Found History

I said in the introductory post to this series that it’s difficult for a blog like this one to draw any firm conclusions. I stand by that statement, but patterns do emerge. Over the past week or so of scouring the web for “best ever” and “top N” lists, I have started to see two [...]

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InsideEdge, a British sports betting website, has published a list of the “top 25 most outrageous gambles of all time.” Most of these big bets come from the world of sports (especially cricket and soccer), but Nick Lesson’s disastrous turn at Baring Brothers also makes the list, as does Michael Jackson’s move from Motown to [...]

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Video sharing sites like YouTube, Google Video, and Metacafe are full of homemade sports highlight films. Many of these are “best ever” films, with soccer seeming particularly popular for this kind of analysis. The “Best Soccer Moments” and “Top Ten Goals” videos embedded below are just two of many, many examples.

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I can’t tell who’s in charge of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, but he or she is definitely dedicated. Since late October, a blogger named “Xadai” has been counting down his or her favorite music videos, beginning with one of my personal favorites, #500, Boston’s “More Than A Feeling.” Each song gets its [...]

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When I first came across 2Spare.com’s Top 10 Dumbest Personal Names Ever, I assumed it wouldn’t qualify as found history. There are, after all, lots of Top 10 lists that have nothing to do with history (e.g. Top 10 Fonts Used by Churches or Top 10 People Most Affected by Election 2006). But when I [...]

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Variety has called it: VHS is dead at 30.

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Another quick one for the weekend: Game Set Watch—an “alt.video game weblog”—gives us the Top 10 Silliest Computer Mag Covers in History. Note that this isn’t a casual effort. It is the product of a long term commitment to collecting and cultural history. “Game Mag Weaseling” columnist Kevin Gifford combed though his personal collection of [...]

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I don’t want to fall down on my first day on the job, but I’m also finding it hard to tear myself away from today’s big games. So with one eye on Michigan-OSU, I’ll quickly mention JoBlo’s Ten Spot, a collection of more than 40 movie top ten lists. Highlights include Top Ten Beach Moments, [...]

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I have never intended Found History as a place for serious or systematic research into popular historymaking, so it’s hard to talk about “findings,” “results” or “conclusions.” But over the course of nearly a year of anecdotal stumbling, some definite trends have emerged. One is the general public’s tendency to conceptualize history in terms of [...]

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Check out Drivl’s “Daily Dose of Awesome” for the “Top 20 Hackers in Film History”—complete with quotes to support its findings.

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