Jenny Thompson, PhD, Historian & Author

Alerity: the state of being other or different; otherness.

I have been somewhat in a state of "otherness" from this blog!

I've been busy with writing and editing projects and also with my New York City blog and I have neglected this blog.

I'm re-launching to share items of interested related to the topics  Read More 

In December of 1914, World War One was in its fifth month. The Allied and Central armies were entrenched. Elaborate systems of warfare were operating with the warring nations coming to terms with the fact that this "Great War" would not be over by Christmas.

On Christmas day, 1914, however, something quite remarkable happened. In Ypres,  Read More 

Photographer Mathew Brady (1822-1896) was an established, successful photographer whose studios in New York City and Washington, D.C. enjoyed brisk business. He was a portrait photographer, primarily, but when the American Civil War broke out, Brady hired several photographers and set out to document the war.

An estimated 10,000 photographs were made by Brady  Read More 

Paul Fussell, influential scholar and writer, died Wednesday, May 23, 2012. His book, The Great War and Modern Memory, did much to shape a generation of scholars and bravely asked readers to see war in its true dimensions. Among his many other influential works about war were: Doing Battle - The Making of a Skeptic (1996), a  Read More 

"As we emerge from a decade of conflict abroad and economic crisis at home," President Obama said in his speech from Afghanistan on May 1, 2012, "it is time to renew America."

What sounded eerily like a campaign speech was an effort to condense the complexity and crisis of the United States' decade-long occupation of a  Read More 

I very clearly remember watching the movie The Diary of Anne Frank on television when I was about 12 years old. I was horrified by the story. I struggled to understand the seemingly “normal” aspects of the story--young Anne’s personality, her relationships, and her ideas--within the larger context of being in hiding, of Nazis,  Read More 

Veterans Day, once known as Armistice Day, is full of memories, symbolism, pride, and sadness.

When the First World War ended on November 11, 1918, it finished not with a bang, but with a whimper. A declaration not of peace, nor of victory, but a cessation of hostilities, the declaration of an “armistice.”

The terms of the armistice, presented  Read More 

When the National September 11 Memorial was dedicated and officially opened in New York City on Sunday, September 11, 2011, it offered a chance to reflect on the solemn anniversary and to consider how memorializing the victims of war in a new era has changed.

This new memorial is a tribute to the 2,983 people killed in the 9/11  Read More 

The Great War and Modern Memory, winner of the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and named by the Modern Library one of the twentieth century's 100 Best Non-Fiction Books, remains one of the most critical studies of war to date.

Fussell was said to have undertaken the study of World  Read More 

It has been more than a decade since the American Folklife Center, through the U.S. Library of Congress, launched the "Veterans History Project," an ongoing effort to document the biographies and experiences of American veterans of wars and conflicts since World War One. The collection also includes documentation of those who contributed to war efforts (including war workers,  Read More