When growing up, there are certain stories children are told. These stories are typically whimsical, often magical, and sometimes, even spooky – however, almost all of the time, these stories convey a moral lesson that could prove to be useful in later life, ending on an educational but heartwarming note. For example, “friendship makes life …
At the 90th Academy Awards, Black Panther’s cast stunned the world with their stylish looks. Lupita Nyong’O’s hair, in particular, was the talk of the town. Hairstylist Vernon François styled her hair into three braided crescents wrapping around her head with gold thread woven in. Though it felt unique to many, the Amasunzu hairstyle heavily inspired Nyong’O’s …
The Amasunzu Hairstyle: A Traditional Rwandan Haircut Read More »
Manorialism, or the Manor System, was a key component of Feudalism in Western Europe in the Medieval Era. Sometimes known as the Middle Ages, this period lasted from shortly after the end of the Roman Empire in the 5th century CE and the Renaissance in the late 15th century. In this article, we’re going to …
Manorialism: What is It, How Does It Work, and How Did it End? Read More »
Prior to World War One, Germany was a prosperous nation. In the decades since its unification, it had become an industrial powerhouse leading Europe in fields like chemicals, machinery, and optics. Its gold-backed currency traded at comparable rates to the British shilling, Italian lira, and French Franc (about 4-5:1 against the U.S. Dollar). Nine years …
German Hyperinflation Made A Loaf of Bread Cost 200 Billion Marks in 1923 Read More »
Everybody poops. This is one of humanity’s truths, such that we tend not to think about it too much unless the person in question has a low fiber diet. Though people have been experiencing normal biological functions since before the dawn of civilization, a way to remove that waste healthily and reliably has shifted and …
The Surprisingly Fascinating History of Plumbing Read More »
It ain’t easy being the king….queen… or even president? The point is, it’s hard to be at the top. History is chock-full of murdered monarchs, unlucky emperors, and deposed queens. Can you imagine waiting and preparing your entire life for this position, only to have it ripped away in a second, doomed to the footnotes …
For centuries, Japan held its borders tightly closed off from the world to avoid allowing Western influence to permeate their cherished culture. In that time, the origins of multiple currently well known Japanese traditions were lost to that time of the country’s history. One such source is one of the Japanese martial art of karate. …
In the 1920s the Soviet Union retreated from socialist values in favor of a free market. Free trade was permitted, and as War Communism ended, the Soviet government no longer forcefully requisitioned grain from the peasants. This all came crashing down after 1928 when the period of collectivization began, and the Soviet Union dived into …
How The Soviet New Economic Policy Turned Into Collectivization Read More »
Coinciding with the fall of the Soviet Union came a rapid growth in various, often polar, viewpoints on the nature of the collapse. Some follow a totalitarian model, believing that once the state ceased to practice coercion, it was bound to collapse, making its entire model inimical to reforms. On the other end were those …
After the October Revolution, Soviet leadership inherited a nation in shambles after a costly World War. Faced with an economy that had been backward before the war and a civil war taking shape, policy became focused on the modernization of the USSR to improve the labor productivity that had already dropped to one-third of pre-war …
Soviet Scientific Management: Taylorism Between 1917 and 1928 Read More »
