Word: factly
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...earlier version of this post stated incorrectly that the final scene of the video takes place in the Leverett Dining Hall. In fact, the final scene takes place in the Junior Common Room...
...History as Entertainment For an old Saturday Night Live-style comedian, there is a seriousness of purpose about Hanks as history maker. At 53, he has a repertoire that doesn't include anarchy; he's no longer the romantic-comedy clown. In fact, he exhibits a crabbed resentment toward historical amnesia - most notably his own. Echoing McCullough, who rails against American historical illiteracy, the self-deprecating goof in Hanks nevertheless makes light of his own campaign against historical ignorance. While gag lines are still his forte, his new rallying cry is a palm smacking the forehead: "Why didn't somebody...
...drew them together as a group. "Astronauts, test pilots, Army Rangers all adhere to a kind of self-government that is infectious," he says. "They become a spiritual class - part family and part competitive - that's undeniable." These are the attributes Hanks admires - and envies. "The fact is, I have no inner discipline," he says, "and Americans rigorously training to perform public service is inspiring...
...Hanks' star rose in the 1990s, he sought out new sources of what he calls "entertainable historical knowledge." Leon Uris' fact-anchored novels - Mila 18, Armageddon and Exodus - taught Hanks to feel history in a way no high school teacher ever did, but the entertainment level had to be hyperkinetic to hold his attention. It was the same with most academic histories. "The writing is often too dull to grab regular people by the lapel," he says. Ken Burns' miniseries The Civil War, which aired on PBS in the fall of 1990, gave him a sense of how he might...
...Bosniaks, say that doesn't matter - they see the mere act of holding a referendum as an intentional provocation. "It's meaningless in its substance," said Kurt Bassuener, of the Democratization Policy Council, a U.S.-based democracy advocacy group. "But the act is very meaningful." The Bosnian war, in fact, was sparked by a referendum on independence from Yugoslavia that was overwhelmingly supported by Bosniaks and Croats, but boycotted by Serbs. (Read about Bosnia's Islamic revival...