Channeling Churchill, Leningraders, and Roberto Benigni

The study of history, like that of literature or film, depends in large part on making sense of narratives, characters, and themes, all universal patterns repeating themselves in new situations and with new variations. As the world remains transfixed and increasingly galvanized by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the Ukrainian refusal to simply bow down… Continue reading Channeling Churchill, Leningraders, and Roberto Benigni

Ten frightful fathers from fiction (on the occasion of Father’s Day 2019)

When Tolstoy wrote in Anna Karenina that “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” he could have been referring to fathers in literature. In any Father’s Day list of famous fictional fathers, Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird leads the good father lineup. He’s a true role… Continue reading Ten frightful fathers from fiction (on the occasion of Father’s Day 2019)