My Uncle Tony recalled that his grandmother, Lucy Burr Wadhams, thought of her husband [Abram Barker] as a “Johnny-come-lately” without the deep historical connection to America (and Goshen specifically) of her lineage. My Uncle Tony mused that the family name was associated with a carnival barker, yet it seems more likely that the surname derived fromContinue reading “The Barker Surname”
Tag Archives: history
Rewind the Clock
Arnold Toynbee’s A Study of History is a 12-volume monster. I have read only the two-volume abridgement (many years past), which preserves Toynbee’s central thesis that there is a pattern to history. Civilizations rise and fall primarily in response to specific challenges; whatever those challenges are will be defining, and they must also be of the right pressure.Continue reading “Rewind the Clock”
Protective Arts 