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TheCollector
Are There Hierarchies of Angels and Demons in the Bible? Biblical angels are heavenly messengers who appear on earth in humanlike form. Demons, on the other...
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Biblical angels are heavenly messengers who appear on earth in humanlike form. Demons, on the other hand, generally do not take any physical form in biblical narratives. Spiritual creatures that are labelled or associated with the demonic are only pictured using analogies or in...
TheCollector
The Gods of the Myceneans: Linear B & the Origins of Greek Gods Linear B, the Mycenaean writing system, was long considered indecipherable. However, in the 1950s,...
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Linear B, the Mycenaean writing system, was long considered indecipherable. However, in the 1950s, it was proposed that the script was an early form of Greek. Correct in their hypothesis, linguists have now translated thousands of Linear B tablets. Though the Mycenaeans seem only...
TheCollector
Charles V, the King Who Turned the Tide of the 100 Years’ War Charles V of France, also known as Charles the Wise, ruled France from 1364 until his death in 1380....
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Charles V of France, also known as Charles the Wise, ruled France from 1364 until his death in 1380. Few kings in French history have been as respected as Charles, and he is often seen as one of the strongest monarchs the country ever produced. The most famous aspect of his reign...
Classical Wisdom
Walk Like an Egyptian (Historian) A Once-in-a-Lifetime Journey to the Land of the Pharaohs
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TheCollector
The Tudor Midwives, Women Who Held Royal Lives & Secrets in Their Hands When it came to power in Tudor England, most women were shut out or, for the noble women, sidelined....
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When it came to power in Tudor England, most women were shut out or, for the noble women, sidelined. They couldn’t sit on councils, hold office, or even legally own property. Yet, there existed one room where they reigned—quite literally—with blood on their hands. That room was...
Flashbak
Teenagers on the Brink at Summer Camp in 1977 “I want my photos to be truthful accounts,” Sweet once wrote. “The color is a device to include more...
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“I want my photos to be truthful accounts,” Sweet once wrote. “The color is a device to include more reality.” – Andy Sweet, Summer Camp     In 1977, Andy Sweet was at Camp Mountain Lake, in North Carolina. Based in Miami, Florida, Sweet was well known for his photographs of...
TheCollector
Guns vs. Slingshots? The Indigenous Weaponry That Fought the Conquistadors When Europeans first arrived in the Americas, their guns, horses, and, perhaps most importantly,...
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When Europeans first arrived in the Americas, their guns, horses, and, perhaps most importantly, diseases, made relatively quick work of conquering native populations. But while Indigenous weaponry was ultimately not a match for the steels and gunpowder of the Conquistadors, the...
TheCollector
5 Must-Know Minds of Greek Philosophy Mankind has always asked questions about the world, existence, life and death. However, it was in...
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Mankind has always asked questions about the world, existence, life and death. However, it was in Ancient Greece that the systematic and rational approach to knowledge known as philosophy was born. What was, up until that point in history, mixed with myths and superstitions, now...
TheCollector
What Happened After Alexander the Great’s Death? In June 323 BCE, Alexander the Great died at the young age of 32 while at his palace in Babylon,...
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In June 323 BCE, Alexander the Great died at the young age of 32 while at his palace in Babylon, likely from an illness. However, it’s not clear what exactly led to his death. He had, in just over 10 years, built one of the largest empires the world had ever seen. Dubbed Macedon,...
TheCollector
How the 10 Plagues Humiliated Egypt’s Gods According to the Bible, Egypt had enslaved God’s chosen people for over 400 years. When God ordered...
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According to the Bible, Egypt had enslaved God’s chosen people for over 400 years. When God ordered Moses to petition the pharaoh for the release of the Hebrews, he warned the prophet about the difficulty of the task, “But I know that the King of Egypt will not let you go unless...
Global Inequality...
Gramsci and Lenin on transcending “parliamentarianism” and on direct democracy Century-old writings and today's politics
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Dreams of Space -...
Jimmy and The Spaceship (1949) To continue my obscure "space fiction" I have Jimmy and the Spaceship to share with you. This was a...
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To continue my obscure "space fiction" I have Jimmy and the Spaceship to share with you. This was a very small "pocket book" of a comic strip. There were other "Jimmy and the...." books but I really enjoyed reading this one. It reads like the typical space story but has its own...
