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The eastern plateau of South Africa, known as the Highveld, is dotted with the ruins of numerous stone towns founded at the end of the Middle Ages.
A bewildering variety of currencies circulated freely in the various states and societies of Africa during the pre-colonial period.
A century before Mansa Musa’s famous pilgrimage, the political and cultural landscape of medieval West Africa was dominated by the empire of Kānem.
Up to 90% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s material cultural legacy is kept outside of the continent, according to a French government-commissioned 2018 report by Senegalese economist Felwine Sarr and French historian Bénédicte Savoy.
No single body of primary sources in the literary heritage of West Africa has attracted as much attention and attained as much celebrity as the fabled manuscripts of Timbuktu.
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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.
When the Neo-Marxist philosopher Jürgen Habermas and Catholic cardinal Joseph Ratzinger debated the place of religion in the public sphere, they agreed that faith and reason can illuminate each other despite their long-standing tension. During this debate Habermas, an atheist, asked secular citizens of liberal democracies to put aside post-metaphysical pre-suppositions to better […]
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) →
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 […]
