Happy Independence Day: History as Life Preserver

I have begun this 4th of July listening to a variety of podcasts: an interview with The Rest is History British podcasters and David Remnick and a NYT Book Review podcast with Jill Lepore talking about history and good books for Independence day. I listened to this story on heartland rock, which didn't tell me anything I didn't already have figured out about Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." This piece on Octavia Butler's typewriter was disappointingly short. I have been re-reading Octavia Butler's Wild Seed, and I might go on to re-read Kindred, both interesting approaches to understanding history. The interview with Jill Lepore meanders into a remembering of what it was to be immersed in books, especially the summer reading in childhood type. Glorious! I am always grateful to have longer stretches of reading time than I sometimes do during the school year.This morning, I've also been re-reading past July 4 blog posts that I wrote. Every 4th of July post is both similar and…