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Top view of engineer at desk with laptop, hardhat, and blueprints

Origins interviews the American Society of Civil Engineers

… Thanks for having me. Patrick Potyondy   So to start off, your organization, the ASCE produces a national report … Tom Smith   Sure. And by the way, the next report card will come out in 2017. What we do is we look at 16 …
The University of Algiers, ca. 1920.

The University of Algiers Library Bombing

… three phosphorous bombs at the University of Algiers. By 12:30pm, the main building of the university was engulfed in … of thousands of books, periodicals, and manuscripts had become fuel for the flames.  Newspapers around the world … efforts, in April 1968, the University of Algiers library officially reopened.  Although it was eventually possible to …
The Statue of Liberty during the June 10, 2021 solar eclipse.

Solar Eclipses in American History

… 1806, the  Great North American Eclipse of April 8, 2024, will plunge day into night. Its path of totality will cut … total solar eclipse . Dating to 1223 BCE in Syria, it was accompanied by the appearance of  Mars in the sky and … “Two livers were examined: danger.”  Then, as now, eclipses offer perspective through their enormity. They command …
Crucifixion of Saint Peter by Caravaggio (1600, Cerasi Chapel).

Persecuted Christians?

… of the early martyrs are wildly exaggerated, if not completely fictional. But later, better documented deaths … be allowed to become president of the United States. But again, this sort of discrimination pales when compared with … Christians in the United States are not allowed to offer officially sanctioned prayer in public schools, a …
We Are Our Mountains (Tatik u Papik) Monument, Stepanakert.

A Postcard from Nagorno-Karabakh

… historical monuments and churches.  Sadly, it has become the center of a major feud between Armenians and … . For its part, Iran was particularly alarmed about cross-border shelling into its territory during the 2016 war.  … Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh. Ultimately, a resolution will require a peace between the societies and political …
Church and belltower at Usol’e.

A Postcard from the Ural Mountains

… to and from Siberia in 1734 and again in September 1742, commenting from Nev’iansk: “I had little interaction with … Perm and the Saltworks On the morning of the 12 th , we set off for Solikamsk and Usol’e to the north of Perm, where we … Semën Remezov in 1703 and then V.N. Tatishchev in the 1730s. We pulled on parkas and silk underwear to spend 90 …
The Course of Empire: Destruction, Painted by Thomas Cole, depicts a highly dramatic, catastrophic image of Rome's end.

Political Economy in the Late Roman Empire

Review of The Tragedy of Empire: From Constantine to The Destruction of Roman Italy, by Michael Kulikowski (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2019)
… in church politics, while Julian flounders after becoming augustus and Jovian emerged as the first “compromise … those more powerful than he. The Emperor Constantine I, r. 306-337 The joint rule of Valentinian (r. 364-375) and … importantly, the powerful, fractious networks of elites, bishops, generals and administrators that both supported and …
Exiles carry a poster against the communist government of Cuba, in a demonstration in Miami

Cuba in Focus–Again

… the exiles and the U.S. government joined in a powerful common cause to dump Castro, who, in the peak Cold War … have not been able to reverse Washington's hands-off-Cuba stance, but they have spearheaded its policy of … have lost less in property and status. They are more willing to countenance links with Cuba. Meanwhile, new …

Tradition vs Charisma: The Sunni-Shi'i Divide in the Muslim World

… in the Islamic world and the reasons why they have become so explosive in Iraq, it is hardly surprising that … Jerry Adams and the not Very Reverend Ian Paisley that offers the best chance to bring "Troubles" to an end, so too … Iraqi cities had been part of the Sunni Ottoman Empire (1300-1919 CE) for most of the previous 400 years. During most …
Mehmed VI, the last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, leaving the country after the abolition of the Ottoman sultanate, 1922

The Long End of the Ottoman Empire

… Ottoman rule for centuries. The Balkan Wars saw atrocities committed against civilians on a massive scale. The … accord them a dignified place in the new postwar world order. To their great dismay, however, the Conference … East.  However, the Treaty of Lausanne also marked the official end of long-lasting Ottoman co-existence. It …
Three Young White Men and a Black Woman (1632) by Christiaen van Couwenbergh.

