Understanding the Treatment of Jews during World War II
As early as 1933, the Nazis had been sending people to concentration camps. Initially, these camps were located in Germany (like Dachau and Bergen-Belsen) and were used for [more…]
Understanding the Origin of the Greek Gods
The most complete version of the Greek creation myths that survives is a poem called the Theogony ("Birth of the Gods") by a poet named Hesiod, who lived in the late eighth or early seventh century B.C [more…]
Napoleon's Josephine: A Rose by Any Other Name
Napoleon's greatest love would come from the Caribbean island of Martinique. Napoleon never went there, but this woman's father, Joseph Gaspard Tascher de la Pagerie, owned a sugar plantation, complete [more…]
Understanding the Disputed Areas of the Middle East
Disputed areas may be the greatest threat to stability in the Middle East and the world. Disputed areas are, well . . . disputed because, in order to secure peace in the here and now, warring parties decided [more…]
Adding Firepower with the Invention of Gunpowder
Between the twelfth and the eighteenth centuries, guns spread from China to western Asia, to Europe, and then around the world. They advanced from primitive experiments to precision technology. Warriors [more…]
Waking Up to the Enlightenment
In "Rules of Reasoning in Philosophy," an essay included in his 1687 book Principia, Newton wrote:
We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their [more…]
Language, Ethnicity, and Tradition in the Middle East
A great tension exists between different ethnic groups in the Middle East. In South Asia, for example, Pashtuns, Punjabis, Sindhis, Hazaras, Tajiks, and other groups are in constant conflict. In 1988, [more…]
Surviving the Black Death
Europeans in the fourteenth century were looking at the world in a new way, seeing far-off places as desirable, worth finding out about, maybe worth acquiring. Yet before Europeans really got out and started [more…]
Napoleon's Waterloo
Waterloo is a small town a few miles south of Brussels, Belgium. It's an unassuming place, with a church, a few inns, and some homes surrounded by old stone farmhouses and lots of open fields. Those farms [more…]
Napoleon: Educating a Genius
Napoleon's family was not impoverished, but it was by no means wealthy. During Napoleon's childhood, the Bonapartes owned only a few rooms of a large house [more…]
Figuring Out How Roman Mythology Got So Darned Mixed Up
Roman religion and, therefore, Roman mythology, was a long, drawn-out process of bringing together the gods, stories, and rituals of various cultures and making them Roman. People who study religion or [more…]
Barbarian Invasions: Lightening Up the Dark Ages
Everyone talks about the barbarian invasions during the Dark Ages, but barbarian is rather unfair. These "barbarians" had a well-developed culture, with their own laws and forms of art and codes of ethics [more…]
Napoleon: Being a Hero in a Troubled Nation
After military successes in Egypt, Napoleon was treated as a returning hero of mythic proportions in 1799. To the French people, he was Caesar and Alexander rolled into one. The streets were full of his [more…]
Battles in the Sky: Nostradamus Predicts World War I
Oh, the irony of naming things. World War I was originally called The Great War because no one imagined that all the nations would fight at once — never mind the idea they'd do it again later. No one imagined [more…]
Armageddon and the Book of Revelation
The events written in the biblical Book of Revelation go by a number of names — Armaggedon, Apocalypse, The End Times — and for thousands of years, people have been seeing the signs of Armaggedon in the [more…]
Revising the Code of Canon Law (1983)
For Roman Catholics, canon law is another term for Church or ecclesiastical law. The word canon comes from the Greek word kanon, which is a "measuring reed. [more…]
Setting the Stage for the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan
Throughout history, foreign armies who happened to be in the neighborhood of Central Asia often stopped by Afghanistan for an invasion or two. The Greeks and Persians in ancient times and the Arabs and [more…]
Examining the (Re)Birth of the Renaissance
A 19th-century Swiss historian named Jacob Burckhardt coined the term Renaissance (rebirth) for the big changes in thinking and the arts that took place in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. The rebirth [more…]
Running Hot and Cold Following World War II
The years after World War II weren't peaceful. But they didn't erupt into World War III either (cross your fingers). For much of the time after World War II, the major world powers were preoccupied with [more…]
Unlocking the Secrets of Symbolism in Nostradamus's Writings
People around the world have always searched for signs and omens that tell what the future brings, and they've looked just about everywhere. Since 1555 or so, people have looked to Nostradamus's writings [more…]
Princess Diana's Death: Accident or Conspiracy?
On August 31, 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, died after a high-speed car accident in the Pont d'Alma tunnel in Paris. Princess Diana was traveling with Dodi Al-Fayed [more…]
Nostradamus and His Methods: Breaking Down the Predictions
Nostradamus didn't start out with the intention to write a book of poetry. Instead, he spent his nights in the attic in his home in Salon, France. This attic became the retreat where he studied his favorite [more…]
Reacting to the Reformation: The Council of Trent
Alessandro Farnese became Pope Paul III in 1534 and immediately came face-to-face with the Protestant Reformation. At first sight, Paul looked pretty much like his predecessors: born into a rich Roman [more…]
Putting Socrates on Trial
The Greek philosopher Socrates was a pretty amazing example of a person living the search for wisdom. He himself did not leave any writings. He did his philosophizing orally, in the company of other people [more…]
Seven Steps to Reading Nostradamus
The most natural mistake people make when reading Nostradamus's predictions is trying to take in everything he wrote all at once. He was a very deep guy with a lot to say, so don't try to get your PhD [more…]
