This week—prompted by the controversy over President Trump's referring to Senator Elizabeth Warren as "Pocahontas" at an event honoring Native American veterans—we were reminded of a paradox that comes with historical fame.
Pocahontas is one of the only Native American women whose name is known by most Americans today. But while that might mean that more people think they know her story, it also means that it's easy to lose sight of the specifics of that story. As one historian told TIME's Olivia B. Waxman, "it's sad that her name has become a joke" in particular because of how "difficult and frightening" her life was. You can click here to learn more about the real woman behind the famous name.
Here's more of the history that made news this week:
“As thousands of new fans are happily discovering, pro football is a game of precise and powerful virtuosity —incredible catches, runners who break away from swarms of opponents just when they seem stopped, crunching tackles and jet-powered blocks. No experienced pro fan ever leaves a game in its last five minutes when his team is only two touchdowns behind—any club can, and may, explode in those five minutes and win. Pro football is a game in which every carefully selected, battle-tried man seems larger than life, not only in skill and speed, but in sheer brute strength.” (Nov. 30, 1959)
“In art, as in most other matters, the '70s have not yet been named. Historians looking back on American art in the '60s see movements and orthodoxies—Pop art, minimal art, conceptual art, Op art, color-field painting, doctrines about flatness and framing edge, proscriptions, mandates. The categories rattle briskly like punch cards in their slots. Art in the '70s is more polymorphous, less ambitious, harder to sort out. The present creed proclaims belief in the Either, the Or and the Holy Both.” (Nov. 29, 1976)
“By early this year, most Americans had become aware of AIDS, conscious of a trickle of news about a disease that was threatening homosexuals and drug addicts. AIDS, the experts said, was spreading rapidly. The number of cases was increasing geometrically, doubling every ten months, and the threat to heterosexuals appeared to be growing. But it was the shocking news two weeks ago of Actor Rock Hudson's illness that finally catapulted AIDS out of the closet, transforming it overnight from someone else's problem, a ‘gay plague,’ to a cause of international alarm." (Aug. 12, 1985)
Medical Pioneer In this installation of Lady Science at The New Inquiry, Jennifer Young tells the story of Dr. Hannah Meyer Stone, an unsung leader of the early movement for birth control in the U.S.
Meowter Space At Atlas Obscura, Cara Giaimo explains why the first and only cat to go to space is getting a new round of attention more than 50 years after her voyage.
Voices From the PastThe Paris Review has recently launched a new podcast, which includes archival audio footage and readings of selections from the publication’s past.
Radium Radio In a Marketplace story by David Brancaccio and Katie Long, hear about the legacy of the workers whose exposure to radioactive glow-in-the-dark paint in the 1910s changed workplace safety laws.
Professional Perspective This week marked the 75th anniversary of Boston’s infamous Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire, which killed nearly 500 people. For a fascinating look at the lessons of that tragedy, check out the coverage in Fire Engineering magazine.
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