In ‘My Documents,' passive Americans accept their dystopian reality
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Wall Street Journal
8 hours ago
- Wall Street Journal
‘Threads of Empire' and ‘Carpet Diem': The Weave of History
A famous photograph captures Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin during the 1945 Yalta Conference. They look cold in their greatcoats, and Stalin alone wears military dress. A handful of luxurious carpets warm the ground and provide an air of Black Sea luxury suitable to the occasion. The largest rug, figured with floral motifs, projects opulence and taste. For the textile scholar Dorothy Armstrong, its designs reveal something deeper. The rug, she observes, lacks the patterns of traditional carpet making from Tatar artisans who would have been native to the Crimean Peninsula where the resort was located. 'In the summer of 1944,' she reminds us, 'Stalin had purged the Crimea of its Tatars.' The rug used was an import from elsewhere. 'The world beneath our feet tends to be less observed than the world at eye level,' writes Ms. Armstrong. 'Once we begin to look, we can see carpets in every environment which celebrates power.' In 'Threads of Empire,' she takes readers on a beguiling tour of the past, one in which carpets become talismans of culture, aspiration, deceit and imperialism. The book displays deep learning, endless curiosity—and a conviction that seemingly mute objects can be anything but. 'Even when they are appropriated as props by the great and powerful,' she writes, 'carpets find ways to tell their individual stories, which sometimes subvert and always complicate received histories.' Take the carpet known as the Ardabil, widely regarded as the finest example of the Persian carpet-making tradition and today housed in London's Victoria and Albert Museum. At 33 feet by 17 feet it is a gigantic specimen of hand-woven artistry. The nearly 500-year-old Ardabil, Ms. Armstrong writes, embodies 'a refined Persia of intellectual clarity and unmatched visual inventivenes.' Yet the carpet's uniqueness and outstanding state of preservation both waver upon inspection. The Ardabil was originally one of a matched pair, but the other carpet had at some point been mutilated to restore the ruined edges of its sibling. (The damaged version, still a treasure, found its way to the collection of the oil magnate J. Paul Getty.) A theme running through 'Threads of Empire' is the difficulty of dating rugs and ascertaining where they were made. The Ardabil bears an inscription and year on one edge, as well as a notation of the court that the weaver served. 'To have this amount of information woven into a carpet is vanishingly rare,' Ms. Armstrong writes. Carbon dating is expensive and cannot determine geography; chemical analysis of dyes has its own limitations. Instead, carpet experts usually place textiles through visual inspection, examining a rug's patterns and motifs, as well as its knotting and weave.
New York Times
13 hours ago
- New York Times
Two Children's Literature Giants on World War II Rites of Passage
If you think there's nothing new to say about World War II, these two works by children's literature giants — and immigrants to America — will prove you wrong. The Caldecott medalist Uri Shulevitz's final book, following his death at age 89 in February, is a riveting companion to his award-winning memoir 'Chance: Escape From the Holocaust' (2020), and a story that stands on its own. 'When I was little,' begins THE SKY WAS MY BLANKET: A Young Man's Journey Across Wartime Europe (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 160 pp., $19.99, ages 10 and up), 'I couldn't fall asleep unless I had a piece of bread under my pillow. Why? you may ask. Because I was born in 1915.' Yehiel Szulewicz, the youngest of four boys growing up in a time of hunger in a devoutly religious Jewish home in Żyrardów, Poland, chafes at his father's strictness. 'When you've got nothing,' he thinks, 'use what you've got.' Wit and deception get him free entry to the local cinema and even a trip to Warsaw. But he longs to see more of the world — and so, at age 15, he leaves home, not realizing he will never see his parents again. Yehiel shaves his sidelocks but still embraces his Jewish identity. As he crosses Europe by foot and train, he finds food, work and mentors in Jewish communities in Czechoslovakia, Vienna and Italy. When the Nazis gain power, he moves to Paris, then Spain, where he joins a Polish brigade fighting Franco's fascism. From there he ends up imprisoned in a work camp in France. World War II has begun. Yehiel escapes and joins a Jewish branch of the French Resistance. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
UPI
15 hours ago
- UPI
Famous birthdays for Aug. 15: Princess Anne, Tess Harper
1 of 3 | Princess Anne attends the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews on July 13, 2022. The British royal turns 75 on August 15. File Photo by Hugo Philpott/UPI | License Photo Aug. 15 (UPI) -- Those born on this date are under the sign of Leo. They include: -- French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte in 1769 -- U.S. first lady Florence Harding in 1860 -- Musician Samuel Coleridge-Taylor in 1875 -- Actor Ethel Barrymore in 1879 -- Chef Julia Child in 1912 File Photo by Bill Hormell/UPI -- Conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly in 1924 -- Actor Mike Connors in 1925 -- Actor Jim Dale in 1935 (age 90) -- Civil rights leader Vernon Jordan Jr. in 1935 -- Actor Pat Priest in 1936 (age 89) -- Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer in 1938 (age 87) -- Journalist Linda Ellerbee in 1944 (age 81) File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI -- Football Hall of Fame member Gene Upshaw in 1945 -- Musician Jimmy Webb in 1946 (age 79) -- Musician Tom Johnston (Doobie Brothers) in 1948 (age 77) -- Actor Phyllis Smith in 1949 (age 76) -- Actor Tess Harper in 1950 (age 75) File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI -- Britain's Princess Anne in 1950 (age 75) -- Writer Stieg Larsson in 1954 -- Actor Željko Ivanek in 1957 (age 68) -- Vietnamese President Lương Cường in 1957 (age 68) -- Musician Tim Farriss (INXS) in 1957 (age 68) -- Actor Rondell Sheridan in 1958 (age 67) -- Musician Matt Johnson (The The/Marc and the Mambas) in 1961 (age 64) -- Chef Tom Colicchio in 1962 (age 63) File Photo by Christine Chew/UPI -- Actor David Zayas in 1962 (age 63) -- Philanthropist Melinda French Gates in 1964 (age 61) -- Actor Debra Messing in 1968 (age 57) -- Actor Anthony Anderson in 1970 (age 55) -- Actor Ben Affleck in 1972 (age 53) -- Actor Natasha Henstridge in 1974 (age 51) -- Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in 1976 (age 49) -- International Volleyball Hall of Fame member Kerri Walsh Jennings in 1978 (age 47) File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI -- Musician Tim Foreman (Switchfoot) in 1978 (age 47) -- Actor Emily Kinney in 1985 (age 40) -- Musician Nipsey Hussle in 1985 -- Actor/musician Carlos PenaVega in 1989 (age 36) -- Musician Joe Jonas (Jonas Brothers) in 1989 (age 36) -- Actor Jennifer Lawrence in 1990 (age 35) File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI
