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Book Review – Kent State: An American Tragedy, by Brian VanDemark (2024). On May 4, 1970, members of the Ohio National Guard fired upon students at Kent State University in Ohio who had gathered for a protest against the Vietnam War. Four students were killed and nine others wounded, including…
Read More »Museum Visit: Massachusetts Historical Society – Last Friday I had an early appointment in Boston so when that was finished, I went to the Massachusetts Historical Society at 1154 Boylston Street which is not far from the Prudential Center. I’ve long been aware of the organization but had never visited…
Read More »Book Review: The Wounded Generation: Coming Home After World War II by David Nasaw. This 2025 book popped up in my Kindle (the e-reader) recommendations recently, so I downloaded it, mostly because of my current research project on Lowell residents who died in the military during World War II. I…
Read More »Seen & Heard: Vol. 14 Movie Review: Nuremberg – This 2025 historical drama is now on Netflix. It’s about the war crime trials of German leaders that were held at the end of World War II in the German city of Nuremberg. The movie stars Russell Crowe as Hermann Goring,…
Read More »Obituary: Jurgen Habermas, 96, Thinker Who Heralded ‘Public Sphere,’ Is Dead – Last weekend different online sources I follow mourned the death of Jurgen Habermas with great affection and respect. While I was vaguely familiar with the name, I had no idea who he was, so when his obituary showed…
Read More »Book Review: Burma ‘44 by James Holland – Popular historian James Holland of England has written a dozen nonfiction books on World War II and has appeared in twice that number of TV programs on the war. He’s perhaps best known these days as the co-host with Al Murray of…
Read More »Welcome to this week’s edition of Seen and Heard, in which I catalog the most interesting things I’ve seen, heard and read over the previous seven days. Because the Olympics and the Super Bowl both came this week, this edition is exclusively about TV: TV: Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony –…
Read More »Welcome to this week’s edition of Seen and Heard, in which I catalog the most interesting things I’ve seen, heard and read over the previous seven days: Film: Saturday Night (2024) – This movie depicts the 90 minutes leading up to the debut of the TV show Saturday Night LIve…
Read More »Welcome to this week’s edition of Seen and Heard, in which I catalog the most interesting things I’ve seen, heard and read over the previous seven days: Film: Frankenstein (2025) – I’m not a fan of horror movies but I understood that this new Frankenstein movie, currently on Netflix, was…
Read More »Welcome to Seen and Heard, a new feature on richardhowe.com. As regular readers know, I spend most of my time here digging into local history and dissecting the politics of Lowell. However, like everyone else, I spend the rest of my week absorbing a wide range of other media—from books…
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