History is (a) Humanity

NEWS FROM NON-BORING HOUSE This Week, Keeping it Real. And Short.

How Long Is This Post? 1800 words, about ten minutes

My Dear Nonnies,

Last weekend, we were in Ohio for Hoosen, Jr.’s graduation (cum laude, or, for my Brits, with honours!). So I sent out a piece I had already written for you on colonial American travellers in Europe, and how they helped define what it meant to be American. If you missed that, it’s here!

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President Trump Should Have Read NBH

No, I’m not getting all political on you. Why? I’m tired of all the shouting, and I think you are, too, which is why NBH is non-partisan. So this is an observation, not a rant. Popular though President Trump is among Georgia Republicans, many were rankled by his endorsement of David Perdue over incumbent Governor Brian Kemp in the Republican primary. I bet he’s surprised. But if he subscribed to NBH, he wouldn’t be.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt made the same mistake in 1938. Just because FDR was bringing, you know, electricity to vast areas of Georgia, and just because he won rural Georgia by a massive landslide (over 90%), he thought his listeners in Barnesville, GA would like to vote for his preferred candidate over incumbent US Senator Walter George. Oops. You can read more about that in my two-part series from a year ago, one of my very first posts, as it happens, at NBH.

See, this Brit who lived in Georgia for nearly a quarter century could have told FDR, and Trump, that Yankees (non-Georgians) telling white Georgians what to do politically, is a fraught business, even when the Georgians in question agree with the Yankees. Indeed, I was delighted to learn that native white Georgian historian Jim Cobb started his book Georgia Odyssey, a classic survey of Georgia history, with the story of FDR in Barnesville, because he recognized it as a classic Georgia tale.

Look, even a native Georgian historian friend of mine (NOT Jim Cobb, I rush to add) once told me that Delta was ready when I was (i.e. he told me to leave the state), after I tutted over something in Georgia. He immediately apologized—he’s a historian, and he knew at once that he shouldn’t have thought it, much less said it—but I was sympathetic. History hangs heavy in Georgia, as President Trump just found out.

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NBH Museum Bingo, 2022! Tell Your Friends!

I am so glad you are excited by NBH 2022 Museum Bingo! The Gnomes here in the basement of Non-Boring House worked long and hard to bring you this stellar summer program, and we’re excited to hear how it’s going!

News to you? Read about it here!

2022 NBH Summer Museum Bingo! 🌞

I am working on Annette’s Guide to Enjoying Museums, and will post it soon—it’s a Nonnie (paid subscriber) exclusive!—along with a pdf of the Bingo Card for easy posting on your refrigerator.