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October 16, 2019
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Aaron Sachs

Aaron Sachs teaches at Cornell University. He is the author, most recently, of Arcadian America: The Death and Life of an Environmental Tradition, which combines historical scholarship with memoir.

The Hidden Music of Words

The Hidden Music of Words

Academics shouldn’t scoff at literary prose—they have much to learn from it

by Aaron Sachs | Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Wallace Stegner’s <em>Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs</em> placeholder image

Wallace Stegner’s Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs

A calming influence

by Aaron Sachs | Monday, July 20, 2015
The Bookroom placeholder image

The Bookroom

by Aaron Sachs | Monday, February 23, 2015
Smarty Pants Podcast

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THIS WEEK’S ARCHIVE PICK

2nd Look

What Does Columbus Day Really Mean?

by William J. Connell

Whether you celebrate Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Discoverers’ Day, or Native Americans’ Day, historian William J. Connell observes that, in the end, this controversial civic holiday is just that: a holiday. In his essay “What Columbus Day Really Means,” Connell writes that President Benjamin Harrison created the holiday in 1892 to honor both Native Americans and the many immigrants who were only then arriving in the country. “It was to be a national holiday that was not about the Founding Fathers or the Civil War, but about the rest of American history,” Connell writes—a day for celebrating the country and all its people. Sounds to us like a pretty good reason to take the day off of work.