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The British Class System (03/09)
As mentioned in the notes at the end of
The House at Riverton, author
Kate Morton is fascinated with the whole concept of nobility and servant classes. I think many people who aren't familiar with such a strict class system, notably Americans and Australians like Morton, are also intrigued by the thought that there could have been a whole...
World War II at the Movies (03/09)
Alfred Day's attempt to face the disillusionment of war on a film set is similar to what society at the time was doing at the movie theaters. The massive movie hits of the 40s and 50s, like
To Hell and Back, allowed moviegoers on both sides of the Atlantic to relive moments of the war, if they had been directly involved, or to understand ...
Beaufort Castle and the Four Mothers Movement (02/09)
Beaufort Castle, the setting for
Beaufort, sits on a high, rocky outcropping in southern Lebanon (
map). Known in Arabic as Shqif Arnun ('High Rock'), it soars 1000 meters (more than 3000 feet) above the Litani River Valley. Its commanding,
360-degree views have made it perfectly suited for a command post or lookout, and it has been used ...
Caravaggio (02/09)
A painting presumed to be by the 17
th century painter
Caravaggio is central to the plot of
The Garden of Evil. The work found (which is purely fictional) is purported to be the artist's copy of an actual oil by Annibale Carracci, entitled
Venus with a Satyr and Cupids.
Caravaggio is one of the most fascinating and influential ...
The Yasa of Genghis Khan (02/09)
As Genghis Khan consolidated the nomadic tribes of the Asian steppe, he realized that a consistent rule of law was necessary to maintain order. He accomplished this by creating his 'Yasa' (or 'Yassa'), a comprehensive set of rules governing nearly all aspects of Mongolian life and culture. The original
Yasa ('decree' or 'order') is ...
Ken Saro-Wiwa (02/09)
In his acknowledgments, Richard North Patterson confirms that
Eclipse is
loosely based on the life and death of Nigerian writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995.
Ken Saro-Wiwa (1941-1995) was born Kenule Benson Tsaro-Wiwa in Bori, Rivers
State (a coastal state in the south of Nigeria,
map).
He was the son of Jim Beesom ...
Sign Language & Deaf Culture (02/09)
Hundreds of years of evolution have shaped American Sign Language (ASL), today the main sign language for deaf people in the U.S., parts of Canada and Mexico, and many other countries around the world. Derived in part from the personal hand signal repertoires of many deaf individuals, ASL has grown to become a fully functional language, a...
Animal Behaviors in Grief and Mating (02/09)
There have been many observations of
elephants grieving. In Joyce Poole's
Coming of Age With Elephants, Poole illustrates the depth of elephant grieving. A clan of elephants was moving towards newer territory, when suddenly one of the elephants fell over. Soon enough the other elephants noticed that one of their ...
The British Resistance (02/09)
During WWII, Winston Churchill initiated the British Resistance Organization, or
Auxiliary Units, as preparation for the expected invasion of the British Isles
by Nazi Germany. In Owen Sheers's alternative history, the Nazis succeed, and
the insurgents mobilize at once. A highly secretive organization, the resistance
primarily ...
East Prussia (02/09)
The Central European region known as Prussia extended from the
south-eastern coast of the Baltic Sea to the
Masurian Lake District which is now divided between Poland, Russia, and
Lithuania. East Prussia was a province in the Eastern part of the region
which, along with the rest of Prussia, became part of the German Empire during...
The Tiananmen Square Protests (02/09)
Beginning in mid-April, 1989, thousands of demonstrators anchored by a core
group of dissident university students occupied Beijing's Tiananmen Square. In
what has been described as the greatest challenge to the communist state in
China since its inception in 1949, tens of thousands soon joined in the peaceful
protest, angered by ...
A Plantagenet Primer (02/09)
Henry II
(1133-1189), the first Plantagenet* king, was born and brought up in France but lived
to rule England for 35 years. His name will always be tied obliquely to the
murder of Archbishop Thomas à Becket at Canterbury Cathedral in 1170, even
though he's often lauded as one of the most effective of all England's
monarchs...
Quack Medicine (01/09)
In the nineteenth century, when even mainstream medical therapies included
painful bloodletting and leeching, quack* medicine didn't seem quite so quacky.
If you wanted your hair to grow, you could don a Thermocap to send just the
right amount of heat to your follicles. If your eyes were weak, you could apply
the Neu-Vita ...
