Category Archives: Uncategorized

I’m in Venice this semester as a visiting professor, so I’m not keeping up with U.S. politics like I normally would.  But I woke up to another report of a mass killing at a public place, another school. Yesterday, after … Continue reading →

  “Suicide Prevention Walk Organizers Tell Gun Control Advocates to Keep Away” That’s a headline from this past Friday’s “Voice of San Diego” News Organization website.  It forced me to do a triple-take because I was saddened and angry. I … Continue reading →

What can Vietnam War teach us about Afghanistan, North Korea? Prompted by documentary, historian examines parallels to current conflict in Afghanistan By Robert Buzzanco September 30, 2017 Updated: October 1, 2017 9:10am http://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/What-can-Vietnam-War-teach-us-about-Afghanistan-12243521.phphttp://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/What-can-Vietnam-War-teach-us-about-Afghanistan-12243521.php On Wednesday, Taliban forces fired rockets at … Continue reading →

Hef was as much a cultural revolutionary as America could produce at mid-century. Began Playboy right after the Kinsey studies were published, while McCarthyism was in full swing. Got called a “Communist” for undermining American morals, “weakening” American society against … Continue reading →

(Talk given at Blaffer Gallery, University of Houston, for The Propeller Group exhibit, 13 September 2017) I’m not an artist nor an art historian, yet art is necessary to any reasonable and meaningful examination of the past. The way people … Continue reading →

  Twenty-six years ago, on May 25th, 1991, the last Cuban troops left Angola.  Beginning in 1975-76, Cuban forces (eventually numbering around 350,000) entered Angola in support of the the ANC’s struggle against apartheid and, more specifically, to support the … Continue reading →

If you’re a fan of the Sweet Science, or were alive in the 1970s, or even just heard of Muhammad Ali, then you’re familiar with “The Rumble in the Jungle,” his epic bout against then-Heavyweight Champ George Foreman in Kinshasa, … Continue reading →