Popular history

Popular history is a broad and somewhat ill-defined genre of historiography that takes a popular approach, aims at a wide readership, and usually emphasizes narrative, personality and vivid detail over scholarly analysis. The term is used in contradistinction to professional academic or scholarly history writing which is usually more specialized and technical and, thus, less accessible to the general reader.

Some popular historians are without academic affiliation while others are academics, or former academics, that have (according to one writer) “become somehow abstracted from the academic arena, becoming cultural commentators”. Many worked as journalists, perhaps after taking an initial degree in history.

Popular historians may become nationally renowned or best-selling authors and may or may not serve the interests of particular political viewpoints in their roles as “public historians”. Many authors of “official histories” and “authorized biographies” would qualify as popular historians serving the interests of particular institutions or public figures.

Audiobook

An audiobook (or talking book) is a recording of a text being read. A reading of the complete text is noted as "unabridged", while readings of a reduced version, or abridgement of the text are labeled as "abridged".

Spoken audio has been available in schools and public libraries and to a lesser extent in music shops since the 1930s. Many spoken word albums were made prior to the age of videocassettes, DVDs, compact discs, and downloadable audio, however often of poetry and plays rather than books. It was not until the 1980s that the medium began to attract book retailers, and then book retailers started displaying audiobooks on bookshelves rather than in separate displays.

Etymology

The term "talking book" came into being in the 1930s with government programs designed for blind readers, while the term "audiobook" came into use during the 1970s when audiocassettes began to replace records. In 1994, the Audio Publishers Association established the term "audiobook" as the industry standard.

Thomas D

Thomas D. (born Thomas Dürr, 30 December 1968 in Ditzingen, near Stuttgart, Germany) is a rapper in the German hip hop group Die Fantastischen Vier. He frequently works on solo projects.

Life

After finishing Realschule he took on an apprenticeship as a barber. Because he frequently worked as a caretaker (German: Hausmeister), he gave himself the stage name "Hausmeister Thomas D."

He has been vegan for several years and supports the animal welfare organization PETA. In 2003, he was criticised for his approval of their exhibition Holocaust on Your Plate, which compared keeping animals in mass stocks to the crimes of the Holocaust.

He sees himself as a member of the Lohas ("Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability") movement and is fond of green ecologial initiatives. On stage he often wears T-Shirts from Fairtrade Label armedangels, all of his Merchandise items are fair traded as well.

Thomas D. is married, has one daughter and one son.

Work

Thomas D. is a member of Die Fantastischen Vier, but was also successful with his solo albums Solo (1997), Lektionen in Demut (2001), and Kennzeichen D (2008). Singles released from these albums include Rückenwind, Frisör, Liebesbrief, and Solo (featuring Nina Hagen). Outside Germany, he is probably best known for "Wish (Komm zu mir)" which he performed with Franka Potente on the soundtrack of the movie Run Lola Run.

Thomas D'Arcy

Thomas D'Arcy (born 1979), is a Canadian singer and songwriter born in Guernsey, Channel Islands. He has been a member of indie rock bands The Carnations, All Systems Go!, Small Sins, Another Blue Door, The I-Spies and Major Maker, among others.

Career

D'Arcy's family immigrated to Toronto, Ontario in 1981. He is the Nephew of film director Carol Reed, Godson and cousin of actor Oliver Reed. When he was 15 years old he learned to play the bass guitar. In 1995, he formed a band called Pseudonym with three other high school friends, which would later transform into The Carnations, of which D'Arcy was the lead singer and principal songwriter. They played in nightclubs they were not yet old enough to get into (due to the legal drinking age in Ontario being 19) and turned their love of bands like Weezer, Supergrass, Buzzcocks and Television into a power pop sound all their own.

In 2000, John Kastner (ex-Doughboys) saw The Carnations play a show at Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern, and later invited D'arcy to join his new band, All Systems Go!, which he accepted. He also continued to play in The Carnations, as well as a band called Another Blue Door.

Thomas D'Arcy McGee

Thomas D'Arcy Etienne Hughes McGee, (13 April 1825 – 7 April 1868) was a Canadian politician, Catholic spokesman, journalist, and a Father of Canadian Confederation. The young McGee was a Catholic Irishman who hated the British oppression of Ireland, and work for a peasant revolution to overthrow British rule and secure Irish independence. He escaped arrest and fled to the United States in 1848, where he reversed his political beliefs. He became disgusted with American republicanism and democracy, and became intensely conservative in his politics and in his religious support for the Pope. He moved to Canada in 1857 and worked hard to convince the Irish Catholics to cooperate with the Protestant British in forming a Confederation that would make for a strong Canada in close alliance with Britain. He fought the Fenians in Canada, who were Irish Catholics who hated the British and resembled his younger self politically. McGee succeeded in helping create the Canadian Confederation in 1867, but was assassinated by Fenian Elements in 1868.