is about four generations, 200 years is double that.

This is big. So big and so long that Sabahans deserve and need information and time and a say. We do not want to be presented a gift of a done deal with bags of money (to perpetuate patronage politics); prior and open fact-sharing, communication and consultation is what we want and in fact demand from our leaders.

Many of us in the social and environmental justice and conservation fields have spent decades working on a range of issues with growing intersectionality. We have nurtured real and trusting relationships both on the ground in Sabah and out in the world. We sought and continue to seek political and societal will and ambition for an equitable, climate-resilient future for Sabah.

We collectively, and in collaboration with Sabahs civil service, have the confidence, capacities, expertise and partnerships necessary to build a home-grown, bottom-up process: a Sabah process. We do not require the unknown services of a Tierra Australia or the benevolence of a Hoch Standard to tell us who we are, what we have and how we need to manage it.

Is it possible to salvage this moment for Sabah?

Clean up, repent, learn. Pick ourselves up and build a self-governing, sovereign carbon future for Sabah.

I am speaking up in the absence of truth.

Cynthia Ong is founder and Chief Executive Facilitator of Land Empowerment Animals People (LEAP) in Sabah.

Related listening from Mongabays podcast: what good actually came from the COP26 climate talks despite its general failures, and what can concerned citizens do to stay engaged, effective and upbeat? Listen here to Bill McKibben and others:

Here is the original post:

Is colonial history repeating itself with Sabah forest carbon deal? (commentary) - Mongabay.com