Why, hello there, stranger.

My name is Amanda, and I'll be you flight attendant for this wild ride. You might be asking yourself, "What is this blog?" or more importantly "Who blogs these days? Everyone is doing a podcast." You raise great questions.

As the name implies, I'm a crafty historian. *eyes roll* You might be wondering exactly what I mean by "crafty historian."  And this time I have a more comprehensive answer for you.  I am both crafty and also a (an--we can have this argument later) historian. And part of my mission as a historian is to make others think about the fact that history is crafted.

That's right. History is all made up. Before I get a variety of emails complaining about my lack of historical understanding, let me explain. For the most part, those of you that have dedicated your lives to history and that's what you are doing for a living completely understand this idea. It's not new.  Most of what I post on here will not be new. I'm talking to the rest of you. I haven't been a teacher for an exceptionally long time--three years at the elementary/middle school level and then a year and one half or so at the local community college. But it is certainly a REVOLUTIONARY idea when I say that EVERYTHING you read has a bias; it's been constructed; it is arguing something; it is CRAFTED. That's right, take it to a logical conclusion.  It's art!

Yeah, media is biased. But also yeah, your history textbook is biased.  And so is every political campaign, and conversation you have. "They" (the authors) are trying very hard, to present a coherent and cognizant message about what our life is today.  This is a little more nuanced, but even the "data" is biased. It's pretty easy to take what one is looking for in a scientific study and make it fit to your argument. What to do, what to do?

Well, and people LOVE to think that they are doing this, THINK FOR YOURSELF.  That's what I'm trying to do here. You might find contradictory views.  Things that are very fringe and weird. Articles that have nothing to do with history at all, and everything to do with teleportation. This is all part of my thinking process.

I'll certainly have articles on history. I listen to A LOT of podcast and hope to stream them here. Pictures, comics, and maps that I think are beautiful, telling, or shocking will be posted here.  This blog is a product of my classes at Northern Virginia Community College, but also of a new realization.  The internet is a vast place.  I want a place to go that has radical links to ideas that I'm interested in.  We need ways to break down and find information on the internet. So that's what I'm doing here.

I have a lot of things saved up for my readers.  I hope that I will be able to post every other day.  That is a lot of dedication.  But it's pretty rare, that I don't find something spectacular on the web every other day.

To my students: this is a great resource outside of the class material.

To my family and friends: this is a great way to know what I'm thinking about each week.

Please, listen or read what I've posted.  It may open up a whole other (semi-real internet/informational) world that you didn't realize existed.  AND then post your comments, I'll try to respond for a bit.  And look at other interesting things that you've posted there.

So ignore the knitting links if you want. Listen to the podcasts if you want. Look at the pictures if you want.

"History is a pack of lies we play on the dead." --Voltaire