Flashbak
A Walk Around Mildmay and Newington Green, North London in the 1970s Newington Green, in the Mildmay Ward of the Borough of Islington, North London is soaked in history....
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Newington Green, in the Mildmay Ward of the Borough of Islington, North London is soaked in history. King Henry VIII (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547) kept a hunting lodge there. Several streets in the area take their name from that period, such as King Henry’s Walk, Boleyn Road...
TheCollector
The Innovative Methods That Allowed the Mongols to Create a Vast Empire During the 13th century, the Mongols stormed onto the world stage to create one of the largest...
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During the 13th century, the Mongols stormed onto the world stage to create one of the largest empires the world had ever seen. Despite their reputation for barbarity, the way they approached both warfare and governance was highly calculated and organized. The Mongols fostered a...
TheCollector
The Most Important Emperors of the Mughal Empire The Mughals were a Muslim empire that expanded from the modern regions of north Afghanistan to...
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The Mughals were a Muslim empire that expanded from the modern regions of north Afghanistan to Bangladesh at its height in the 17th century. They were tolerant towards other cultures and religions, spoke Persian in their court system, and were one of the wealthiest empires in the...
A Collection of...
Fireside Friday, August 15, 2025 (On Latin Pronunciation) Hey folks, Fireside this week! The new semester is starting up next week, so things may be a little...
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Hey folks, Fireside this week! The new semester is starting up next week, so things may be a little more fireside-y than usual over the next few weeks, but I do promise we will get to the end of “Life, Work, Death and the Peasant” eventually. That said, since I am teaching Latin...
Classical Wisdom
Greek God of the Sun In Myth, Literature, and Art
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TheCollector
King Arthur’s Forgotten Battle of Llongborth In the Arthurian legends, King Arthur famously fought 12 battles against the Anglo-Saxons,...
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In the Arthurian legends, King Arthur famously fought 12 battles against the Anglo-Saxons, culminating in the historically important Battle of Badon. Years later, he fought against his nephew, Mordred, at the tragic Battle of Camlann. However, there are some obscure references to...
TheCollector
What Were Hieronymus Bosch’s Early Influences? (Training and Inspirations) The art of the mysterious Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch provoked a centuries-long obsession with...
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The art of the mysterious Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch provoked a centuries-long obsession with its strange symbolism and unusual form. Not much is known about Bosch’s early years, and for that reason, the media is filled with all sorts of speculations. However, art historians...
TheCollector
How Did the Black Death Spread? The Black Death, was a destructive 14th century plague that affected people in Europe, Asia, and...
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The Black Death, was a destructive 14th century plague that affected people in Europe, Asia, and North Africa. It killed millions and caused great changes to societies. Reports suggest that the malady killed between 30 and 60 percent of Europe’s population, leading to a social...
TheCollector
Understanding Modern Art in 6 Artworks Many of the world’s most famous artists—like Claude Monet, Salvador Dali, and Pablo Picasso—fall...
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Many of the world’s most famous artists—like Claude Monet, Salvador Dali, and Pablo Picasso—fall under the umbrella of Modernism, even though their styles vary widely. So, how exactly do we define the Modernist era? Modern art is defined by its rejection of traditional academic...
TheCollector
The Monetary Reforms of Diocletian and Constantine That Stabilized Roman Coinage During the Crisis of the Third Century (235–284), Roman coinage suffered from a heavy debasement...
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During the Crisis of the Third Century (235–284), Roman coinage suffered from a heavy debasement that completely shattered the Roman monetary system. Some emperors, such as Aurelian (270–275), tried to improve the situation by implementing monetary reforms. However, it was only...
TheCollector
What Do Hieronymus Bosch’s Paintings Tell Us About the Great Artist? Hieronymus Bosch’s mysterious personality and artistic mind have fascinated both art historians and...
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Hieronymus Bosch’s mysterious personality and artistic mind have fascinated both art historians and the public for centuries. There are almost no documentary sources left about the famous artist. For that reason, researchers have to rely on the evidence of Bosch’s surroundings...
Global Inequality...
How to learn about politics from two Democratic-leaning women in New York Tonight I went rather late (around 9 pm) to a rather expensive New York restaurant; not super...
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Tonight I went rather late (around 9 pm) to a rather expensive New York restaurant; not super expensive where the millionaires from the East Sude meet but one in West Village where mostly successful young (and not so young as the story will soon reveal) people gather to dine and...
