Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it
Pope Francis passed away this week, the first Jesuit and first man from the Americas to assume the Papacy. His death triggers a new election for the position – a conclave, named for the practice of locking the cardinals in … Continue reading The History Thread Prays for a Short Conclave
Sailors can be a superstitious lot, and literature abounds with tales of ships cursed with ill-fate. Some curses, like the bad luck which supposedly befalls anyone who kills an albatross, are simply folklore passed down half-believed to generations. Others, like … Continue reading History Thread: The Case of the Jinxed Germans
This week’s History Thread is inspired by an exchange in yesterday’s Day Thread. Suggested topic: what do you know about your family history? Have you done any research into your family’s history, and are there any interesting stories to share? … Continue reading The Personal History Thread
In honor of April Fools’, let’s remember some of our favorite historical jokes – whether from or about history. In 1340, the British and French navies fought the Battle of Sluys which proved one of the decisive battles in the … Continue reading The History Thread Laughs It Up
The History Thread has been late in acknowledging that March is Women’s History Month. For today’s prompt: who are your favorite women in history? Or a bonus question, favorite women historians? Continue reading History Thread Celebrates Women’s History Month
This week’s History Thread asks: What kind of history-based games do you/did you play? I’m sure all of us have played some historical games, from first person shooters like Medal of Honor or the turn-based agonies of Sid Meier’s oeuvre. … Continue reading The History Thread Dies of Dysentery
I’ve got another pressing engagement this week, so I’ll be popping in and out irregularly today. Here’s a weird cartoon of William Howard Taft (sheep) and Teddy Roosevelt (Little Bo Peep), apropos of recent readings. Continue reading The History Thread
This week marks the centenary of the Helium Act, signed by Calvin Coolidge and designed to encourage “the conservation, production, and exploitation of helium gas”. Continue reading The History Thread is Up, Up and Away!
Throughout the 19th Century, Spain’s fortunes precipitously plummeted from the world’s largest empire to a second-rate European power. After enduring occupation by Napoleon, the loss of its Latin American colonies and a series of internecine wars, the Spanish lost the … Continue reading History Thread: The Bogeyman is Coming!
I’ve had a few ideas for more in-depth history threads lately, many inspired by my readings in Russian history, but still not in a place apparently to sit down and do the necessary writing, research and footnotes. Lots of work … Continue reading The History Thread WANTS To Write
This week’s History Thread celebrates the All-Joking, All-Drunken Synod of Fools of Jesters. Peter the Great established this drinking club-cum-social satire as a way to ridicule what he considered the outdated practices of the Russian Orthodox Church, as a unique … Continue reading The All-Drunken History Thread
It has been a long, cold January and how appropriate that I’ve spent most of that time reading about Russian history. This week’s main read was Daniel Beer’s The House of the Dead: Siberian Exile Under the Tsars (2017) which … Continue reading The COLD History Thread
Welcome to this week’s History Thread! I’m not sure why Russia’s long history of absolute rule by ennobled dunderheads and god-anointed psychopaths comes to mind so readily on this particular Tuesday. Probably just because I’m reading a lot of books … Continue reading The History Thread Used to Be Bizarre
Welcome to 2025, as we stand on the precipice of what promises to be a…momentous period in American history. Rather than think about all that, the History Thread asks: What are you hoping to learn more about this year? Whether … Continue reading Time Enough at Last for the History Thread
2024 was a busy year for yours truly, both professionally and otherwise, but I still managed to read 200-ish books because you can’t keep a good bibliomaniac down. I surveyed a pretty decent swath of history, and while the below … Continue reading The History Thread: Favorite Books Read in 2024
In medieval England, Christmas was an elaborate twelve day long celebration, from Christmas Day (December 25th) through Epiphany (January 6th). Christmas itself was referred to feasting on a surfeit of regional delicacies, from beef to venison to the inevitable lampreys, … Continue reading The Hoggling History Thread
Putting up a quick History Thread this week in honor of I. challengeri, a South American cousin of the Spinosaurus known to paleontology as The Irritator. This annoying creature is so-named because the original (indeed, to date the only) specimen … Continue reading The Irritating History Thread
Of all the colorful figures in early paleontology, a special place has to be made for Franz Nopcsa von Felso-Szilvas. This Hungarian nobleman lived a truly bizarre life around the turn of the century: a traveler who spent years among … Continue reading The History Thread Forgot How To Love Each Other
November is Native American Heritage Month in the United States, a time to remember and celebrate the history of the original inhabitants of the American continents. What are some of your favorite books, documentaries or fictional portrayals of Native Americans? … Continue reading The Indigenous History Thread
In the late 19th Century there was a strange trend among affluent Americans to gain weight. The reasoning went that only a well-off person could afford to eat to excess, and that an extended waistline was a sign of a … Continue reading The History Thread is Living Large
We all need a little levity, so here’s an article about the weird trend in 17th and 18th Century Europe of monkeys as pets. Apparently our ancestors had the same tendency to weirdly anthropomorphize animals as we do today, viewing … Continue reading The History Thread Monkeys Around
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