tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30018173060514433732011-07-28T16:44:59.271-05:00A guide to better living through cured pork productsMatt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.comBlogger321100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-12179540207603338862009-12-13T11:58:00.006-06:002009-12-13T12:06:22.484-06:00

This is just a quick post, to a book review I did for H-net. György Litván. A Twentieth-Century Prophet: Oscár Jászi, 1875-1957. New York: Central European University Press, 2006. 570 pp. $59.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-963-7326-42-4.A small success. I will post more once I have my journal article done and in print.

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-18969131603504973962009-02-18T16:13:00.006-06:002009-02-18T16:30:01.641-06:00

In case you haven't noticed, there has been precious little activity on this blog in the past few months. I have drafted some entries, but then failed to post them for a variety of reasons. The main one being forgetfulness but the second is more philosophical: I am afraid this blog has veered from its intended beat. I have posted on history, politics and other topics of the moment, but I have

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-72255435591378984672008-11-12T10:48:00.011-06:002008-11-12T17:26:19.985-06:00

Its the ninetieth anniversary of the Armistice that ended World War One. The peace process would spin itself out into the summer of 1919, but November 11th became the day Europeans use to commemorate the end of the war. Americans used to celebrate Armistice day to, but in 1954 it became Veterans Day to honor all those who had served in the US military. In a sense, the American social memory of

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-10748337141674300772008-11-11T10:55:00.003-06:002008-11-11T11:05:16.895-06:00

A few weeks ago, well back in October, I went over to my friend's Matt & Jeniffer's house to partake in bacon smoking and pancetta rolling. She has posted the results on her blog: Sew and Slow. I got to take the bacon home that day, but the pancetta had to air cure for about four weeks, so the Sunday before the election, Jennifer stopped by and dropped off a hunk of the rolled porky goodness at

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-69391154986121129462008-10-22T11:46:00.001-05:002008-10-22T11:48:19.719-05:00

visited 13 states (5.77%)Create your own visited map of The World

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-78137913748087369752008-10-15T10:50:00.003-05:002008-10-15T11:06:01.055-05:00

It looks like the better part of Eastern Europe is going into IMF receivership. On Monday Hungary put in a request for financing with the IMF, followed by the Ukraine, Serbia and possibly the Baltic states in the last few days.According to the Daily Telegraph, Iceland made a request to the IMF board for help in the financial crisis, over the weekend. A week earlier Iceland said it would seek a

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-41572352212029571842008-10-10T12:37:00.004-05:002008-10-10T13:40:56.444-05:00

Well, yesterday I received my TIAA-Creff quarterly report. I haven't opened it yet. I am not so sure I want to. Granted, I have twenty-five or thirty years before I need to retire, but still its really disappointing to see my retirement savings take such a merciless shellacking. Worse still I am not sure what this means for my parents and their financial future. How are they supposed to get along

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-66561738858600167972008-09-15T15:03:00.005-05:002008-09-15T16:04:09.403-05:00

Go check out this post over on Edge of the American West about Niall Ferguson's comparison of Nazi and American laws on race and eugenics.See the monster of American exceptionalism raise its ugly head!!!Watch as Eric and the other Historians from the Edge walk a methodological tightrope... while blindfolded by an ignorance of German historiography ...without the benefit of a safety net or

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-54827317397961212992008-07-24T10:46:00.005-05:002008-07-24T10:49:51.312-05:00

OK, so its a silly internet trick, but you can create a word picture of you blog, or just about any other text by using Wordle. Here is one for affop.

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-84038084096037442372008-06-16T10:03:00.004-05:002008-06-16T10:19:50.252-05:00

There are many fine cakes to be eaten in Hungary. Pastry shops offer many delicious deserts, treats and ice cream cones. But nothing compares to the francia krémes. Essentially it is a wonderful vanilla custard sandwiched between crispy sheets of flaky pastry dough. If there is one thing I would like to learn how to bake, it is the francia krémes from Auguszt cukrászda.

