PBS is currently airing the six-part drama Wolf Hall, originally created for BBC2. It’s set during the reign of the Tudor king Henry VIII, a popular topic of British historical dramas, but with a unique focus. Rather than focusing on Henry himself, the focus is on Thomas Cromwell, a middle-classContinue Reading
There’s talk of late of where transgender people should go to the bathroom. If you’re physically male, but you consider yourself female, do you use the men’s room or the ladies’ room? What if you have gender reassignment surgery, so you’re physically a different gender than you were at birth?Continue Reading
Every semester a student asks me this question: how long did people live in ancient times? Was it really only 35 years? General life expectancy across the world for most of history was, indeed 35. However, “life expectancy” is a terribly imprecise term, giving the impression that any particular personContinue Reading
The topic of the European Witch-Craze, stretching roughly between the late 15th century and the mid-17th century, is a complex topic. It’s very easy to simply disregard it as barbaric and superstitious, and, indeed, academia did exactly that until the 1960s. That doesn’t mean you can’t find material about witchContinue Reading
Last week I was facing a variety of headlines addressing new finds concerning the Black Death. In USA News, for example, the headline is London Skeletons Reveal Secrets of the Black Death, which nicely introduces the associated story. (As a note, the article is incorrect saying the Black Death killedContinue Reading
I am not a fashion-nazi. I am not going to complain because the hem is a bit off or you’re not using the right buttons. I’m not going to quibble over whether that dress is from the 1550s or the 1560s. Nor am I expecting a CW show to haveContinue Reading
When the CW announced it was going to do a historical drama in the form of Reign, I knew it was going to be bad. Maybe not Noah bad, but bad. First hint? While the show is clearly about a royal character, the advertisements never said which royal character…as ifContinue Reading
DangerousMinds.net has provided this little gem: a college student has transcribed the musical notes painted on the butt of one of the characters in Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights, which is arguably the most bat-shit crazy painting of the Renaissance. So…is this best played on an ass trumpet?Continue Reading
One of the reasons this blog has only a loose theme is because of the diversity of my interests. I once tried a more focused blog. However, I quickly found other things I wanted to share, but I felt I’m spamming readers who came to the blog looking for aContinue Reading
I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do with this blog when I started it. Honestly, my first thought was steampunk. I’m sure I will eventually get around to it, but it clearly hasn’t been my focus. I am a medievalist. I am greatly enjoying writing about thatContinue Reading