TheCollector
Decoding Hieronymus Bosch’s Vision in the Garden of Earthly Delights The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch remains a complex riddle that is next to...
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The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch remains a complex riddle that is next to impossible to solve. The three-panel work includes images of Heaven and Hell, as well as strange portrayals of human sin. Bosch was a deeply religious and god-fearing man who reflected his...
TheCollector
A Brief History of Censorship (Since the Ancient World) Language is power, and the ultimate expression of this power is to control what can and cannot be...
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Language is power, and the ultimate expression of this power is to control what can and cannot be said. From the beginning of organized society, those in power have sought to control the words spoken by their citizens and subjects. Whether this was done for moral, political,...
TheCollector
The Surprising Origin of Your Bible’s Chapter Numbers When characters in the Bible reference other Biblical books, they never reference chapters and...
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When characters in the Bible reference other Biblical books, they never reference chapters and verses. That is because the Bible did not have chapters until the 1200s and verses until the 1500s. Various factors played a role in the need for chapters and verses, one of which was...
TheCollector
Where Did the Most Feared Gangs of the Wild West Emerge? One enduring phenomenon from the Wild West is its notorious gangs. The gangs appeared after the...
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One enduring phenomenon from the Wild West is its notorious gangs. The gangs appeared after the American Civil War, surfacing in hotspots like Missouri, Texas, and Arizona. These outlaws seldom stayed put but traveled far to hold up banks, stagecoaches, or raid trains.   The...
TheCollector
The Hidden Killer That Destroyed Napoleon’s Grand Army in 1812 What really doomed Napoleon’s Grand Army in Russia? For over 200 years, the story has been told as a...
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What really doomed Napoleon’s Grand Army in Russia? For over 200 years, the story has been told as a tale of “General Winter” freezing Europe’s mightiest army into defeat.   In June 1812, Napoleon’s Grand Army, numbering between 450,000 and 600,000 troops, poured across the Neman...
History Today Feed
Spain Was Different: Tourism Under Franco Spain Was Different: Tourism Under Franco JamesHoare Thu, 08/14/2025 - 08:58
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TheCollector
Did the Celts Have a Sense of Shared Identity? The Celts were one of the most popular peoples of ancient Europe. In the 4th century BCE, the Greek...
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The Celts were one of the most popular peoples of ancient Europe. In the 4th century BCE, the Greek historian Ephorus summed up the world by saying that the Scythians lived to the north, the Indians lived to the east, the Ethiopians lived to the south, and the Celts lived to the...
Classical Wisdom
The Man Who Made August The life, legacy, and cunning of Rome’s first emperor.
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Res Obscura
All Souls exam questions and the limits of machine reasoning The world's most eccentric exam is newly relevant in the age of AI
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TheCollector
How Puerto Rico Went From a Conquistador’s Playground to US Territory Once populated by peaceful Indigenous tribes descended from South America’s Arawaks, the island now...
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Once populated by peaceful Indigenous tribes descended from South America’s Arawaks, the island now called Puerto Rico was first stumbled upon by Christopher Columbus’s men during his second voyage to the “New World” in 1493. Within a decade, Spain had established its first...
TheCollector
Puerto Rico’s Deadly Hurricane of 1899 Is Still Haunting the Island As the 19th century drew to a close, the Spanish colony of Puerto Rico was poised to reject the...
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As the 19th century drew to a close, the Spanish colony of Puerto Rico was poised to reject the exploitative system it had existed under for more than three centuries. Sentiment in favor of independence as well as an incipient labor movement had begun to take shape. The...
TheCollector
Answering 7 Questions About King Arthur’s Camelot (Arthurian Mythology) Arthurian legends are some of the most popular stories from British history, recounting the life of...
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Arthurian legends are some of the most popular stories from British history, recounting the life of the heroic Brittonic King Arthur, who fought against the invading Anglo-Saxons while creating a utopian kingdom based on merit and chivalry. The stories are full of mystery and...
TheCollector
What Made Basil II One of Byzantium’s Greatest Emperors? Basil II ruled the Byzantine Empire for almost half a century between 976 and 1025 CE. As a military...
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Basil II ruled the Byzantine Empire for almost half a century between 976 and 1025 CE. As a military leader, he broke the power of the First Bulgarian Empire and expanded his frontiers to Georgia, Armenia, and Mesopotamia. As a political reformer, he centralized power and...
