Long, long ago, in an America far, far away, I got my first job: working in a bookstore in a new shopping mall. Mainly we had shelves, miles and miles of shelves, along the walls and across the aisles, but we also had a couple of rotating racks, and one of those was devoted to a series of books: Ballantine’s Illustrated History of the Violent Century.

Alan Jacobs is a professor of humanities in the Honors Program at Baylor University, and a senior fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. His most recent book is ‘Paradise Lost: A Biography (Lives of Great Religious Books).’

","freeContentEncoded","textContent","published","strategy","curl-ready","locked","deletedAt","isSyncedFromOwnBlog","original","duplicatesCount","duplicateVersion","originalArticleId","errorsCount","appearance","color","backgroundColor","shortSummary","Flashback to a bookstore job in a new mall, where shelves were stocked with Ballantine's Illustrated History of the Violent Century.","summary","The author recalls their first job working in a bookstore located in a new shopping mall. The store primarily featured extensive shelving along the walls and aisles. A rotating rack was dedicated to Ballantine's Illustrated History of the Violent Century book series.","bullets",[282,283,284],"The author's first job was in a bookstore in a new shopping mall.","The bookstore had extensive shelves along the walls and aisles.","One rotating rack was dedicated to Ballantine's Illustrated History of the Violent Century series.","persons",[287],"Alan Jacobs","places",[290,291],"Baylor University","University of Virginia","words",107,"sentiment","subject","history","meta",{"_299":300,"_301":302,"_336":311},"type","bee:get-index-of-articles","schedule",{"_27":303,"_51":-5,"_304":305,"_80":-5,"_306":307,"_308":309,"_310":311,"_312":86,"_83":84,"_295":39,"_313":-5,"_314":-5,"_315":-5,"_316":84,"_263":264,"_317":318,"_53":318,"_319":320,"_321":86,"_322":323,"_55":324,"_325":-5,"_326":84,"_82":121,"_327":328,"_329":-5,"_330":331,"_332":-5,"_333":309,"_334":-5,"_335":-5},"c32a8ed6-d5e3-4f42-9d28-4fec19f02a32","npub","npub1fpeutvxxvhz7jwz9d36tq98g7cv2uddszzaz82dluzy8r0awv0kqn94fz3","jobId","b12626d9-3541-49de-a3cd-30119132c317","order",1,"rssUrl","https://thedispatch.com/","system","userRef","xHandle","xUserId","autosign","syncedAt","2025-12-15T19:39:28.724Z","frequency","daily","isOwnBlog","nextRunAt","2026-08-27T06:36:24.279Z","2026-08-26T06:36:24.810Z","xUserName","autopublish","sourceVariant","rss","systemVariant","scheduleVariant","scraping-bee-classic-proxy","retryArticlesIds","frequencyMultiplier","xUserProfilePicture","ownershipConfirmedAt","dataSourceUrl","eventId","98238c41507155454e293334b54123fbbc2743feea1dab49a22742d15ce8853b","nostrRootEvent","event",{"_27":338,"_342":343,"_137":309,"_80":344,"_355":354,"_256":356,"_357":358},"sig","b5e0369de06904cd75ac6f38cbd08931bac33f4e9f25c35cbe7dda4fdb668adc6baba2cc4bc1ae9cde0db23cde46938a63ae5403a834eb28d6fceb9aa552976d",[345,346,347,351,353],[295,242],[44,249],[348,349,39,350],"a","30023:4873c5b0c665c5e938456c74b014e8f618ae35b010ba23a9bfe08871bfae63ec:e2c2fabc-cf04-424b-a85d-401ec5ceed8d","mention",[352,39],"client",[140,354,39],"4873c5b0c665c5e938456c74b014e8f618ae35b010ba23a9bfe08871bfae63ec","pubkey","The Future of World War II\nTurn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening.\n\n\nnostr:naddr1qvzqqqr4gupzqjrnckcvvew9ayuy2mr5kq2w3asc4c6mqy96yw5mlcygwxl6uclvqqjx2vnrxfnxzcnr943kvvp5956rydrz94snsdty956rqvt9vv6kxet9vsuxgwqll5d ","created_at",1787812644,"authorNPub","markdown","Long, long ago, in an America far, far away, I got my first job: working in a bookstore in a new shopping mall. Mainly we had shelves, miles and miles of shelves, along the walls and across the aisles, but we also had a couple of rotating racks, and one of those was devoted to a series of books: [Ballantine’s Illustrated History of the Violent Century](https://www.nobleknight.com/Products/Illustrated-History-of-the-Violent-Century-Ballantine-Books?srsltid=AfmBOopMjG_wtv8HNhHMAfMfywy_kA3HoioCix7cDI_2aiAkQ61FcqCn).\n\nAlan Jacobs is a professor of humanities in the Honors Program at Baylor University, and a senior fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. His most recent book is ‘Paradise Lost: A Biography (Lives of Great Religious Books).’","freeMarkdown","kind1EventId","kind30023EventId","b8e6a6aff9d68b0cef2c5c3709bfc98d8c82b642112878dd3c4eaa8430147565","kind30023",{"_27":365,"_342":368,"_137":369,"_80":370,"_355":354,"_256":384,"_357":385},"d2c519ad334733480ab2fb8286f3d62a8761a9e5e5643e12889bf0f08ef2c67e8d980a8416741ef7a9d1bcbb7810611363463c2868b6599ab7bf910d5dd5a10f",30023,[371,374,375,378,379,381,382,383],[372,373],"r","https://news.layer3.press/articles/e2c2fabc-cf04-424b-a85d-401ec5ceed8d",[40,242],[376,377],"published_at","1787807100",[44,249],[380,237],"d",[278,243],[352,39],[140,354,39],"The author recalls their first job working in a bookstore located in a new shopping mall. The store primarily featured extensive shelving along the walls and aisles. A rotating rack was dedicated to Ballantine's Illustrated History of the Violent Century book series.\n - The author's first job was in a bookstore in a new shopping mall.\n - The bookstore had extensive shelves along the walls and aisles.\n - One rotating rack was dedicated to Ballantine's Illustrated History of the Violent Century series.\n",1787807100,"publishedToNostr","htmlContentKind30023","

","pubDate","2026-08-27T05:05:00.000Z","modifiedAt","2026-08-27T06:37:24.385Z","2026-08-27T06:41:05.677Z","storyId","likes","zaps","reposts","comments","tweets",[],"relatedArticles",[],"actionData","errors"]