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History Archive

Default Holidays Suck: A Case for Making Up Your Own Holidays

January 28, 2019

Not having a holiday can make a month pretty bleak. Take January. With the exception of MLK Day (many workers don’t have the day off) and New Year’s Day (which might as well be a December holiday), we have nothing. […]

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Posted by James WalpolePosted in History, Lifestyle
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The Call to Entrepreneurship and Our Excuses

January 26, 2019January 27, 2019

Think starting up your dream business is a daunting task? Imagine going straight from being on vacation to starting up a complex refugee rescue mission under the nose of the Nazis – with no prior experience and no preparation. That […]

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Posted by James WalpolePosted in Entrepreneurship, History, Personal Development, Virtue
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A Tip of the Hat to the Forgotten Defenders of 1939-40

January 8, 2019

You probably don’t know about the 9-hour German invasion of Denmark on April 9th, 1940. But like all historical events, this little “blip” on the radar of history involved real men and women. They were people, too, just like our own grandfathers and great-grandfathers […]

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Posted by James WalpolePosted in History
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You Are Another Generation’s Reward

January 3, 2019

“For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.” – Matthew 13:17  What if I told you […]

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Posted by James WalpolePosted in History, Philosophy, Spirituality
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Biographies Are Reminders of the Bigness of Life

December 19, 2018December 19, 2018

If you ever for a moment feel bored with your existence, you need to start reading more biographies and autobiographies. Humans have a breadth of potential beyond what you can appreciate day to day. Through the stories of others, you get […]

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Posted by James WalpolePosted in Book Notes, History
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The Foggy Facemask of (Fake) War: Paintball, Tactics, Skill, and Luck

December 2, 2018December 2, 2018

Today I went to a paintball course for what must have been the first time since my elementary or middle school days. I found myself just as fired up as I’m sure I was back then (if not more so), […]

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Posted by James WalpolePosted in History, Sports and Fitness
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How To (and How Not To) Remember Armistice Day on Its 100th Anniversary

November 12, 2018

Over 16 million humans died in the war that ended this day 100 year ago – on November 11, 1918. This is Armistice Day a hundred years later, and it should not go unremembered. Death like that deserves mourning, and peace […]

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Posted by James WalpolePosted in History, Politics
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The Bourgeois Virtues of Piano Recitals

September 10, 2018

Tonight I was listening to some Baroque-period music on the radio, and it took me back – not to the 17th century, but instead to my early childhood. It’s so rare to hear classical music of this kind these days, […]

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Posted by James WalpolePosted in Economics, History, Music
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A Critique and a Defense of Mythologizing the Past

September 9, 2018

Was Abraham Lincoln really a moral leader who saved the United States and ended slavery? Did George Washington really save the Continental Army and win the American revolution? Was Thomas Jefferson really a forward-thinking liberalizer? Alluring Myth vs. Disappointing Fact The stories […]

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Posted by James WalpolePosted in History, Politics
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Why Entrepreneurs Should Be Studying Anthropology

August 29, 2018August 29, 2018

“Anthropology is the study of humans and human behaviour and societies in the past and present.” – Wikipedia “Everything old is new again” and “there is nothing new under the sun.” It’s hard to think that these could be the unofficial slogans of innovations in human wellbeing, […]

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Posted by James WalpolePosted in Culture, Entrepreneurship, History, Technology
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The Medium Makes the Memory

August 13, 2018August 13, 2018

We’ve all heard that “the medium is the message.” But when I look back through the collected artifacts of my grandfather’s life, I can see that medium has a lot to do with memories also. The stories of many of our […]

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Posted by James WalpolePosted in Culture, History, Technology
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The Joys of Audiovisual Archaeology

August 12, 2018

The Internet can be a place of many strange delights and many time-wasting distractions. But it’s hard to deny is that it has given people access to invaluable education. There’s plenty of written history to be had, but the web (particularly Youtube) has made […]

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Posted by James WalpolePosted in History, Technology
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How To Become a Time Traveler

August 11, 2018

Time travel is really quite easy. All it takes is noticing. We’re each surrounded by portals connecting and blending our past and our present. On the streets of Charleston I walked tonight, gas street lamps and cobblestone streets live alongside Uber ridesharing. Of […]

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Posted by James WalpolePosted in History, Personal Development
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All the Historical Drama TV Shows You Need to Watch (If You Like Old Things)

July 25, 2018

I don’t always watch television, but when I do, I gravitate toward shows that dive into characters and events based upon real times and people in history. These are some of my favorite series: Victoria – Victoria is the story of a […]

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Posted by James WalpolePosted in Film, History
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Psychology Goes Toe-To-Toe With Totalitarianism in Carl Jung’s “The Undiscovered Self”

March 22, 2018March 25, 2018

I’m a big believer that good mythology and stories can teach us how to live well. In the past year or so, that has led me to thinkers like Joseph Campbell and Jordan Peterson, who both have left a big mark on […]

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Posted by James WalpolePosted in Book Notes, History, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology, Spirituality
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Illegal If Invented Today – Cars, Danger, Trust, and Innovation

March 20, 2018March 25, 2018

I was driving to work today when I realized how nonchalantly I was piloting my land-speeding hunk of aluminum. Cars are extraordinary, complex, and dangerous machines, but most of us can drive them comfortably and without much second thought. That’s extraordinary. Then I […]

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Posted by James WalpolePosted in Culture, Entrepreneurship, History, Politics, Technology
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What St. Patrick’s Day Can Teach Us About Beating Anti-Immigrant Prejudice

March 18, 2018March 24, 2018

Today your town is likely covered with people wearing green, playing questionably Celtic music, and eating corned beef and cabbage. It’s St. Patrick’s Day, if you haven’t guessed. This holiday has become a huge deal for Americans. But Irish culture hasn’t […]

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Posted by James WalpolePosted in Culture, History
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Want Great History Podcasts? Try These Eyewitness Accounts of the World Wars

March 1, 2018

I’m morbidly fascinated by the history of the two twentieth century wars. These giant catastrophes seem far too big to be possible, yet they’re far too close to my lifetime to be ignored. It’s now 2018, and one of the […]

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Posted by James WalpolePosted in History, Podcast Notes
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Fail British-ly: Dunkirk’s Lessons on Failing Well

February 25, 2018

So, you’re going through a failure? As bad as it is, I doubt it’s quite as bad as the failure of the British Expeditionary Force in May 1940. After the rapid German conquest of France, British troops were holed up at this […]

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Posted by James WalpolePosted in History, Personal Development
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Hardcore History’s “Blueprint for Armageddon” Brings a World War Experience To Life

July 9, 2017August 12, 2017

Morbid fascination is a strong motivator for me. Recently it’s brought me around to a renewed study of the first world war. For me, the study of this war (and other terrible things in human history) is about far more […]

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Posted by James WalpolePosted in History
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