worldhistory

worldhistory, 20 hours ago to history

Even in ancient Rome, people hated being ruled by timekeeping devices. Plautus wrote:

Confound him... Who in this place set up a sundial

To cut and hack my days so wretchedly!

Take a look at the devices that have chopped up our lives for millennia:

#history @histodons
https://open.substack.com/pub/worldhistory/p/to-cut-and-hack-my-days

worldhistory, 7 days ago to history

How did horses become war machines — and find themselves amidst the machinery of modern war? This week, a look at the experience of the horses that were shipped around the world and made to fight in our most terrible conflicts.

#history @histodons
https://open.substack.com/pub/worldhistory/p/nobody-asked-the-horses-part-2

worldhistory, 14 days ago to history

Nobody asked the horses whether they’d like to participate in our wars, but they had to do so anyway. This week, we look at the early history of the horses who found themselves at the center of human violence.

#history @histodons
https://open.substack.com/pub/worldhistory/p/nobody-asked-the-horses?r=7ecn0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

worldhistory, 19 days ago to history

Erastus Salisbury Field was an American folk art painter in the late 19th century.

He painted this delightfully off-kilter depiction of the Garden of Eden (my newsletter subject this week!), but his most famous work was the very complicated “Historical Monument of the American Republic.”
#history @histodons

naked people on a plain with tall trees and some animals. Mountains in the background.

worldhistory, 21 days ago to history

The Bible doesn’t say much about what the Garden of Eden looked like, which has allowed artists to impose their own ideas on it over the centuries. This week, we take a look at the artistic evolution of paradise.

@histodons #history
https://open.substack.com/pub/worldhistory/p/the-garden-of-our-dreams?r=7ecn0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

worldhistory, 28 days ago to history

What do Yankee Doodle, guys in Rembrandt paintings, and fancy ladies of the late 1800s have in common? Feathers on their hats, of course. This week, we explore the fashion for feathered hats — and the environmental destruction that resulted.

@histodons #history
https://open.substack.com/pub/worldhistory/p/plumage-and-plunder?r=7ecn0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

worldhistory, 1 month ago to history

The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 devastated one of America’s most dynamic and flawed cities. This week, a look at what San Francisco was like before, during, and after the quake.

#history @histodons
https://open.substack.com/pub/worldhistory/p/san-francisco-1906?r=7ecn0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

worldhistory, 1 month ago to history

Next Monday, many of us in the United States will get to experience something that’s captivated people for thousands of years — a solar eclipse. In this week’s newsletter, I look at how people have imagined and depicted eclipses for more than three millennia.

#history @histodons

https://open.substack.com/pub/worldhistory/p/imagining-eclipses?r=7ecn0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

worldhistory, 1 month ago to history

The Romans and Greeks used “barbarians” as a convenient foil, a way to define themselves. So how did they depict foreigners in their art, and what can that tell us about the Romans, the Greeks, and the so-called barbarians?

#history @histodons
https://open.substack.com/pub/worldhistory/p/who-were-the-barbarians?r=7ecn0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

worldhistory, 1 month ago to history

It’s the skinniest bit of the Americas, which has always defined its potential to outsiders. Come take a look at the photos and cartoons that tell the complex, fascinating history of Panama and its Canal.

#history @histodons
https://open.substack.com/pub/worldhistory/p/isthmus-be-the-place?r=7ecn0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

worldhistory, 2 months ago to history

For most of human history, nobody thought jumping from a great height, with only a bit of fabric to keep you from hurtling to your death, was a good idea.

But then the parachute emerged as a safety device and a thrill-seeker's tool... let’s look at its history.

#history @histodons
https://open.substack.com/pub/worldhistory/p/to-resist-a-fall-the-strange-history?r=7ecn0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

worldhistory, 2 months ago to history

This week, an excursion into the rough-and-tumble history of boxing. Come explore the bloody heyday of Greek and Roman boxing, the disappearance of the sport in the Middle Ages, and its revival in early-modern England.

