Several times in recent days I’ve been asked why, as a historian, I haven’t had more to say on social media about current social and political issues and events, particularly as they relate to the [...]
Looking on the Good Side
Will We Get It Right This Time?
In late 2018, when the first edition of South of Little Rock was nearing publication, a friend asked why, after a career in history museums and historical writing and editing, I had taken up writing [...]
Looking Back and Thinking Ahead Potpourri
I realize that lots of people like year-end list-making, but I’m more than a little ambivalent about it. Seems like there’s way too much of it—ten best movies, twenty best books, fifteen top TV shows, [...]
Learning from the Past
What can social movements of the past teach us about today’s socially charged climate? Within the past year, my novel South of Little Rock has received four regional and social-issue fiction awards for examining that [...]
Living with a Cemetery
While mowing my back yard one day last summer, I got to thinking about cemeteries. And not because our lot backs up to one—or to get technical, a memorial park. It was the mowing that [...]
Are You a Yankee Now?
A number of years ago, when I was living in Nashville, Tennessee, and traveling the country for the American Association for State and Local History, I was called home to Arkansas while on a trip [...]