I Like History- A Lot.

"They were in mufti [civilian clothes], but mufti or not, it was the Army…That was the..."

Sun, 19 May 2013 08:39:00 -0400

“They were in mufti [civilian clothes], but mufti or not, it was the Army…That was the beginning. The Versailles Treaty hadn’t placed any restrictions on rockets, and the Army was desperate to get back on its feet. We didn’t care much about that, one way or the other, but we needed money, and the Army seemed willing to help us. In 1932, the idea of war seemed to us an absurdity. The Nazis weren’t yet in power. We felt no moral scruples about the possible future use of our brainchild. We were interested solely in exploring outer space. It was simply a question with us of how the golden cow could be milked most successfully.”

- Wernher von Braun

“He sent back to Athens three hundred suits of Persian armor to tell the Greeks of his...

Sun, 19 May 2013 07:44:00 -0400

“He sent back to Athens three hundred suits of Persian armor to tell the Greeks of his victory. Along with the armor was a message: ‘Alexander, son of Philip, and the Greeks…dedicate these spoils, taken from the Persians who dwell in Asia.’ The Greeks would know that their defeat in Athens one hundred and fifty years earlier had been avenged. Alexander wanted the Greeks to believe that he fought for them and not just for his own glory.”

From Alexander the Great: World Conqueror by Michael Burgan

historical-nonfiction: When informed of the accession of Peter...

Wed, 15 May 2013 02:30:01 -0400

historical-nonfiction:

When informed of the accession of Peter III of Russia in 1762, George III said, “Well, there are now nine of us in Europe the third of our respective names”:

George III, King of England

Charles III, King of Spain

Augustus III, King of Poland

Frederick III, King of Prussia

Charles Emanuel III, King of Sardinia

Mustapha III, Emperor of the Turks

Peter III, Emperor of Russia

Francis III, Duke of Modena

Frederick III, Duke of Saxe-Gotha

Such a coincidence was unprecedented in European history.

did-you-kno: Source

Sun, 05 May 2013 19:12:34 -0400

did-you-kno:

Source

"When Alexander’s sarcophagus was brought from its shrine, Augustus gazed at the body, then..."

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 01:08:32 -0400

“When Alexander’s sarcophagus was brought from its shrine, Augustus gazed at the body, then laid a crown of gold on its glass case and scattered some flowers to pay his respects. When they asked if he would like to see Ptolemy too, ‘I wished to see a king,’ he replied, ‘I did not wish to see corpses.’”

- Suetonius, Life of Augustus, 18.1

“It is easy to understand why dreamers tend to ignore and even deny the message of their...

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 19:11:00 -0400

“It is easy to understand why dreamers tend to ignore and even deny the message of their dreams. Consciousness naturally resists anything unconscious and unknown. I [Carl Jung] have already pointed out the existence among primitive peoples of what anthropologists call ‘misoneism,’ a deep and superstitious fear of novelty. The primitives manifest all the reactions of the wild animal against untoward events. But ‘civilized’ man reacts to new ideas in much the same way, erecting psychological barriers to protect himself from the shock of facing something new. This can easily be observed in any individual’s reaction to his own dreams when obliged to admit a surprising thought. Many pioneers in philosophy, science, and even literature have been victims of innate conservatism of their contemporaries. Psychology is one of the youngest of the sciences; because it attempts to deal with the working of the unconscious, it has inevitably encountered misoneism in an extreme form.”

From Man and His Symbols by Carl Jung

“But, within five years, [Alexander the Great] would have left his father’s...

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 23:39:40 -0400

“But, within five years, [Alexander the Great] would have left his father’s extraordinary achievements far behind; he could look back on Philip, fairly, as a lesser man: he had overthrown an empire which had stood for two hundred years; he had become a thousand times richer than any man in the world, and he was ready for a march which seemed superhuman to those who freely worshipped him as a god. History has often seemed the study of facts beyond our control. With Alexander it would come to depend on the whims and choices of a twenty-five-year-old man, who ended by ruling some two million square miles.”

From Alexander the Great by Robin Lane Fox

“Shakespeare’s vocabulary changed considerably as he aged. Jespersen notes that there are some 200...

