MakingHistory

The third chapter of my biography of the famous freethinker, Dr. Charles Knowlton, in which as a teenager he believes he is dying, primarily due to onanism. 

The second chapter of my biography of the 19th-century freethinker, Dr. Charles Knowlton. 

This is an introduction to and a reading of the Preface and first chapter of my 2013 biography of the 19th-century freethinker, Dr. Charles Knowlton. The book is called An Infidel Body-Snatcher and the Fruits of His Philosophy . 

For my 2022 research and writing, I've decided to finally incorporate Maps of Content. I've also begun turning empty notes that are nodes in the graph into actual notes, so I can better see the connectivity of my ideas.

My reactions to the fourth chapter of Graeber and Wengrow's recent book, prior to discussing them in the Obsidian Book Club this week.

My "Reading Notes" on the third chapter of The Dawn of Everything, which is called "Unfreezing the Ice Age".

A quick look at some of the ways authors develop credibility with readers, based on a discussion in the Dawn of Everything Obsidian Book Club yesterday.

The discussion of the Enlightenment in the early chapters of Graeber and Wengrow's book reminded me of a book I read in grad school about the wide reading habits of early US citizens, called Reading Becomes a Necessity of Life. Here's my summary of the book.

Okay, so I'm going to do it! A book club to read and discuss the new Graeber and Wengrow book, *The Dawn of Everything*, and a shared Obsidian vault in which we can do this and also share ideas and techniques for note-taking and knowledge management. This will include not only the shared vault but weekly Zoom meetings, so at the end of the video there's a list of things I'd like to know about you...

The second half of Chapter Three, called "Essence and Peddlers".

I'm beginning the process of looking for instances of ideas in my Obsidian vault. In this video, I find a bunch of times I thought about the idea of Domains, wondering about the limitations of explanatory schemes. I find a few to begin my Note on this topic.

This is my reaction to Neil deGrasse Tyson getting history spectacularly wrong on Joe Rogan's show. The original clip is a couple of years old, but it is still being watched regularly and these are topics I care a bit about. So I thought I'd set the record straight.

This is the first half of the third chapter of my book, called "Essence and Peddlers".

I'd like to compare the ways World History survey courses cover history in different regions of the world, and also if possible how this changes over time. I've asked Open Education folks, Moodlers, and others -- now I'm asking my viewers for suggestions of the textbook titles they've used or are aware of in their regions. Thanks!!

My reaction to the wildly popular Bill Wurtz video that begins before the Big Bang and races to the present in just under 19 minutes (I'm reacting to the "clean" version). I add some points I think need emphasis. Lots of great stuff in here. I'm always interested in people who can be super effective talking about history to the public, so this was very enlightening.

The second chapter of my recent book, covering the early history of peppermint in America, Ashfield, and the Ranney family.

This week I visited Baudette and International Falls, Minnesota, along the Canadian border. Did some research and met some very nice people as a result.

Since I've changed the name to "Making History", I thought I probably ought to share some of the history that I've made. So I'm going to start reading some of my writing, beginning with the book that came out of my dissertation. Peppermint Kings, A Rural American History , was published in 2020 by the Yale University Press, in their Agrarian Studies series. Since there isn't an audiobook version o...

Some thoughts about how I'm going to (re)organize myself to continue focusing on making content for the channel. The main theme will continue to be my work as a historian, writer, and teacher -- making and sharing history content.

My student, Kate Brekke, used Obsidian this summer to begin research toward her Senior Thesis. She demonstrated the graph and talked about her process in my Historiography class this week. Thanks, Kate!

An introductory lecture for my students this fall, to fill in some of the background info that will be useful to help them understand the modern world.

I tend to never be quite satisfied with my course content. This semester, I'm adding some new material and especially some new formatting to my OER World History text.

I'll be using a shared, private Obsidian vault hosted in Dropbox with my Modern World History students again this fall. I'll focus a bit more on knowledge co-creation, too.

A quick recap of my summer activities, including an unexpected visit with a professor who inspired me to study history a couple of decades ago.

Some thoughts on the way I'm going to use Permanent Notes as the abstractions on which I'll build my own arguments, stories, and texts. Also a brief comparison of what I'm doing here with retrieval practice as it's typically understood in education circles.