Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it
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 Peter the Great established this drinking club-cum-social satire as a way to ridicule what he considered the outdated practices of the Russian Orthodox Church, as a unique … Continue reading The All-Drunken History Thread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
Welp, it’s sure been a week, huh. I was going to write a quick header on Trump’s oh-so-loyal German generals, but there’s also the unpleasantness in Madison Square Garden to contemplate. So I feel compelled to direct readers to pieces … Continue reading The History Thread Celebrates The Loyalty of German Generals
Two weeks until Election Day and we (well, us Americans for sure) are stressed as hell, knowing it’s too close to ignore but too far away to actually know anything. Discuss history, whether fun, informative, infuriating or some combination thereof … Continue reading The History Thread Is Election-Stressed
This week’s History Thread prompt: what historical misconceptions annoy you? This isn’t dissimilar from some past prompts, but let’s broaden the definition to include anything from “minor inaccuracies in popular history that annoy only you” to “major errors in understanding, … Continue reading The Misconceived History Thread
In the past few years, it’s become a cliche to compare our present predicament with the Weimar Republic. Germany’s first experiment with democracy produced an era that, despite its relatively brief existence (1918 through 1933), has presented us with indelible, … Continue reading History Thread: Revisiting Weimar
Today is the 100th birthday of former President James Earl Carter. Jimmy, as he liked to be called, took office in 1977 when the memory of Watergate was still fresh and took office amidst an immense climate of optimism. Unfortunately, … Continue reading The History Thread Celebrates History’s Greatest Monster
This week’s History Thread marks the anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution. A document full of flaws and contradictions as it’s a human document written by men very much of their time, and today it is invoked … Continue reading The Constitutional History Thread
History Thread prompt this week: we often talk about mysteries, be they paranormal stuff, unsolved crimes or just things that will probably never be known, because it’s an easy and fun topic to discuss. Which ones do you find the … Continue reading The History Thread Wants to Solve Your Mystery
