“Declining (x) literacy”
Now that Constitution Day is nearly upon us (tomorrow, folks, the 218th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution, not that its signing had much historical significance—quick, what was the criterion for ratification?), the New York Times has its obligatory obeisance-and-reflection, which turns out to be a bunch of historically-unreflective pap about “historical literacy:” The […]
The institutional memory of survivors
One of the dominant undercurrents of reporting this last week has been the terror and outrage of journalists caught in the hurricane and its aftermath. The CNN and NPR reporters at the Convention Center yesterday were clearly witnessing as well as reporting, and I suspect most journalists in New Orleans right now will come out […]
The foreseeable burning of New Orleans
Signs are increasingly clear that, at some point in the near future—maybe today, maybe tomorrow, maybe next week—a significant portion of New Orleans will burn to the ground. Any reasonably-conscious social historian and civil engineer can tell you the consequences of a large city with significant petroleum on the ground (and fumes near the ground), […]
Fowler’s English
By Sherman Dorn on September 10, 2005
While Henry Fowler’s Modern English Usage (2nd ed.) is not available online (being reprinted by Oxford University Press—get the 2nd ed., not the 3rd), his brother H.W. Fowler’s The King’s English (1908) is available online.
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