Studying History: Why and How

Greetings PHR readers!  I know it’s been a while.  PHR has had to take a back seat to other professional priorities, like my new HistoryThroughArt program for adults, and my expanded HistoryAtOurHouse product line for homeschoolers, which now includes a high school level that is also perfect for adult learners.  I have been writing, however, [...]

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FRS: Healthy Energy for Intellectuals

I’m someone who regularly performs demanding intellectual work six days a week–sometimes seven–for upwards of ten hours a day.
My daily routine generally looks like this:  I work at home, so once I’ve watched a little morning news–Sportscenter, that is–my work day starts at around 5:30 AM. That gives me a three to four hour head [...]

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Those to Whom I Would Like to Offer My Thanks

Thanksgiving, properly conceived, is a time to pay tribute, or as Craig Biddle puts it, “say justice“–to those who have created the values that sustain us. In that vein, I would like to offer thanks to those whose life-giving contribution makes it possible for me to stomach the morass of the modern world.  This is [...]

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Imagine the Moment! (Columbus’s Discovery of America)

…Then, pale and worn, he kept his deck,
And peered through darkness.
Ah, that night Of all dark nights!
And then a speck –
A light! a light! a light! a light!
It grew, a starlit flag unfurled!
It grew to be Time’s burst of dawn.
He gained a world; he gave that world
Its grandest lesson: “On! sail on.”
–Columbus, by Joachin Miller
The [...]

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Afghanistan: Highway of Conquest

The United States is currently engaged in an effort to elevate Afghanistan to the status of exemplary moderate Islamic state. What exactly are the prospects for accomplishing this mission based on Afghanistan’s history and culture?
The first thing to realize when broaching this question is that Afghanistan is not a nation, and barely a [...]

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What James Madison Would Say About John McCain

“If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”–James Madison

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Recommended Reading on the Story of European Union

Although I am usually loath to recommend any history book written after 1920, when the subject matter itself postdates WWI, you simply have no choice. And, truth be told, I have read more than a handful of quite excellent histories from modern writers, despite the dreadful state of the profession, so I’m willing to [...]

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History At Our House Update

The HistoryAtOurHouse blog, home to news about the world’s premier homeschooling history curriculum for children, features the following recent articles:
 Give Me Liberty, or You’ll Get Death!  — an analysis of the great painting of Patrick Henry before the House of Burgesses  arguing against the Stamp Act.
When History Beats Hannah Montana — a heartening story about how [...]

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Islamist Entanglement Course Update

I’m very excited by the latest learning techniques I’m going to be teaching my students in the The Islamist Entanglement.  In this, the 3rd course in the acclaimed A First History for AdultsTM program, I’ll be incorporating everything that Powell History clients have come to expect–and more!
Because the completion of my European History program has been delayed, [...]

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It Couldn’t Be Done, by Edgar A. Guest

Here’s some inspiration for you all:
Somebody said that it couldn’t be done,
But he with a chuckle replied
That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one
Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
on his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled [...]

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