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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 →
14 hours ago

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More from A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry

Gap Week, July 25, 2025

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 →

a week ago 9 votes
Collections: Life, Work, Death and the Peasant, Part II: Starting at the End

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 →

2 weeks ago 15 votes
Collections: Life, Work, Death and the Peasant, Part I: Households

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 →

3 weeks ago 20 votes
Collections: The American Civil-Military Relationship

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 →

4 weeks ago 21 votes

More in history

Merry Mouse and His Trip to the Moon (1953)

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

12 hours ago 5 votes
Secrets of the Sophists

Man is the Measure of All Things...

18 hours ago 2 votes
I Am a Stranger in This Country: An Outsider Photographs Britain and Ireland’s Travellers

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.

13 hours ago 2 votes
What Is the Significance of the Minoan Octopus Vase?

Craftsmen from the Minoan civilization, a society that existed during the Bronze Age on the Greek island of Crete, created the famous Minoan Octopus vase. Their vases typically featured artistic portrayals of a sinuous octopus and were created at a time when the Minoans were doing a lot of trading by sea. The vase […]

22 hours ago 2 votes