Tag Archives: History

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Posted on December 10, 2023 by George Putnam

Today is the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly. Eleanor Roosevelt (pictured) chaired the committee that drafted this important document. In the Wall Street Journal, Mary Ann Glendon … Continue reading →

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The Bell in the Town Hall

Posted on November 21, 2022 by George Putnam

There is a 151-year-old bell in the tower of the Cambridge Town Hall that few knew about until this year. It had been hidden and silent for decades. This is the story of bringing that bell back to life and … Continue reading →

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Great Awakenings

Posted on April 19, 2021 by George Putnam

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld wrote the following in the Wall Street Journal on April 15, 2021: American religious history produced four Great Awakenings—and now American business is sparking a fifth spiritual awakening. Source: CEOs Lead America’s New Great Awakening Professor Sonnenfeld is … Continue reading →

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Movie Recommendation

Posted on December 24, 2020 by George Putnam

This is a good time of year for watching movies. My movie recommendation for 2020 is Hamilton: An American Musical. What a year this has been! Impeachment, covid, lockdowns, George Floyd riots, the 2020 election. Hamilton is an important story … Continue reading →

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Unmasking the cult of Stalin

Posted on August 29, 2020 by George Putnam

Mr. Jones is a “must see” movie, as I wrote in Why you should watch “Mr. Jones”. A comment on that post led me to this article at Ukraine Today about a panel discussion with the writer and director of … Continue reading →

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Why you should watch “Mr. Jones”

Posted on August 26, 2020 by George Putnam

I recommend the movie Mr. Jones, which has generated considerable buzz on the Internet this summer. At the end of this post I list 13 online commentaries about it that I have noticed. This 2019 movie became available on Amazon … Continue reading →

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The Holodomor

Posted on August 22, 2020 by George Putnam

The Holodomor was a catastrophic man-made famine in Ukraine in 1932-1933. At the time, Ukraine was part of Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union. Millions of people died in what Ukraine and several other countries now consider a genocide. Not widely known … Continue reading →

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Hamilton: An American Musical

Posted on July 16, 2020 by George Putnam

The tragic death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer has shocked our country. It has led to nationwide protests, riots, and calls for change. Where do we go from here? I … Continue reading →

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Podcast Recommendation

Posted on May 7, 2020 by George Putnam

Want to learn more about diseases such as COVID-19? I recommend This Podcast Will Kill You by Erin Welsh, PhD and Erin Allmann Updyke, PhD. Drs. Erin and Erin are disease ecologists and epidemiologists. They discuss the biology, history, and … Continue reading →

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Anne Frank and the Four Freedoms

Posted on August 11, 2019 by George Putnam

Anne Frank and President Franklin Roosevelt did not know each other, but there is a profound connection between them: the Four Freedoms. President Roosevelt gave a famous speech to Congress in January 1941, eleven months before the United States entered … Continue reading →

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