What the Barista is Brewing Today
Grab some espresso and dive in for some brewmination
A Cold Day in Hell: Life in Norilsk, Russia
The world’s northernmost city, above the Arctic Circle. Originally published by ESRI, republished with embed permission for educational, non-commercial purposes.
Walt Whitman in Russia: Three Love Affairs
Walt Whitman’s influence on the creative output of 20th-century Russia — particularly in the years surrounding the 1917 Revolution — was enormous. For the 200th anniversary of Whitman’s birth, Nina Murray looks at the translators through which Russians experienced his work, not only in a literary sense — through the efforts of Konstantin Balmont and[…]
A History of Relations between the Two Koreas
Uneasy Asian neighbors share a history of tension and conflict. Originally published by ESRI, republished with permission for ecuational, non-commercial purposes.
The Late Medieval Japanese Invasion of Korea, 1592-1598
The conflict would not only have devastating consequences for all concerned but permanently sour relations between Japan and Korea. Introduction The two Japanese invasions of Korea between 1592 and 1598 CE, otherwise known as the ‘Imjin Wars’, saw Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598 CE), the Japanese military leader, put into reality his long-held plan to invade China[…]
The Fall of the Byzantine Empire and Rise of the Renaissance
The Byzantine Empire, is one of the most tragically understudied topics in modern American historical curriculum. By Gabriel Johnson Introduction Not only did Byzantium achieve greater feats of art and science than Rome, they safeguarded (and advanced) for nearly 1,500 years the ancient knowledge of the Greeks and Romans. Combined with exposure to Islamic and[…]
Ancient Portrait Bust from Palmyra Joins the Collection of the Getty Villa
Once adorned with gold and paint, this ornate limestone bust depicts a prosperous resident of the ancient city. Introduction Hadirat Katthina has come to the Getty Villa. The J. Paul Getty Museum recently acquired the portrait of a woman who lived—and died—in the fabled ancient Syrian caravan city of Palmyra around the years 200 to[…]
Legacies of Labor
Lebanese factory workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1890-1950. Originally published by North Carolina State University, August 2018, republished with embed permission for educational, non-commercial purposes.
Moldy Church Records in Latin America Document the Lives of Millions of Slaves
Now, intrepid scholars are saving those parish baptismal records from war, neglect, and rot. By Paula Wasley On Sunday, March 2, 1721, in the San Carlos Cathedral of the Cuban city of Matanzas, Father Francisco Gonsales del Alamo laid hands on a black slave named Francisco, to mark his entry into the Catholic Church. Though[…]
74-Year Cycles of American History
America has had four major crisis turning points, each 74 years apart, from the time of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 to today. A century ago, historian Arthur Schlesinger, Sr. argued that history occurs in cycles. His son, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., furthered this theory in his own scholarship. As I reflect on Schlesinger’s work and the history of the[…]
New Brunswick Loyalist Journeys
The departure of those who aligned themselves with Great Britain rather than the revolutionary cause. Originally published by University of New Brunswick Libraries, republished with embed permission for educational, non-commercial purposes.
Traveling Artists in 19th-Century Latin America: Visions and Views
Visual registers of Latin America acquired new characteristics at the dawning of the 19th century. Introduction Alongside the pointedly secular practice of the scientific Enlightenment, naturalistic in character, there emerged an artistic current that produced images with a strong subjective quality. This American iconography of the 19th century was the work of traveling artists. In[…]
Mestre Valentim and the Passeio Publico Architecture in Rio de Janeiro
The Passeio Publico represented several groundbreaking achievements. Introduction In the middle of the eighteenth century a series of epidemics ravaged the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The illness was attributed to the unsanitary air caused by human and animal waste in Lake Boqueirão. The viceroy Luis de Vasconcelos e Sousa ordered the lake to be filled[…]
Fighting talk: First World War Telecommunications
As a result of the need to exchange information faster and more efficiently, telecommunications advanced rapidly. As the First World War raged, governments harnessed modern technologies to give them an advantage in conflict. New inventions – from tanks to Zeppelins – appeared on the battlefield, while existing technologies were adapted to fit the needs of the British[…]
Morse Code Marks 175 Years and Counting
Morse code works whether flashing a spotlight or blinking your eyes – or even tapping on a smartphone touchscreen. The first message sent by Morse code’s dots and dashes across a long distance traveled from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore on Friday, May 24, 1844 – 175 years ago. It signaled the first time in human[…]
The One-Armed Geologist Whose Daring Colorado River Descent Made the Grand Canyon Famous
John Wesley Powell’s expedition opened the West. He then devoted his life to protecting it. In May 1869, ten men climbed into four small, wooden rowboats to attempt what no one had dared before: descend the Colorado River through the unknown, frightening confines of the Grand Canyon. The leading explorer of the day, John C.[…]
Icescapes: A History of Exploring and Printing the Arctic
