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The patriarchy is forgetful: when women do get into power, which happens pretty often, we often manage to convince ourselves that it's the first time, over and over. Like Biden saying there [...]

I can't do better today than to repost this great blog post from Michael Press at Hyperallergic: The Perennial Problem with the Excavation of Ancient Sites Indeed, there is a staggering amount [...]

A general overview What's our beef with Iran? Why do we think of Iran as such a powerful and terrible enemy? Well, Iran has been a strong, powerful country since the Bronze [...]

An early image of the Gifts of the Magi, following the star and bringing presents to Jesus, from a 3rd century catacomb in Rome. Today's January 6th, which makes it [...]

Roman slave collar with tag asking the finder to return the slave When I was a kid, the standard story about slavery in medieval Europe was that the Roman Empire [...]

Like Christmas, Hanukkah is a holiday with a long and confusing history, not terribly well understood even by historians, and most people choose to remember only part of it. A homemade [...]

Three main points about Christmas: As with the history of Christmas trees, there are a lot of things about the history of Christmas that we have trouble remembering, mainly because it's a [...]

Japanese painting of Portuguese bringing Indian cargo to Japan (1500s AD) "A day that shall live in infamy..." When my mother was young, people knew where they had been when [...]

Mongols kill Hungarians at the Battle of Mohi (1241 AD) December 6, 1240 AD: The Mongols, under the command of Genghis Khan's grandson Batu Khan, invade Russia and make it [...]

Christmas Tree in Germany (late 1700s, by Joseph Keller) I'm starting to see a lot of trees through living room windows around my neighborhood, so it must be time for [...]