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 22:00:38 -0400

“Shakespeare’s vocabulary changed considerably as he aged. Jespersen notes that there are some 200 to 300 words to be found in early plays that are never repeated. Many of these were provincialisms that he later shed, but which independently made their way into the language later- among them cranny, beautified, homicide, aggravate, and forefathers. It has also been observed by scholars that the new terms of his younger years appeal directly to the senses (snow-white, fragrant, brittle) while the coinages of the later years are more often considered with psychological considerations.”

From The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way by Bill Bryson

“At the time Eirik the Red discovered Greenland, Europeans had rarely sailed out of sight of their...

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 22:05:38 -0400

“At the time Eirik the Red discovered Greenland, Europeans had rarely sailed out of sight of their own continent. By the time they began doing so, in the fifteenth century, mariners sailed in swift and nimble caravels, steered with rudders and guided by sextant and compass. The Norse lacked these tools, yet voyaged countless time across the stormy North Atlantic.”

From A Voyage Long and Strange by Tony Horwitz

“Many scholars believe that classical Latin was spoken by almost no one- that it was used...

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 04:45:23 -0400

“Many scholars believe that classical Latin was spoken by almost no one- that it was used exclusively as a literary and scholarly language. Certainly such evidence as we have of everyday writing- graffiti on the walls of Pompeii, for example- suggests that classical Latin was effectively a dead language as far as common discourse was concerned long before Rome fell. And it was that momentous event- the fall of Rome- that helped usher in [English.]”

From The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way by Bill Bryson

“During an exploratory foray, the Norse came under attack by a large force of Skraelings...

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 21:10:54 -0500

“During an exploratory foray, the Norse came under attack by a large force of Skraelings [Native Americans] in canoes, wielding a strange weapon. From tall poles, they catapulted ‘a large round object, about the size of a sheep’s gut and black in color,’ which, ‘made a threatening noise when it landed.’ These missiles so terrified the Norse that ‘their only thought was to flee.’

Seeing her kinsmen retreat, Freydis declared, ‘Had I a weapon I’m sure I could fight better than any of you.’ Though heavily pregnant, she joined the battle, snatching up the sword of a slain Viking. ‘When the Skraelings came rushing toward her she pulled one of her breasts out of her bodice and slapped it with her sword. The Skraelings were terrified at the sight of this and fled back to their boats and hastened away.’”

From A Voyage Long and Strange by Tony Horwitz

wat. history, man…

“…On the eve of battle [Alexander the Great] appeared in a dream to Pyrrhus, boldest of...

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 17:27:36 -0500

“…On the eve of battle [Alexander the Great] appeared in a dream to Pyrrhus, boldest of Greek generals, and when Pyrrhus asked what help a ghost could promise, ‘I lend you,’ he answered, ‘my name.’ True to the story, it was the name which retained a living fascination for two thousand years. It attracted the youthful Pompey, who aspired to it even in his dress; it was toyed with by the young Augustus, and it was used against the emperor Trajan; among poets, Petrarch attacked it, Shakespeare saw through it; Christians resented it, pagans maintained it, but to a Victorian bishop it seemed the most admirable name in the world. Grandeur could not resist it; Louis XIV, when young, danced as Alexander in ballet; Michelangelo laid out the square on Rome’s Capitol in the design of Alexander’s shield; Napoleon kept Alexander’s history as beside reading, though it is only a legend that he dressed every morning before a painting of Alexander’s grandest vistory. As a name, it had the spell of youth and glory: it was Julius Caesar who once looked up from a history of Alexander, thought for a while and then burst into tears ‘because Alexander had died at the age of thirty-two, king of so many peoples, and he himself had not yet achieved any brilliant success.’”

From Alexander the Great by Robin Lane Fox

“As the centuries passed, the original Indo-European language split into a dozen broad groups:...

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 17:00:13 -0500

“As the centuries passed, the original Indo-European language split into a dozen broad groups: Celtic, Germanic, Greek, Indo-Iranian, Slavonic, Thraco-Illyrian, and so on. These further subdivided into literally scores of new languages, ranging from Latin to Faeroese to Parthian to Armenian to Hindi to Portuguese. It is remarkable to reflect that people as various as Gaelic-speaking Scottish Highlander and a Sinhalese-speaking Sri Lankan both use languages that be directly traced back to the same starting point. With this in mind, it is perhaps little wonder that the Greeks and Romans had no idea that they were speaking languages that were cousins of the barbarian tongues all around them.”