Arctic ice has long proved a stern adversary to explorers. Exploring the representation of this fearful foe by explorers across the centuries. As Francis Spufford’s 2003 book I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination argues, ice has a powerful hold on the English imagination. Today this is commonly articulated by summoning the names of[…]
Medieval Japan’s Itsukushima Shinto Shrine
Traditionally founded in the 6th century CE, the present layout of buildings dates to the 12th century CE. Introduction Itsukushima Shrine is a Shinto shrine on the island of the same name, also known as Miyajima, located in Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. Traditionally founded in the 6th century CE, the present layout of buildings dates[…]
The Architecture of Medieval Japan’s Himeji Castle
The castle is the largest and best-preserved samurai fortification in the country. By Mark CartwrightHistorian Introduction Himeji Castle, located in the town of Himeji in the Hyogo Prefecture of Japan, was built on a natural hilltop between 1581 and 1609 CE. The complex is composed of a maze-like arrangement of fortified buildings, walls, and gates,[…]
Women, Reproduction, and Patriarchal Views of Space Flight and Colonization in 1960s America
Early space age culture in America highlighted women’s reproductive capacity as a primary, crucial contribution that women could and inevitably would make to the space effort. It’s bedtime in middle-class, white America, October 1962. Little Billy and Little Susie pick out books for story time. Billy wants Mommy to read his favorite, Timothy’s Space Book. He[…]
Guts, Stamina, Audacity: Shirley Chisholm’s House Career
Beyond the headlines and iconic reputation she built across party lines, she had to fight just as hard within the House for the causes she supported. Introduction Fifty years ago this month, Shirley Chisholm, the charismatic and outspoken Brooklyn educator and politician, made history when she became the first African-American woman to serve in Congress. Small in stature,[…]
On Looking: Slaves on Display in New Haven Green
Amistad captives were kept in a jail on the New Haven Green. For twelve-and-a-half cents, residents of the city could come look at them. But you are here for the story… So it is a lost story but we will be imagining it, anyway. —Rita Dove, “Prologue of the Rambling Sort” Many things are true at once. —Elizabeth[…]
Recovering the Stolen Histories of American Slaves
The tragedy of treating people as property has left only scattered scraps to hint at their cultures and communities. For the past eight years I’ve been living with 72 people. These 28 men, 25 women, 12 girls, and seven boys are long dead—they were Africans sold into captivity and shipped to America in the mid-1700s.[…]
The Dancing Species: How Moving Together in Time Helps Make Us Human
Current explanations for why humans dance tend to follow one of two approaches. Dancing is a human universal, but why? It is present in human cultures old and new; central to those with the longest continuous histories; evident in the earliest visual art on rock walls from France to South Africa to the Americas, and[…]
Addicted to Fame: From the Ancient Greeks to Lady Gaga
Defamiliarizing fame by exploring its roots in the ancient world. Introduction “Fame is a bee,” Emily Dickinson wrote in one of her last poems. “It has a song— / It has a sting—.” “Ah, too,” she added, “it has a wing.” The poem captures Dickinson resigning herself to how ephemeral fame can be, how effortlessly[…]
Dinner in No-Man’s Land
Examining the act of sharing food during a time of war, even across enemy lines, is a potent symbol of our humanity. Introduction At one point during the endless fighting in France in World War One, a tired German soldier, Wilhelm Spengler, threw himself down to rest in front of a squalid hut in a[…]
Bandit Resurrections: Who Was the Real Sundance Kid?
Welcome to the kaleidoscopic universe of Wild West history, where outlaws return from the dead with vampiric regularity. By Daniel Buck Last summer, Wyoming Governor Matt Mead received an odd present from an Arizona businessman named Jerry Nickle: a just-published book promoting the idea that the author’s great-grandfather William Henry Long was none other than[…]
The Sultan of Byzantium: A Byzantine Past Hiding in Plain Sight
The journey begins with a quiet academic living in Istanbul who receives a cryptic message that will change his life. Introduction Istanbul makes an exotic first impression: Boat traffic on the Bosporus sends waves brushing up against the shores of both Europe and Asia as enormous mosques and monuments from previous empires stand guard. The[…]
Government in the Roman Republic
The Roman Republic emerged out of what one historian called “the ashes of the monarchy.” Introduction Western Civilization is forever indebted to the people of ancient Greece and Rome. Among the numerous contributions these societies made are in the fields of art, literature and philosophy; however, perhaps their greatest gift to future generations was the[…]
Did Aristotle Really Humiliate Himself for Phyllis?
Medieval feasts sometimes had a moral tossed in with the tale. In the Middle Ages, before forks replaced fingers as the eating utensil of choice, it was often necessary, while feasting, to rinse one’s hands. Hence the aquamanile, a table-top, water-dispensing vessel found in wealthier homes. This one depicts the humiliation of Aristotle by Phyllis,[…]
Was the Real Socrates More Worldly and Amorous than We Knew?
The typically idealized picture of Socrates is not the whole story, and it gives us no indication of the genesis of his ideas. Socrates is widely considered to be the founding figure of Western philosophy – a thinker whose ideas, transmitted by the extensive writings of his devoted follower Plato, have shaped thinking for more[…]
