Category Archives: Adventures in history

Tomatoes & Eggs II: Erasing slavery on Big Isle

Posted on March 1, 2012 by hro50ta1

By Joel Thurtell During the long-ago historical period when I was a grad student in history, my faculty adviser warned me that contemporary history can be a time of troubles for historians. Too many living parties with stakes in yet-to-be-played … Continue reading →

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Tomatoes & Eggs, Part I: Slaves on Grosse Ile

Posted on February 29, 2012 by hro50ta1

By Joel Thurtell Just as I predicted in a January 2007 Detroit Free Press story, Grosse Ile’s historians changed history. But not the way I expected. Early in 2007 (I retired from my Free Press reporting job the following November), … Continue reading →

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History as science

Posted on February 25, 2012 by hro50ta1

By Joel Thurtell Brace yourselves! Readers of joelontheroad.com will need to get used to a new kind of “content.” I’ve been fairly quiet recently, at least as far as blogging. While I’ve followed the recent antics of Matty, I haven’t … Continue reading →

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My natural experiment

Posted on January 31, 2012 by hro50ta1

By Joel Thurtell For years — decades, in fact — I’d been telling the same story. I was trained as a historian and I ought to know. The famous dictum of the great medieval historian Marc Bloch that “history is … Continue reading →

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Oliver Hazard Bigot

Posted on January 16, 2012 by hro50ta1

By Joel Thurtell We’re into the bicentennial of the War of 1812, an ugly, misguided conflict that taught important lessons. The Americans learned that it’s a lot easier to bluster about conquering another country than to actually invade and take … Continue reading →

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Tomatoes and eggs

Posted on January 16, 2012 by hro50ta1

By Joel Thurtell Back when I was writing for the Detroit Free Press, I found some of my most interesting stories on Grosse Ile, the big island in the Detroit River that was purchased from Indians on July 6, 1776 … Continue reading →

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Lowell’s Ponte Vecchio

Posted on January 5, 2012 by hro50ta1

By Joel Thurtell The bridge that spans the Flat River at Lowell is easily more than a century old. It’s a model and a cautionary tale for me in my quest to turn my recently-acquired property — the Ambassador Bridge … Continue reading →

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Hope for Delray

Posted on December 15, 2011 by hro50ta1

By Joel Thurtell Four years ago, I retired from my job as a reporter with the Detroit Free Press. One of the last stories I wrote for the Free Press was about a seemingly hopeless community in Southwest Detroit known … Continue reading →

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Tarascans under Spanish rule: How one town stayed Indian while its neighbor became mestizo

Posted on December 15, 2011 by hro50ta1

  By Joel Thurtell Twelve kilometers east-southeast of Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, four wooded volcanic peaks roughly bound the east end of a moderately fertile, flat, well-watered valley. On a long slope descending to this plain sits Cuanajo, a large[1] Tarascan town. … Continue reading →

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My valvectomy

Posted on December 12, 2011 by hro50ta1

By Joel Thurtell I underwent my valvectomy some years ago. The operation went very well. I was on my feet throughout, though there was a point during the procedure when my wind pipe was cut off. But once we spliced … Continue reading →

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