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This is the first part of the third part of our series (I, II) discussing the patterns of life of the pre-modern peasants who made up the great majority of all humans who lived in our agrarian past and indeed a majority of all humans who have ever lived. Last week, we looked at death, … Continue reading Collections: Life, Work, Death and the Peasant, Part IIIa: Family Formation →
Hey folks! I am on vacation this week, so you’ll have to wait till next week to get the next installment of “Life, Work, Death and the Peasant.” However, if you are looking for some ACOUP content to fill your Friday, I have a few suggestions! First, if you want some of my writing in … Continue reading Gap Week, July 25, 2025 →
This is the second part of our series (I) discussing the basic contours of life – birth, marriage, labor, subsistence, death – of pre-modern peasants and their families. As we’ve discussed, pre-modern peasant farmers make up the vast majority of human beings in in the past. Last week we started by looking at the basic … Continue reading Collections: Life, Work, Death and the Peasant, Part II: Starting at the End →
This is the first post in a series discussing the basic contours of life – birth, marriage, labor, subsistence, death – of pre-modern peasants and their families. Prior to the industrial revolution, peasant farmers of varying types made up the overwhelming majority of people in settled societies (the sort with cities and writing). And when … Continue reading Collections: Life, Work, Death and the Peasant, Part I: Households →
As is traditional here, I am taking advantage of the Fourth of July this week to write something about the United States, this time a brief discussion of the nature of civil-military relations in the United States. Civil-military relations (typically shortened to ‘civ-mil’ or sometimes CMR) is, simply put, the relationship between the broader civil … Continue reading Collections: The American Civil-Military Relationship →
More in history
Western perceptions of Chinese calligraphy often focus on the skills used to make the artistic lines. However, an appreciation of skills alone does not take into account the traditions tied to it. For over two millennia, Chinese calligraphy was more than an art form. It was a discipline that was used to build character, […]
My next 4 posts are celebrating children's illustrated fiction about going to the Moon. Even though I have been collecting these children's book for over 30 years it still is very exciting to find one that you never knew existed. Jack Coggins was an amazing space artist in the 1950s. His two early children's books that were especially memorable were Rockets, Jets, Guided Missiles, and Space Ships (1951) and By Spaceship to the Moon (1952). I have multiple copies of these in English, French and German. So I was very excited to find a 1960 reprint of his 1953 book Merry Mouse and His Trip to the Moon. It was written by his wife Alma Coggins. This is a fictional book with many of the same style of space painting about a mouse who goes to the Moon to find green cheese. I have chosen to reproduce almost he whole book since your chance of finding a copy are pretty small. I hope you enjoy this lost space art treasure. Coggins, Alma. Illustrated by Coggins, Jack. Merry Mouse and His Trip to the Moon. (2nd edition) (Jolly Books.) London: L. Miller & Co. (20 p.) 1960. (reprint of 1953 1st edition). Above is the cover and below an illustration from Rockets,Jets...1951 Here is the cover to By Space Ship to the Moon 1952
In I Am a Stranger in This Country Berlin-based photograph Frederik Rüegger shows us pictures from the two years he spent visiting the Roma and Traveller communities in Britain and Ireland. The book’s title is a nod to his reflects his status as a foreigner abroad and the Travellers as outsiders in British and Irish … Continue reading "I Am a Stranger in This Country: An Outsider Photographs Britain and Ireland’s Travellers" The post I Am a Stranger in This Country: An Outsider Photographs Britain and Ireland’s Travellers appeared first on Flashbak.
During the Crusades, warriors devoted themselves to protecting the Holy Land from attack, dedicating themselves to God, the Church, and their mission. Several orders of devout knights emerged, the most famous of which was the Knights Templar, but another well-known order was the Knights Hospitallers. They had one of the longest and most eventful […]
This is the first part of the third part of our series (I, II) discussing the patterns of life of the pre-modern peasants who made up the great majority of all humans who lived in our agrarian past and indeed a majority of all humans who have ever lived. Last week, we looked at death, … Continue reading Collections: Life, Work, Death and the Peasant, Part IIIa: Family Formation →
