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The detonation of the Castle Bravo thermonuclear bomb

Top Ten Origins: Civil Defense, Nuclear War, and Duct Tape

… administration and the North Korean regime and an errant incoming missile alert in Hawaii have focused America’s … Now anyone on earth, even thousands of miles from the site of a blast, could be killed or injured by nuclear … (DHS). Tasked to prepare for, prevent, and respond to domestic emergencies, primarily terrorist attacks, 22 …
Copy of an 1890 lithograph depicting the Battle of New Orleans during the Revolutionary War.

A New Resource in the War Against Terrorism?

… holding a variety of assets — real estate, weapons, communications equipment and large amounts of cash and … licensed. Privateers would not have immunity to violate domestic or overseas law, and their actions — as well as all … of governments; Aerobureau (of McLean, Va.) can offer clients a state-of-the-art aircraft equipped with data …
Comic from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle Sun.

“A New and Deadly Menace” (Prologued, Season 2, Episode 2)

… drugs, we find that stories of drug wars are actually quite commonplace. Ultimately, these drug wars, waged across … of India where most of this opium was grown. So sometimes it's called the “triangular trade,” because England, … there's actually a specific Spanish conquistador who takes credit for an 1830s, a guy by the name of Pedro Quadrado. …
The Romanov Family

The Romanov Tercentenary: Commemoration, History, and Power

… the Russias.” Services in Moscow capped a series of events commemorating the Romanovs’ tercentenary, in what proved to … deemed oppositional, the tsar brusquely cut him off. He welcomed supplicant peasant elders, but Kostroma was part of a … instead a major hub of textile manufacture and had been the site of major labor unrest in 1905; factory workers were …
Valerie Plame in 2008.

A Dirty–and Deadly–Trick

… Office shenanigans. Presidents and their underlings have committed numerous immoral, illegal or dodgy acts. They’ve … stocks for supporting federal land giveaways to railroad companies in 1873. Warren G. Harding’s secretary of the … the proceeds to buy guns for the Contras. In the ensuing mess, several administration members lied to Congress. Their …
Antichristus, a woodcut by Lucas Cranach the Elder: the pope depicted as the Antichrist, using his temporal power to grant authority to a generously contributing ruler.

The Bible as a Political Tool

… The 5,280-pound monument of the Ten Commandments installed by the Alabama Supreme Court Chief … all intents and purposes, Hebrew (in translation of course) comes a close second.   Moore’s claim that the Ten …
Sonia Sotomayor, U.S. Supreme Court justice.

Attacks on Sotomayor Ignore Court’s History and Makeup

… process. What’s unusual is that conservatives are complaining about the Court at the same time they’re … the presidents who appointed them are gone, the Court’s composition frequently lags behind the country’s political … left. At least then the right’s attacks on the Court will mesh better with reality. Jeremy C. Young is a doctoral …

The Ukrainian Crisis: In Russia's Long Shadow

… of Ukraine: Russia cannot be an empire without Ukraine and coming to terms with Ukraine’s separate nationhood is a … decided to seize the Crimean peninsula to bolster his domestic popularity, but in so doing he exploited complexities … nations. With Ukrainian independence, Russia lost many sites enshrined in its historical memory, including the …
Unification council of Orthodox Church in Ukraine, 2018.

The Religious Roots of the War in Ukraine

… in the Ukrainian Republic . By 1992, there were three competing Orthodox churches in Ukraine: the UOC-MP, a new … in the country, albeit one plagued by questions about its loyalty. The historical experience of living at a … Ukraine within their spiritual jurisdiction.  Religious complexity has underpinned a fundamental pluralism in …
Cover of The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union by Serhii Plokhy

"The Greatest Geopolitical Catastrophe of the Century"

Review of The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union, by Serhii Plokhy (New York: Basic Books, 2014)
… to declare independence ensured that the Soviet Union had become an irrelevancy and its dissolution had become an … of Moscow between the military and Boris Yeltsin, a discredited party apparatchik who turned to electoral politics … trail, that Bush and Baker were inclined toward a personal loyalty to Gorbachev. Defense Secretary Richard Cheney, on …
The Prairie Dog is an anti-Jefferson satire, relating to Jefferson's covert negotiations for the purchase of West Florida from Spain in 1804.

