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J.R.R. Tolkien is best known for the sweeping fantasy landscapes of Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit. Apart from being a celebrated author, the Oxford University professor of Anglo-Saxon was also a devoted father who doted on his children. In 1920, a few short years after Tolkien returned from World War I, he began […]
8 months ago

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Hear the Long-Lost Chants of English Monks, Revived for the First Time in 500 Years

Listening to music, especially live music, can be a religious experience. These days, most of us say that figuratively, but for medieval monks, it was the literal truth. Every aspect of life in a monastery was meant to get you that much closer to God, but especially the times when everyone came together and sang. […]

yesterday 4 votes
1,000+ Artworks by Vincent Van Gogh Digitized & Put Online by Dutch Museums

It gets dark before dinner now in my part of the world, a recipe for seasonal depression. Vincent van Gogh wrote about such low feelings with deep insight. “One feels as if one were lying bound hand and foot at the bottom of a deep dark well, utterly helpless.” Yet, when he looked up at […]

2 days ago 5 votes
The 1830s Device That Created the First Animations: The Phenakistiscope

The image just above is an animated GIF, a format by now older than most people on the internet. Those of us who were surfing the World Wide Web in its earliest years will remember all those little digging, jackhammering roadworkers who flanked the permanent announcements that various sites — including, quite possibly, our own […]

2 days ago 5 votes
Animated Map Shows How the Five Major Religions Spread Across the World (3000 BC — 2000 AD)

Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam.… Claims to ancient origin and ultimate authority notwithstanding, the world’s five major religions are all of recent vintage compared to the couple hundred thousand years or more of human existence on the planet. During most of our prehistory, religious beliefs and practices were largely localized, confined to the territorial or […]

3 days ago 5 votes
Watch Momijigari, Japan’s Oldest Surviving Film (1899)

At first, film simply recorded events: a man walking across a garden, workers leaving a factory, a train pulling into a station. The medium soon matured enough to accommodate drama, which for early filmmakers meant simply shooting what amounted to stage productions from the perspective of a viewer in the audience. At that stage, we […]

3 days ago 5 votes

More in history

Fireside Friday, August 27, 2025 (On Defending History)

Hey folks, Fireside this week! As I noted a couple of weeks ago, things are probably going to get more than a little fireside-y over the next few weeks, simply because of the start of the semester – and a semester in which I am undertaking a set of entire new preps (that is, teaching … Continue reading Fireside Friday, August 27, 2025 (On Defending History) →

21 hours ago 6 votes
Can We Truly Know Anything? Hume’s Problem of Induction

Can we know anything for certain? That’s the question behind David Hume’s Problem of Induction. Hume undermines the basis for using past experience to predict what will happen in the future, calling into question not only science and knowledge but also our everyday beliefs. If we can’t logically justify our confidence that the sun […]

21 hours ago 4 votes
Tip & Top and The Moon Rocket (1964)

A charming pop-up book about a trip to the moon. Like other pop-up books it is hard to share how wonderful it is to see the rocket rise up or how the surface of the Moon is 3-d.  It is a reprint and was was originally Czechoslovakian but I don't know much more about the original book.  Kubasta, V. Tip & Top and The Moon Rocket. London: Bancroft and Co. (7 p.) 1964.

13 hours ago 4 votes
The Gladiator Emperor

Monster or Misunderstood by Hollywood?

23 hours ago 4 votes
Henry VIII’s Reign and England’s Transformation

Known all over the world as the king with six wives, Henry VIII was the second Tudor monarch in England. His reign left indelible imprints on British history. Often portrayed in popular media as a mercurial, irascible figure who would turn on those around him in a flash, Henry VIII did have certain consistent […]

23 hours ago 3 votes