Flashbak
The Troubles In Kodachrome: An Outsider’s View of A Divided Northern Ireland Akihiko Okamura had not long left photographing the Vietnam War when he arrived in Northern Ireland...
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Akihiko Okamura had not long left photographing the Vietnam War when he arrived in Northern Ireland in 1968 to explore John F. Kennedy’s ancestral roots. The following year he retuned to Ireland, settling first near Dublin, then Avoca, in County Wicklow. Okamura’s interest in war...
TheCollector
7 Renaissance Paintings That Reveal the Secrets of a Changing World More than an artistic movement, the Renaissance was a revolution in how people understood the world...
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More than an artistic movement, the Renaissance was a revolution in how people understood the world and their place in it. Some of the era’s most telling insights happen to be hidden in its most famous paintings. From Italy to Northern Europe, the seven works below reveal seven...
TheCollector
Can You REALLY Know Anything? A Philosophical Adventure into Skepticism Skepticism is the royal gateway to philosophy. If we take what we already know for granted, there...
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Skepticism is the royal gateway to philosophy. If we take what we already know for granted, there would be no room for inquiry, curiosity, or intellectual wonder. Skepticism is an act of iconoclasm towards the pillars upon which our current knowledge stands, but what happens if...
History Today Feed
Cowboy Diplomacy in the Spanish-American War Cowboy Diplomacy in the Spanish-American War JamesHoare Wed, 08/13/2025 - 09:02
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TheCollector
How Loneliness Inspired Beautiful Art and Profound Philosophies Loneliness is a feeling we all know: heavy, quiet, hard to escape sometimes. But what if this is not...
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Loneliness is a feeling we all know: heavy, quiet, hard to escape sometimes. But what if this is not a burden, but a means for creativity? History has captured great art, music, and literature inspired by loneliness. From the star-filled sky of Van Gogh to Mary Shelley’s...
Trying to Understand...
Let's All Feel Good No, we Kant.
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TheCollector
The Long History and Complicated Legacy of the Ottoman Empire Few empires in history have grown as large or lasted as long as the Ottoman Empire. It was founded...
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Few empires in history have grown as large or lasted as long as the Ottoman Empire. It was founded in the medieval era and only disappeared in the first decades of the 20th century (Quataert, 2005, 3). Ottoman history is, in many ways, marked by contradictions. It was a Sunni...
TheCollector
The Murder That Nearly Toppled Mussolini On August 16, 1924, the battered body of the Italian Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti was found...
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On August 16, 1924, the battered body of the Italian Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti was found buried in a wood on the outskirts of Rome. He had been missing since June 10, when a group of fascists assaulted and kidnapped him. At the end of May, Giacomo Matteotti, an early...
TheCollector
Who Wrote the First Encyclopedia? If there was a true symbol of the Enlightenment Era, it has to be the Encyclopedia, or A Systematic...
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If there was a true symbol of the Enlightenment Era, it has to be the Encyclopedia, or A Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts. Its main goal was to inform its readers of educational topics, from mathematics and chemistry to history, art, and philosophy. When we...
TheCollector
Aristotle’s Four Causes That Explain the Why and How of Existence Have you ever wanted to know why things are how they are, not just what they are? Aristotle’s Four...
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Have you ever wanted to know why things are how they are, not just what they are? Aristotle’s Four Causes can help. These ancient principles of explanation still influence us today in how we do science or even just think about daily stuff. In this piece, we’ll examine each Cause...
TheCollector
What Modern Concepts Were Invented in Ancient Athens? The Athenians are credited with coming up with a wide variety of concepts that are practiced in the...
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The Athenians are credited with coming up with a wide variety of concepts that are practiced in the modern world. They range from democracy to theatre and literature. Actually, many of the foundational rules that govern most countries today were written in Athens. For many years,...
History Today Feed
‘The Graces’ by Breeze Barrington review ‘The Graces’ by Breeze Barrington review JamesHoare Tue, 08/12/2025 - 08:23
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TheCollector
How Joan of Arc Helped Charles VII Win the Hundred Years’ War Throughout French history, few heroines have been admired as much as Joan of Arc. This teenage girl...
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Throughout French history, few heroines have been admired as much as Joan of Arc. This teenage girl etched her way into French history thanks to her divine mission; she had been told by God to reclaim French territory from the English. Whatever the actual reasoning for the...