A Question of Power, Not Sex

… who belong to New Birth Baptist Church near Atlanta. Some commentators have condemned Bishop Eddie Long’s virulently anti-gay theology and political … was sodomized with a broken broom handle by police officers, the nation paused in horror but then moved on, …
Pamphlet of "Virginia Women Opposed to Suffrage"

Equal Suffrage Awaits Trial (Prologued, Season 1, Episode 3)

… clubs and launched multiyear protests. While sharing a common goal, these efforts were not without internal … Flores-Villalobos And this was really as early as the 1830s in the mills, like the mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, … College for three years and then married a similarly well-off New York businessmen in 1875, after which she dedicated …
Two baseballs.

Why Dick Allen Never Reached the Hall

… career home runs and his 1,119 RBIs place him in the same company as such Hall of Famers as Yogi Berra, Roy … Why not Allen, whose rebellious behavior was not nearly as offensive? Dick Allen may not have acted with the same … record, should merit a bronze plaque at Cooperstown. William C. Kashatus's is a writer for the History News …
The United States Declaration of Independence

The Writing Is Faded, the Message Lives

… repairs. There is no reason for concern. Most Americans will tell you that the Declaration is a precious document … And when the Declaration was examined in 1820, government officials feared that its ink was fading. In an effort to … was brilliant, but the process nearly destroyed the text. Compounding the damage was the decision in 1841 to put the …
Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire, by Judith Herrin Book Cover

Byzantium for Dummies

Review of Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire, by Judith Herrin (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2008)
… to Byzantium , Herrin relates a story of two builders coming to her office after passing it daily to ask her what exactly … economic history spanning a thousand years in a volume that will not intimidate a reader with its size or style. In …
Ellis Island, New York City.

Hiding Behind Reform

… between present-day immigration and the flood of newcomers who came in the past. ProjectUSA’s website is … an immigrant ancestor. They argue that past immigration was good for the United States because the immigrants were different (i.e., European), willing to Americanize (they had no choice), and too proud …
A Sea Fight with Barbary Corsairs by Laureys a Castro, c. 1681

Hostage Taking in Algeria Is a 200-Year-Old Story

… The State Department is probably very pleased with the outcome of last week’s hostage crisis in Algeria, although …   The sketchy coverage is an important reason why American officials may be happy. History shows that when hostage crises drag on and the public comes to make a personal connections with the captives, …
Heads of delegations at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21), which led to the signing of the Paris Agreement.

Looking for a Common Language at Copenhagen

… of solving a problem facing the entire world, the summit’s composition best resembles a hodgepodge of national-or what … conferences sponsored by the League of Nations in the 1930s which followed a decade of similar naval arms talks. … summits about summits. Many end up being talking shops, producing little in the way of results.   This is in …
A glass negative of Warren G. Harding.

Sex Scandals and U.S. History

… George Santayana made one of the world’s best known comments about history when he said that those who learn … letter card” to incite moral outrage and defeat Clinton will backfire on him and his party. In the current sex … campaign for actions that are not remotely like impeachable offenses, which are now and have always been violations of …
Cover of The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall by Mary Elise Sarotte.

…And the Walls Came Tumbling Down: A History of Contingency and Happenstance

Review of The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall, by Mary Elise Sarotte New York: Basic Books, 2014.
… irrevocably porous. But the events of November 9 did not come from nowhere. The fall of the Berlin Wall—as detailed … proved intolerable to Honecker, who sealed the state off entirely from both Hungary and ally Czechslovakia—from … end as we expect. Nevertheless, we find that, just after 11:30 pm, accident and ambition were resolved as the first …
American nuclear missile from the early Cold War in its original launch silo.

A Basis for Hope in the Middle East

… reliant on trust rather than the sword. But for this to become a reality, there must be an accumulation of goodwill. Like the Soviet-American negotiations during the Cold … William Lambers …
President Barack Obama signed the ARRA into law on February 17, 2009. Vice President Joe Biden stood directly behind him.

A New New Deal Must Be For All

… Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan has provoked comparisons with Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. Like … Dealers treated jobs for women as an afterthought. As one official told Eleanor Roosevelt in 1935, "For unskilled men, … service positions to one per family. By January 1934, only 300,000 out of four million jobless women — 12 percent — had …
President George W. Bush sitting at his desk in 2001.

Social Security: False Crisis, Destructive Solutions

… Association of Realtors, the largest political action committee, as measured by direct contributions to federal … will be funded by payroll tax revenues. The remaining 30 percent will have to be cut or funded by other sources. … In fact, the trustees of the Social Security system offer a more optimistic assessment. They claim that economic …