As a site of great significance for three world religions, the Levant has been subject to brutal wars over the centuries. When Pope Urban II launched the First Crusade in 1095, the main target was Jerusalem and the Holy Land. During the First Crusade, the Christians successfully established four Crusader states, known collectively as […]

Richard I (1157-1199), the Lionheart, is celebrated as England’s great warrior king, a man who embodied the ideals of medieval chivalry and nobility. Historically, however, Richard was notorious for having had little interest in England or the English—and in truth, he was never supposed to rule England at all. Yet despite this, he is […]

Scientists have recorded five Ice Ages in Earth’s history. The most recent began around three million years ago and continues today. Ice ages are characterized by glacial periods, where the climate is colder and glaciers advance, and interglacial periods, where the climate is milder and glaciers retreat. The last glaciation period concluded 11,000 years […]

The Independent State of Croatia, founded in 1941, did not have the same impact on Europe’s demographics that Nazi Germany did. Nonetheless, the brutality of the genocidal campaign it conducted against its Serbs, Roma, and Jews is haunting. Its history and the memory thereof also contain lessons regarding the mechanics of genocide, terror, and […]

The Julio-Claudians were the first dynasty of imperial Rome, descended from the Julian gens through Julius Caesar and Augustus. The Claudian side came through the empress Livia, herself a Claudian, and her ex-husband Tiberius Claudius Nero, whose name is preserved by three of Rome’s first emperors. There were many imperial princes: male members of […]