The snail may leave a trail of slime behind him, but a little slime will do a man no harm... whilst if you dance with dragons, you must expect to burn. - George R. R. Martin, The Mystery Knight As any Game of Thrones fan knows, being a knight has its downsides.
Hans Luther was the principled and respected president of the Reichsbank—but he wouldn’t accede to Hitler’s demands.
The Mongols are known for their brutality when it came to warfare. But just how brutal were they?
A review of Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union, by Vladislav Zubok
From a dying adviser to a clumsy editorial, the Revolution was a cascade of accidents and oversights.
Read on to learn all about El Cid, one of the most revered figures in European history.
During the Middle Ages, Christian saints with unusual backstories gained large followings. Their appeal can help us understand medieval culture, values, and beliefs.
Cavalry, armored and using superior mobility, dominated the medieval battlefield. That is, until archers with powerful bows and better military tactics won key battles, demonstrating otherwise.
The shinobi are legendary in Japanese history for their skills in subterfuge and stealth; one name, in particular, rings out when discussing ninjas: Hattori Hanzo.
The Medieval period was a time of constant innovation, with a wide array of weapons and armor developed to give warriors an edge on the battlefield.
The mystifying, centuries-long failure of the coal briquette
The Hittites built a successful empire in the ancient Near East. Their military success was based on their religion, technology, and military tactics.
The foundations of our modern banking system owe much to the Knights Templar. How did they go from protecting pilgrims to brokering land purchases for kings?
While battles got the most attention, sieges were an important warfare tactic in ancient Greece and Rome. It took time and ingenuity to breach city walls.
Despite the central role of firewood in the development of the early American economy, prices for this energy fuel are absent from official government statistics and the scholarly literature. This paper presents the most comprehensive dataset of firewood prices in the United…
On June 21, 217 BCE, an entire Roman army marched into an ambush set by the Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca.
The First Crusade was a pivotal event with lasting consequences on the political and religious relations of the medieval world.
This week we’re looking at a specific visual motif common in TV and film: the arrow volley. You know the scene: the general readies his archers, he orders them to ‘draw!’ and then…
It began as an innocuous inquiry on Facebook. Nelson Felix, a resident of New York State, posted in the group ‘What’s My Typewriter Worth?’ about a curious find he made while clearing out the basement of his wife’s grandfather. He shared a few photos. The keys on the typewriter…
The Lost Libraries of Timbuktu. are a collection of books numbering in the hundreds of thousands that were lost following the decline of Timbuktu in the 19th century.
The legacy of Solferino is in more danger than ever
On the 3rd of November 1973, the crew of a Pan Am cargo plane lined up to land at Boston’s Logan International Airport, struggling desperately to reach the runway as a fire raged in the cargo deck…
More than a century after the invention of vaccines, a veterinarian stumbled across a technique to boost their efficacy in an unlikely way — by observing wounded horses.
This is the untold story of America’s hidden role in Ukrainian military operations against Russia’s invading armies.
Fang Fang’s newly translated novel uncovers the brutal, buried history of land reform in China.
The convoluted story of how a species of dog first arrived in Australia and subsequently took over the Outback challenges fundamental notions about what it means to be “native.”
Coming to Pueblo, CO, this fall, the Leonardo da Vinci Museum of North America will be the first and only museum of its kind in the continent.
A forgotten Nixon-era negotiation offers urgent lessons for our new age of economic warfare.
Not everyone could have made the fraught decision to ration gasoline, that American lifeblood, and allocate scarce oil supplies to factories over motorists. But that’s what Simon did.
Excalibur was the legendary sword of King Arthur. But what do we know about this sword, and how did the legend evolve over the years?
New York's skyscrapers soar above a century-old steam network that still warms the city. While the rest of the world moved to hot water, Manhattanites still buy steam by the megapound.
An Unpleasant Story Triangulated from Scripture, Genetics, and Archeology
World War II is when the bomber came of age, and such aircraft could impact the course of war. All the powers would field planes whose names would become synonymous with this conflict.
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In the 1850s, cuneiform was just a series of baffling scratches on clay, waiting to spill the secrets of the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia
Grammy-winner Ricky Riccardi tells the story of a milestone moment in American music in this extract from his new book
When I was a kid, I was fascinated by a traditional katana my grandfather had brought home from Japan in 1945. Years later, I decided it was time to find the heirloom’s rightful owner.
In the dry and fiery deserts of Central Asia, among the mythical sites of both the first human and the end of all days, I found evidence that life restores itself even on the bleakest edge of ecological apocalypse.
How did retro sounds, dance moves, and vintage suits come to dominate before suddenly disappearing?
The Harpies appear throughout Greek mythology as part-human and part-bird mythological beasts that conjure feelings of dread and disgust in their victims.
Engineers at the Naval Research Lab launched a spy satellite program called Parcae and revolutionized signals intelligence at the height of the Cold War. The program relied on computers to sift through intelligence data, providing a technological edge at a pivotal moment in the…
Alan Lomax was a legendary collector of folk music, author, broadcaster, oral historian, musicologist, and filmmaker who raised the profile of folk music worldwide.
A series of accidents and errors amass into disaster at sea. But that's not the end of the story.
Nashville is where you go to make a hit that sounds like everyone else. Memphis is where you make a …
The final lines of this strong recommendation add that 'all takes place in a graveyard.
"I'm now going to offer you a megalomaniac explanation of the course of events"
Sixty years ago, the Soviet Union was way ahead of the USA in the space race. Then one critical event changed everything.
The long read: Canonisation has long been a way for the Catholic church to shape its image. The Vatican is preparing to anoint its first millennial saint, but how does it decide who is worthy?
An accident of lighting uncovers Jewish, European, and Islamic origins.
The Polaris explorer Charles Francis Hall has long been rumoured to have been poisoned in 1872. A preserved snow bunting might be crucial evidence for the theory
Findings suggest alphabetic writing may be some 500 years older than other discoveries
We’ve talked previously about Bell Labs’ long, storied history as an innovation engine and a generator of new technology.