Engaging History

My daughter is reading David Halberstam's "The Fifties" for a U.S. History class.

Your children in their pursuit of knowledge and excellence sometimes make outstanding choices that stun and  impress you.

Halberstam was an American genius; he was to the Liberal Arts as was Walton to basketball, a subject Halberstam wrote about in "The Breaks of the Game."

I warned my girl that DH also wrote sports tomes of deep meaning; I hope she understands old Pops' fascination with the cultural significance of sports, not only for himself but for this country and the world.

Even I, as a youth, admired Pele, for example.

Yet soccer bores me to death!

I kid, it's a great game of skill.  "The Beautiful Game."  If he were alive today, maybe Halberstam would have taken on the corruption that has roiled the game's governing body, FIFA, in recent years.

Here is Halberstam's final magazine piece before his death in an auto accident--a sad day that seems like yesterday--on his way to a Stanford lecture in 2007, age 73.


TS