Decentralized finance is here. Let’s use it to support history.
TL;DR — I’ve launched $JASON coin on the Rally network. It’s a real cryptocurrency, which means it can be exchanged for other currencies like Bitcoin or US Dollars. The currency will be used to support public historians and history communicators doing public-facing history work. Buy and hold $JASON coin and you’ll help build a new economy for public history. You’ll also get special perks. Welcome to $JASON coin.
Two things are happening simultaneously:
(1) Public history is struggling financially, and
(2) Decentralized finance is booming.
The pandemic has devastated public history. By public history I…
The answer is, ‘Yes.’ At least, partially.
I joined Clubhouse in August 2020 when the app had only several thousand users. Within a few days, I was struck by the appetite for historical knowledge in the conversations I joined. So, I began the first history-focused conversation series on the platform and called it the History Club. Six months later the History Club has more than 30,000 followers and I’m followed by more than 29,000 people. We hold weekly conversations with users from around the world on topics such as the Trump Presidency; misinformation and disinformation; the past, present and futures…
My grandmother never wanted to talk about the Holocaust. After her death, we vowed to do just that.
My grandmother once told her neighbor the following story: She was on a train during the war, and a woman was seated across from her. After staring her down for a few minutes, the woman said, “I know you! You’re a Jew. When the Germans come, I’m going to tell them you are Jewish.” My grandmother arose from her seat, walked the length of the train, and found German soldiers checking IDs. “There’s a Jewish girl in my car,” she told them…
In hindsight: Some critics have insisted that a veterans’ oral history project gives veterans free reign to misrepresent their military service. But these arguments fail to grasp the essence of oral history.
In June 2013, President Barack Obama signed into law the Stolen Valor Act of 2013.
The law came after years of lobbying and activism to deter individuals from falsely claiming military service or receipt of military honors. Introduced into the 113th Congress by Representative Joe Heck (R-NV), the legislation received bipartisan support from more than 120 Members of Congress. …
In hindsight: We need media literacy as we consume and create media by the terabyte. But we also need historical literacy. And the two are increasingly intertwined.
On the morning of Sept. 1, 2017, a Twitter user tweeted that tearing down Confederate monuments dishonors blacks who fought for the South. Accompanying the tweet was a photograph alleged to show Black Confederate soldiers of the 1st Louisiana Native Guard, 1861.
The image was used as evidence that since blacks fought for the Confederacy, 1) African Americans supported the South 2) slavery must not have been so bad, if blacks were loyal…
Jason Steinhauer
Writing a book about history on the Internet. Host of the History Club on Clubhouse.
