This really puts things into perspective. History is BIG, and I think the wider perspective is really important in understanding it. It’s also one of the reasons I am not big on modern history. We don’t have enough perspective on it. We can’t fully judge the context because the contextContinue Reading
I’ve got three articles in draft form at the moment because once I start on a subject I tend to get distracted with associated subjects. It’s a danger of writing about something you like for an audience generally less familiar with it. So, today I have something simple: Gunpowder isContinue Reading
A handy pictorial guide to our very ancient ancestors: Wait but Why: The Truth About Evolution.
I so wish I had this when I was teaching modern western civ this semester. That course covers roughly the 16th through 20th centuries. It’s only half the time frame of the map, but my other class starts at the beginning of time and runs up to the 16th century. Continue Reading
These Astronomical Clocks Were a Wonder of the Medieval World. I have a wee bit of an issue with an article that talks about these devices being around for over 1000 years and then not giving an example older than the 14th century, but the pictures are nevertheless marvelous andContinue Reading
Marginalia is any content existing within the margins of a book. In more modern books, marginalia is generally the notes an owner has scribbled to himself. Books with the marginalia of famous thinkers can become quite valuable. In the Middle Ages, however, marginalia was an art form. It was plannedContinue Reading
Friday the 13th has always had special meaning to me as I happened to be born on one. My mother said that Friday the 13th was good luck for her, not just because she got her first child that day, but because she was damn tired of carrying a fetusContinue Reading
This should have been a “Today in History” post, but I am a day late. On December 8, 1941, the United States declared war on Japan in retaliation for the attack on Pearl Harbor. The resolution passed unanimously in the Senate, but a single representative refused to approve it. Rep.Continue Reading
Apparently the reason us redheads aren’t known as orangeheads is because the word orange as a color hadn’t yet been invented. I found this factoid out here: Why Do We Call People With Orange Hair Redheads? | Geekosystem, and the Online Etymology Dictionary backs it up. Either term, however, isContinue Reading
Egyptian history is divided into three main periods, the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms. Everyone knows about the Old Kingdom. That’s the time of the Great Sphinx and the pyramids, with the most known pyramids being some of the earliest. If you’ve heard of specific pharaohs (famous for something otherContinue Reading