Not American Enough? This Political Slur Has a Long History

… with President Obama's birth certificate, still not completely laid to rest, is an extreme version of a tactic … will be soaked with blood, and the nation black with crimes." Rep. Fisher Ames of Massachusetts claimed that "the … Democratic candidate John Kerry in 2004. President Bush's Commerce Secretary Don Evans publicly remarked that Kerry …

From Karl Marx to Karl Rove: “Class Warfare” in American Politics

… Class is back. Whatever its other accomplishments, the Occupy Wall Street movement that sprouted … millions of Americans facing unemployment, losing their homes, and racking up student loan debt, the idea of a … bureaucrats tell them to," he said in 1980. But he did pour money into national defense, which he reportedly said …
Russian chemist and educator Dmitrii Mendeleev

Mendeleev's Periodic Table

… chemists had worked to find an organizing principle that encompassed all of the known elements and that could be … characteristics—they were largely inert and resistant to combining with other substances—but the entire set fit … in 1952. A 1923 Deming Periodic Table ; chemists frequently credit Horace Deming, a professor at the University of …
Castilian ambassadors attempt to ally themselves with Abu Hafs Umar al-Murtada.

The Iberian Realm of Islam

Review of Kingdoms of Faith: A New History of Islamic Spain, by Brian A. Catlos (New York: Basic Books, 2018)
… The reality of the Islamic kingdoms in Iberia was far more complex. Castilian ambassadors attempt to ally themselves … of unrest were already apparent. Factions emerged among competing groups—including among the ruling Umayyad dynastic … been. This illustration is from a Castilian handbook on games. Arabs brought chess to the Iberian Peninsula. Kingdoms …
Soldiers at the Battle of Stalingrad

Stalingrad at 75, the Turning Point of World War II in Europe

… of the Second World War began. More than four million combatants fought in the gargantuan struggle at Stalingrad … over France, Poland and others, Hitler and the German High Command ( Oberkommando des Heeres , or OKH), were confident … two hundred meters from the German front line. The Germans poured more and more men into the battle at Hitler’s …
portion of a movie poster for the movie Mary Queen of Scots, directed by Josie Rourke

At the Movies: Mary Queen of Scots

… to which men will go to take it away from them, and to the complicated politics of one’s immortal soul. Director Josie … obsessed with her own vanity as compared to Mary but comes to learn that beauty does not matter in this world of … so than Mary, Queen of Scots. The Reformation and her disloyal nobles forced her to abdicate in 1567. She fled to …
Flag of the People's Republic of China

With Enemies Like These…

… as they have from the furor last summer triggered by comments about Beijing’s human rights record made by Bob … for the company’s image and Beijing deserves much of the credit for this. You just can’t buy p.r. any better than … Post (“Mouseketeer Diplomacy”) and the New York Times (“The Mouse Makes a Stand”), which suggested that the …

The American Dream after COVID-19

… already been showing up in recent history. Millennials have come of age hearing they are the first generation in … History The phrase itself was coined in 1931 by historian James Truslow Adams . Adams expressed confidence, even at the … and enslaved African Americans lived with the cruelest opposite of the American Dream. Their abilities brought sneers …
Pope Francis smiling from inside a car as he leaves the White House in 2015.

Embracing the Pope–Selectively

… Protestants. Evangelical-Catholic relations have come a long way over the last generation, but for all their … Paul II. Today, evangelical cultural warriors such as James Dobson and Pat Robertson applaud the late pope’s … affirming what these two branches of Christendom hold in common. And in the best-selling Christian novel, “Left …
William Shakespeare

The Globe Theatre: Shakespeare Lost & Found

… last history play Henry VIII: Or, All is True. A volatile combination of a cheap roof and pyrotechnic effects could … all of the parts, moved the pieces of lumber across the Thames, and during spring 1599, reassembled the playhouse in … (pictured below) located only 750 feet from the original site. Shakespeare’s Globe opened (or reopened, or even …
Henry Ford with a Model T in 1921.

What Bill Ford Is Learning from Great-Grandpa

… Now that Ford Motor Company has announced its “Way Forward” restructuring plan, … countless visitors, among them Charlie Chaplin, who visited it before he produced “Modern Times,” the classic movie depiction of workers as cogs in …
Turkish soldiers standing over skeletal remains during Armenian Genocide

Armenians, Turks, and the Genocide Question

… April 24, 2015 marks the commemoration of the 100 th anniversary of the Armenian … The result was the physical annihilation of the Armenian communities that had lived in the Anatolian peninsula for … of the legal and historical label “genocide,” and why coming to terms with mass atrocities is so difficult today. …

Syria's Islamic Movement and the 2011-12 Uprising

… population walked out of the Istanbul meeting as well, complaining that the SNC had no intention of setting up a … in Islamic law. Their charity and activism earned the loyalty of many Syrian Muslims. During World War II, the … with Khaddam resorted to armed struggle in an attempt to discredit al-Bayanuni's leadership. Gunmen attacked a United …