Wright Brothers, Wrong Story? Why Some Say Wilbur—Not Orville—Discovered Manned Flight
How did two brothers who never left home, were high-school dropouts, and made a living as bicycle mechanics figure out the secret of manned flight? The story goes that Wilbur and Orville Wright were a...
21 Mars 201940min
When Danzig Became Gdańsk: What Happens to a City When Its Demographics Change Completely
What happens to a city when its demographics change completely in the space of a few years? To explore this question, we will take a look at the case of Danzig (modern-day Gdańsk) in northern Poland. ...
19 Mars 201940min
The Revolution Before the Revolution: How 1776 Happened
In the 1760s, the American colonies were completely incapable of organized resistance. One's loyalty was to their state, as the idea of being an “American” was nearly empty. Few clamored for democracy...
14 Mars 201951min
An Active Neutrality: The WW2 Experiences of Switzerland, Portugal, and Turkey
Neutrality is not the same thing as passivity. Just ask the many nations who had to walk an extremely thin tightrope during World War 2 to stay out of the war (in which they saw nothing for themselves...
12 Mars 201933min
Kangaroo Squadron: The Tip of the American Spear in the WW2 Pacific Theatre
In early 1942, while most of the American military was in disarray from the devastating attacks on Pearl Harbor and the Philippines, a single USAAF squadron advanced to the far side of the world to fa...
7 Mars 201949min
Common Knowledge About The Middle Ages That Is Incorrect, Part 5: Crusades In The Renaissance
The Crusades are typically bookended between Pope Urban II's call to reclaim the Holy Land in 1095 and the fall of Acre and the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1291. But two of the most notable religiou...
5 Mars 201926min
Common Knowledge About The Middle Ages That Is Incorrect, Part 4: The Medieval Technological Explosion
The Middle Ages was not a thousand-year period of technological stagnation between the fall of Rome and Leonardo da Vinci. It was an incredible period of invention and scientific innovation that saw m...
28 Feb 201943min
Common Knowledge About The Middle Ages That Is Incorrect, Part 3: Witch Burnings
At the height of the witch burning craze, thousands people, largely women, were falsely accused of witchcraft. Many of them were burned, hanged, and executed, typically under religious pretense. But t...
26 Feb 201951min