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-26157713767978119542008-06-15T09:06:00.006-05:002008-06-16T08:23:33.786-05:00

Over Memorial Day weekend, I read a post over at Crooked Timber called, "The Great and Unremembered War,"about the different ways World War One is remembered in the United States and Europe. I think the World War One memorial around the corner from Yusaf's flat is a pretty good example of the way war is remembered here. So here are a couple of pictures and I'll post more on the flickr site

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-45533248523623983032008-06-10T17:21:00.006-05:002008-06-10T17:50:03.017-05:00

hmm. Its been a while since I posted and I probably should be putting more stuff up about Budapest, since I leave in a week...But I wanted to put up one last picture from Vienna. This is a place called Cafe Drexler and its across the street from the Nashmarkt, a open air food market during the week plus a flea market on the weekends. Last time I visited Vienna (seven years ago!) I had the afore

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-17198918650599107582008-06-01T03:39:00.007-05:002008-06-02T01:52:02.970-05:00

I saw this poster on a street in Vienna near my hotel. It looks like a straight black and white copy of a poster Shepard Fairey did for Obama before Super Tuesday. He is the graffiti/street artist who created the "obey giant" stickers and posters that have been floating around the North American streetscape since the late 1990s.When I first saw the Obama poster, I was kind of startled. I know

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-19251896242958848502008-05-31T13:41:00.003-05:002008-05-31T13:48:02.193-05:00

I had a couple of good meals while I was in Vienna. The place I liked the most, in terms of atmosphere and cuisine was Amerlingbeisl. It had a fantastic courtyard seating area with a really beautiful arbor of hops (or some such vine). It was quiet and charming. The waitress was really nice and recommended a great glass of wine with the meal: asparagus wrapped in a farmers ham, and spuds swimming

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-34295086147871592052008-05-29T16:02:00.005-05:002008-06-10T17:46:41.253-05:00

So the Vienna City Archives are just one metro stop further down the U3 than the National Archives. And they are housed in a much more interesting building. At the turn of the nineteenth century (you know, the other Fin-de-Siècle, 1900) the city of Vienna produced its own gas from coal. They stored it in four Gasometers near the town of Simmering. Liquid natural gas made them obsolete and the

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-41883578145551175972008-05-28T14:13:00.005-05:002008-05-29T16:26:44.313-05:00

Typically, Viennese cuisine involves three things: pork, breading and frying. The famous Wiener schnitzel is nothing but a charming slice of pork, pounded out flat, coated in breadcrumbs and fried. It is typically accompanied by some form of potato and slices of lemon. Sometimes there is a garnish of lettuce or sauerkraut to provide a fig leaf to cover up the utter lack of vegetables. The

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-71767431807297621562008-05-28T03:21:00.004-05:002008-05-28T03:33:30.567-05:00

Not all archives are created equal, at least not in aesthetic terms. The Hungarian archives are squirreled away in a nice nineteenth century historicist building in the the Buda Castle. Great building, nice reading room, but a bit small, so bits and pieces of the archives are stashed in other parts of the city.In Vienna, the Austrian State Archives are in a big modern building out near the

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-46526880362510317572008-05-24T03:30:00.005-05:002008-05-24T04:18:57.417-05:00

To paraphrase P.J. O'Rourke, "Commies love concrete." The era of "Socialist Construction" in Hungary was littered with gobs of prefabricated concrete apartment blocs and monumental office buildings in the 'neo-brutalist' style. But there were a few architectural gems built too. One of them is the central bus station on Elizabeth square (Erzsibet tér).Here are two pictures of the mildly renovated

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-50167065534099965972008-05-22T15:30:00.005-05:002008-05-28T15:54:13.937-05:00

One of the ongoing infrastructure projects in Budapest is Metro 4, the new subway line that connects the city center with South Western Buda. This summer I have been spotting various fenced off parts of the city that are part of the project. Here is a picture of the construction near the Freedom bridge and March 15th Square. They have shut down the bridge, part of the street and closed the #2

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-16878850545647263092008-05-19T09:48:00.003-05:002008-05-19T09:56:00.159-05:00

So, I am off on my research trip to Budapest. Here is a picture of the freedom monument on Gellert hill and the bridges over the Danube. You can find the higher resolution picture on Flikr.Over the next few weeks I plan on documenting some of my important work in rétes/strudel studies, as well as the pastry techniques of the various Budapest cukraszdas/confectionery shops.

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-14218263179650766562008-05-19T09:38:00.004-05:002008-05-19T09:56:45.389-05:00

On Sunday I went with my buddy Yusaf to see a cricket match in Dunabogdány, a small town north of Budapest. Yus is the captain for the Dunabogdány team and invited me to play. It was a lot of fun, I didn't get to bat, but I had a great time fielding. Here is a picture of Andras, one of the Hungarian players, bowling. Its after the release, so you can see the red ball in the upper center part of

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-23281145443994576552008-04-27T13:55:00.003-05:002008-05-08T17:14:51.692-05:00

An article by Clay Shirkey. I like the parallels with gin and the industrial revolution. Maybe that is because I am a bitter, elitist college professor clinging to Marxism, Guns, and Secular Humanism.

