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Nov 22, 2024 | 
wsj.com | Andrew Graybill
There are some individuals whose place in history is so noteworthy that, at the mere mention of a name, a corresponding tagline pops into the brain or tumbles from the mouth.
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Oct 1, 2024 | 
texasmonthly.com | Andrew Graybill |Jeff Salamon
Spend enough time in our state capital—say, an afternoon—and you’re almost certain to hear a version of “the Austin jeremiad.” It’s a parable of declension, with the narrator wailing that the Austin of today isn’t nearly as appealing as the city of yesteryear.
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Aug 2, 2024 | 
wsj.com | Andrew Graybill
My son is 16, and thus I am used to shouts—alas, often profane—coming from his bedroom, which usually means that something has gone awry in a videogame.
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Jul 24, 2024 | 
wsj.com | Andrew Graybill
During the winter of 1786-87 in a camp near present-day Calgary, Alberta, an elderly Indian warrior described to a British fur trader how his people, the Blackfeet, had initially encountered the horse five decades before. As the old man explained, the Blackfeet had become alarmed when they first heard rumors about the animal, “for we had no idea of horses and could not make out what they were” until they discovered the corpse of a fallen steed that had belonged to an enemy tribe.
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Jul 24, 2024 | 
texasmonthly.com | Andrew Graybill |Jeff Salamon
As a high school student in the mid-1980s, I became fascinated with the Vietnam War. Perhaps this was because at the time I was not much younger than many of the troops had been when they were drafted. Or maybe I was beguiled by movies like Apocalypse Now, the Deer Hunter, Full Metal Jacket, and Platoon, which had kept the war roiling in the public consciousness. I read books by Michael Herr, Tim O’Brien, and Neil Sheehan, and even had a map of Southeast Asia taped to my closet door.
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May 15, 2024 | 
nytimes.com | Andrew Graybill
OUR KINDRED CREATURES: How Americans Came to Feel the Way They Do About Animals, by Bill Wasik and Monica MurphyIn 2007, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals moistened eyes with TV ads featuring the singer Sarah McLachlan. As her song "Angel" played in the background, viewers were confronted with a parade of despair: images of neglected and abused cats and dogs, some of them grievously injured. "Will you be an angel for a helpless animal?" McLachlan pleaded.
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May 12, 2024 | 
newbooksnetwork.com | Andrew Graybill
Cecily N. Zander’s The Army under Fire: The Politics of Antimilitarism in the Civil War Era (LSU Press, 2024) is a pathbreaking study focusing on the fierce political debates over the size and use of military forces in the United States during the mid-nineteenth century.
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Apr 12, 2024 | 
wsj.com | Andrew Graybill
In March 1779, as the American colonies were locked in their bitter struggle for independence from England, Benjamin Franklin—then in Paris to recruit France to the rebels’ cause—issued an unusual directive to the captains of American sailing vessels.
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Mar 13, 2024 | 
esmagazine.com | Andrew Graybill
Sustainability and decarbonization are top priorities for companies. When it comes to new construction and retrofitting existing buildings, the use of systems and components that reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is crucial in meeting these widespread goals. To maximize effectiveness, however, the focus must be on both increasing energy efficiency and minimizing the embodied carbon footprint.
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Nov 17, 2023 | 
wsj.com | Andrew Graybill
I had never seen a buffalo until I moved to Lincoln, Neb., in my early 30s. But my first visit to the Pioneers Park Nature Center, southwest of downtown, hooked me on the shaggy creatures. I remember looking with awe upon the park’s small herd, as if beholding living relics of a distant past. They were not only majestic but also deeply affecting, with their dark, liquid eyes.