From The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way by Bill Bryson

ohmygod, Chick-Fil-A, you have officially made the best cow...

Sat, 02 Feb 2013 01:28:00 -0500

ohmygod, Chick-Fil-A, you have officially made the best cow calendar in existence.

I’m wondering what other cow puns I can make out of historical figures…
Jacques Moosteau?…Dante Alidairy?

“Ideas about men and women are often asserted. [F. Scott] Fitzgerald was to write about the...

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 05:52:17 -0500

“Ideas about men and women are often asserted. [F. Scott] Fitzgerald was to write about the way we learned things. Speaking of Josephine in “First Blood,” he restated ‘Dr. Jung’s theory that innumerable male voices argue in the subconscious of a woman and even speak through her lips.’”

From Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and the Twenties by Ronald Berman

“In all languages, pronunciation is of course largely a matter of familiarity mingled with...

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 02:39:10 -0500

“In all languages, pronunciation is of course largely a matter of familiarity mingled with prejudice. The average English speaker confronted with agglomerations of letters like tchst, sthm, and tchph would naturally conclude that they were pretty well unpronounceable. Yet we use them every day in the words matchstick, asthma, and catchphrase.

Here, as in almost every other area of language, natural bias plays an inescapable part in any attempt at evaluation. No one has ever said, ‘Yes, my language is backward and unexpressive, and could really do with some sharpening up.’ We tend to regard other people’s languages as we regard their cultures- with ill-hidden disdain.
In Japanese, the word of foreigner means ‘stinking of foreign hair.’
To the Czechs, a Hungarian is ‘a pimple.’
Germans call cockroaches ‘Frenchmen,’ while the French call lice ‘Spaniards.’
We in the English-speaking world take French leave, but Italians and Norweigians talk about departing like an Englishman, and Germans talk of running like a Dutchman.
Italians called syphilis ‘the French disease,’ while both French and Italians call con games ‘American swindle.’
Belgian tazi drivers call a poor tipper ‘un Anglias.’
To be bored to death in French is ‘etre de Birmingham,’ literally ‘to be from Birmingham’ (which is actually about right).
And in English, we have ‘Dutch courage,’ ‘French letters,’ ‘Spanish fly,’ ‘Mexican carwash’ (i.e., leaving your car out in the rain), and many others.
Late in the last century, these epithets focused on the Irish, and often, it must be said, they were as witty as they were wounding. An Irish buggy was a wheelbarrow. An Irish beauty was a woman with two black eyes. Irish confetti was bricks. An Irish promotion was a demotion. Now almost the only slur against these fine people is to get one’s Irish up, and that isn’t really taken as an insult.”

From The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way by Bill Bryson

landofmaps: Territories and voyages of the Vikings [947 x 648]

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 12:44:36 -0500

landofmaps:

Territories and voyages of the Vikings [947 x 648]

“Any genetic change that improved hunting efficiency was sure to pay off. Enormous reward...

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 05:55:16 -0500

“Any genetic change that improved hunting efficiency was sure to pay off. Enormous reward awaited any group possessing muscular and mental skills that permitted more effective cooperation in the hunt. Emergent humanity reaped those rewards by developing patterns of communication that allowed increasingly effective mutual support in moments of crisis, and by elaborating tools and weapons to augment an unimpressive musculature and puny teeth and claws.”

From Plagues and People by William H. McNeill

“In the end, the success of the [Mercury] missions would depend on the physical and...

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 05:35:00 -0500

“In the end, the success of the [Mercury] missions would depend on the physical and psychological makeup of the pilots. Individuals with an extraordinary combination of physical prowess psychological stability, and intellectual capabilities not to mention courage, were needed. ‘What we’re looking for,’ one air force general remarked, ‘is a group of ordinary supermen.”

From First Men in Space by Gregory P. Kennedy

“Fitzgerald’s characters are more than the sum of their own experiences: they constitute...

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 23:55:17 -0500

“Fitzgerald’s characters are more than the sum of their own experiences: they constitute America itself as it moves into the Jazz Age.”

From Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and the Twenties by Ronald Berman