Retelling the Past for Today's Young Readers
Chronology is history’s gravity. That’s what Jill Lepore said on her podcast. I took note. I sensed the truth of her words, yet I wondered, How are they true? Chronology is the force that holds narrative together? The force that draws … Continued
“There is one thing stronger than all the armies of the world, and that is an idea whose time has come.” –Victor Hugo “Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it’s the only one we have.” –Émile-Auguste Chartier Quotation … Continued
Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest King “One thing that might help win this war is to get someone to shoot King,” remarked the normally unflappable Dwight Eisenhower. “He’s the antithesis of cooperation…, he’s a mental bully.” What’s more, said … Continued
He might have been the hero of Midway, one of many, perhaps, but potentially the first among them, the one who made all the others possible. Commander Joseph Rochefort led the Station Hypo team of cryptanalysts, linguists, communications experts, and … Continued
Early in his career as the United States government’s go-to man on all things cryptologic, William Friedman was asked if insanity was a prerequisite of the codebreaker. Friedman didn’t hesitate in his response. It was “not necessary,” he said, “but … Continued
Sometime around age fifty I felt the world beginning to pass me by. Technology was the catalyst. Facebook. Twitter. I wanted no part of them. The same, later, for Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok. I would catch my daughter or her … Continued
“I must confess to considerable distaste for Y. Frankly, I didn’t like him at all. He acted like a wooden Indian.” [Fagone 104] William Friedman‘s aversion to fellow cryptologist Herbert Yardley was sincere, yet his choice of descriptor is odd. … Continued
Happy Will Rogers Day! The boy who would grow up to become the beloved Cowboy Philosopher was born on this day, November 4, 1879. That year it was Election Day. In 2020, it is merely Aftermath Day. Rogers’s death day, … Continued
Elizebeth Smith, like so many bright, talented women of her era, understood the limitations before her. Her Quaker upbringing nurtured natural intellectual curiosity and independence of mind. But the unyielding horizon around her family’s Indiana farm threatened to swallow her. … Continued
David Kahn called it the Yardley Symptom, the compulsion of the cryptologist to chip away at the puzzle throughout his waking moments. He turns the letters over in his mind even as he fries his morning egg, scrubs his evening … Continued