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-25677772384973100692008-04-27T13:27:00.003-05:002008-04-27T13:37:29.495-05:00

Look, there is a problem with textbook prices and there is plenty of blame to go around. I am pretty sore about this topic, because I just had to turn in my book order this week and the publisher has come out with a new edition of my favorite textbook, only four years after the previous one!I'm a history professor, and yes some of my colleagues do not take price into account when assigning

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-22710572413672175372008-04-16T15:49:00.005-05:002008-05-08T17:29:37.919-05:00

A quick food post: This Sunday "J" and I made a chocolate crostata recipe from Bon Appetite magazine (May 2008). The pastry recipe was pretty interesting. It had a couple egg yokes, a whole egg, and powdered sugar in addition to the usual suspects (flour & butter). It turned out great, except my tart pan was only a 9" diameter instead of the requisite 10. My bad, I should have measured.It tasted

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-14732327721767157412008-04-11T15:38:00.005-05:002008-04-11T15:53:51.216-05:00

Some other blogs have had interesting things to say about the HNN Poll on the George W. Bush Presidency and its historic legacy.Larry Dewitt. Follies of Instant History: 4/7/2008Interesting in his assessment of the actual comments made by historians: i.e. there is not a lot of history going on or valid historical comparisons being made. I am heartened to see that HNN gave a dissenting voice space

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-35969621276040615702008-04-03T13:25:00.009-05:002008-04-03T14:12:51.886-05:00

In general, it pays to be skeptical of Internet polls, and the HNN one is no exception. According to the poll, 61% of historians deemed George Bush's presidency the worst in history. The author of the poll, Robert S. McElvaine, admitted that it was not scientific and that it may be too soon to make an accurate historical assessment.While the poll may not be scientific in terms of its sample, I

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-42238211278362697192008-02-15T11:39:00.007-06:002008-02-18T14:53:24.650-06:00

This was my Valentine's Day baking project for my girlfriend "J." I finally figured out how to rotate the picture so it appears right side up.The recipe came from epicurious.com and it did not have any flour. It was light and fluffy tasting like a mousse, but baked. "J" liked it even better than the flourless chocolate cake recipe we have been making since last summer.

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-58614184517817878262008-01-22T13:46:00.000-06:002008-01-22T14:57:09.677-06:00

I cribbed this from Historiann and Edge of the American West. It also relates to Stanley Fish's column in the NYTimes about the use of the humanities.I like reading history a lot and teaching history is one way to pay the bills while still indulging my interests. That said, historical knowledge cannot be easily monetized. Therefore it goes against the current in contemporary American life which

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-12506313678511032612008-01-22T13:44:00.000-06:002008-01-22T13:46:09.360-06:00

Whoops, I didn't post again in 2007. Sorry about that. Life got busy. I bought a house, a parent got sick, complications ensued. I'll try to be better this year. Cheers for now.

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-39510088020436580772007-08-28T16:59:00.001-05:002007-08-28T17:22:43.199-05:00

I just finished preparing a textbook analysis project for my historical methods students. I am asking them to read up on a specific topic in western civ (like say the Renaissance, the Reformation, World War One, or some other lark) and see how coverage of that subject has changed over the decades. As a result I had to round up a swath of textbooks published since the 1930s until the present.

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-81992575487942246212007-08-13T10:55:00.000-05:002007-08-28T17:24:25.222-05:00

... well, ok, so your father probably didn't drink rosé anyhow. But the reputation of the pinkish sort of wine in America is generally bad. For the beer quaffing Midwestern male the blush wine is an effeminate drink and for women its a little too "pinkies up." For the highbrow country club types the rosé is for children and "middle brow" drinkers who pretend to sophistication, but cant handle

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3001817306051443373.post-63713423783714347882007-08-08T14:57:00.000-05:002007-08-08T15:17:07.888-05:00

Well, this is a chance to test the water on writing a blog. I have been meaning to try it out for a while, but now I have some time to fool around with it this summer. I also really need to do some more informal writing, since academic publishing requirements are cramping my style. I plan on writing about three things:History & BooksFood and CookingGeneral commentaryThere might be a bit about

Matt Lhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136331581631099471noreply@blogger.com0