#history @histodons
https://open.substack.com/pub/worldhistory/p/the-fighter-still-remains?r=7ecn0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

worldhistory, 2 months ago to history

Re-animating the dead. Suspending an “electric boy” from the ceiling. And finding extremely unconventional uses for electric eels. This week, a tour through the weird history of humanity’s experiments with electricity.
#history @histodons

https://open.substack.com/pub/worldhistory/p/shocking-just-shocking?r=7ecn0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

worldhistory, 2 months ago to history

A year in the life of Paris, a century after the storming of the Bastille. A time of technological innovation, political turbulence, and cultural ferment. Let’s explore the City of Light in 1889.

#history @histodons
https://open.substack.com/pub/worldhistory/p/paris-1889?r=7ecn0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

worldhistory, 3 months ago to history

American propaganda during World War II covered a dizzying array of subjects — from venereal disease to forest fires — in a wild array of styles. This week, let's take a look at some of the lesser-known American wartime posters.
#history @histodons

https://open.substack.com/pub/worldhistory/p/wwii-propaganda-from-tempting-vixens

worldhistory, 3 months ago to history

Much of what we know about the Parthian Empire comes from their Roman rivals. But the artifacts they left behind speak for themselves — Parthia was a place where ancient cultures collided, creating something remarkable and new.

#history @histodons

https://open.substack.com/pub/worldhistory/p/an-ancient-crossroad-of-cultures?r=7ecn0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

worldhistory, 3 months ago to history

For pretty much all of human history, rulers have worn fancy little hats. This week, a look into the long history of the crown, featuring some of the most stunning examples of royal headwear from around the world.

#history @histodons

https://open.substack.com/pub/worldhistory/p/fancy-hats-for-fancy-people?r=7ecn0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcome=true

worldhistory, 3 months ago to history

Was Nero the ultimate decadent Roman emperor — incestuous, gluttonous, and cruel? Or was he misunderstood? Do we even know what he looked like? This week, let’s take a look at the boy emperor:

https://open.substack.com/pub/worldhistory/p/will-the-real-nero-please-stand-up?r=7ecn0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcome=true

#history @histodons

worldhistory, 3 months ago to history

This week, a look at the millennium when the chariot was the gold standard in military technology and a sure sign of affluence… including some beautiful examples of chariots that have survived the ravages of history.

#history @histodons
https://open.substack.com/pub/worldhistory/p/terror-on-two-wheels?r=7ecn0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcome=true

worldhistory, 4 months ago to history

Wouldn’t you like to be able to see what 2024 has in store for you?

This is an eternal human desire, and people have devised all sorts of ways to try to find out what’s coming. This week, let’s take a look at artifacts related to divination, the ancient practice of trying to find out the gods’ intentions — often by using the oddest methods. Featuring sheep’s livers, oracle bones, and more!

https://open.substack.com/pub/worldhistory/p/tell-me-the-future?r=7ecn0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcome=true

#history @histodons

worldhistory, 4 months ago to history

This week, a look at the history of medieval Christianity -- in China.

https://open.substack.com/pub/worldhistory/p/the-church-of-the-east?r=7ecn0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcome=true

#history @histodons

worldhistory, 4 months ago to history

How did past climate events show up in art? Let’s look at paintings whose artists captured the Little Ice Age and the biggest volcanic eruptions of the nineteenth century, often without really understanding what they were seeing.

https://open.substack.com/pub/worldhistory/p/the-volcanoes-and-the-paintings?r=7ecn0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcome=true

#history @histodons

worldhistory, 5 months ago to history

The Codex Mendoza, composed in 1541, was an attempt to memorialize Aztec culture, capturing knowledge of a world that was swiftly disappearing. Let’s flip through its pages together.

https://open.substack.com/pub/worldhistory/p/window-into-a-lost-world?r=7ecn0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

#history @histodons

worldhistory, 5 months ago to history

People in the past sure loved reminding themselves of their inevitable demise. This week, a little excursion into the art of the memento mori.

https://open.substack.com/pub/worldhistory/p/remember-you-will-die?r=7ecn0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

@histodons #history

worldhistory, 5 months ago to history

We tend to think of the Acropolis as an unchanged relic of classical Athens, but it turns out that a lot of stuff has happened there since the time of Pericles:

#history @histodons

https://open.substack.com/pub/worldhistory/p/historys-still-happening-on-the-acropolis-a46?r=7ecn0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web