The Underground Railway Secret Code (01/09)
Quilts hung out in a rainstorm, barrels stacked in careful sequence, boats
tied to the dock with five knots facing one direction, songs of freedom and
warning, a blacksmith's hammer ringing out in an undetectable sequence; all are
evidence of the secret codes of the Underground Railroad: cryptic communications
used to facilitate ...
The Black Panthers (01/09)
The author's father, Paul Coates, was a member of the
Black Panther Party. As Coates describes in his book, the Party's original
aims concerned self-defense and social justice. Bobby Seale and Huey Newton
founded the Party in 1966. Its diverse membership, however, made cohesion
difficult and produced geographically clustered ...
Uncle Tom's Cabin, Absinthe & Brooklyn (01/09)
- Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe was the best-selling novel of the 19th century (and the second best-selling book of that century, following the Bible) and is credited with helping fuel the abolitionist cause in the 1850's. In the first year after it was published, 300,000 copies of the book were sold in the United States alone....
Literary Rats (01/09)
Though his book is wildly inventive, Savage is far from the first novelist to anthropomorphize a rat. Firmin stands out for presenting literature as sustenance for the body as well as the mind - as Firmin eats his way through the books, the thoughts, words and deeds contained consume him with intoxicating curiosity.
For every work of ...
Akbar the Great (01/09)
Salman Rushdie did a tremendous amount of research before writing
The Enchantress of Florence, as evidenced by its six-page bibliography. Many of the characters are drawn from history, the most interesting and prominent being Akbar the Great.
As in the book, Akbar the Great was known to be a wise and benevolent ruler. He ruled the
Mughal ...
Redactions in Modern Literature (01/09)
Though the memo at the end of the novel from the CIA Publications Review Board is addressed to the novel's protagonist, Mark Ruttenberg, thus revealing the redactions (blanked out text) as a fictional device to create an aura of authenticity, the noveldid actually pass by the PRB—six times. Weisberg preemptively redacted his own work...
All About Bananas (01/09)
Bananas may look like they grow on trees but in fact they grow on plants that are related to the lily and orchid family.
The term 'banana republic' was coined by American humorist and short story writer O. Henry, in reference to Honduras - 'republic' in his day being a common euphemism for a dictatorship.
On a number of occasions the term ...
A Short History of Afghanistan (11/08)
Afghanistan lies on the historically important trading routes between the Middle East and the Indian sub-continent. As a result of numerous invasions and migrations it is made up of many different ethnic groups including Baluch, Chahar Aimak, Turkmen, Hazara, Pashtun, Tajik, Uzbek, Nuristani, Arab, Kirghiz, Pashai and Persian.
Historically...
About The Dreamtime (11/08)
In
Lost Paradise, Nooteboom introduces us to Alma and Almut, best friends barely
out of teenagehood, as they leave their childhood homes in Sao Paulo, Brazil for
Australia. They're on a rather listless quest in search of The Dreamtime, an
Aboriginal concept of creation and spiritual existence with which the two best
friends have ...
Rosemary Mahoney (11/08)
Some people categorize Rosemary Mahoney as a travel writer, but she is much
more than that label suggests. Her intellectual curiosity, fearlessness, and
ability to craft beautiful prose, along with her uncanny knack for being in the
right place at the right time, have led to her success.
Her first adventure occurred when she was ...
A Short History of Mongolia (11/08)
Mongolia (
map)
is located in Northern Asia between China and Russia. It should not be
confused with the Mongol autonomous region of the People's Republic of China
(known as Inner Mongolia), which is located in the north of China, bordering
southern Mongolia.
The name 'Mongol' was first recorded by the Chinese during the Tang ...
A Short History of Darts (11/08)
The origin of the game of darts is lost in the mists of time. The game is
known to have been played since at least the Middle Ages in England, but it
seems likely that bored soldiers lounging around the campsite have probably been
throwing arrows at targets for much longer. In fact, it doesn't take much
imagination to trace the ...
The Roma People in Britain (11/08)
From the first page to the
last, Winspear sympathetically
portrays Maisie Dobb's
acceptance of and respect for
Roma people, and celebrates
their spirit. Sometimes referred
to pejoratively as 'gypsies' in
English speaking countries (a
...
Little Known Facts About Stalin (10/08)
- Born Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvili in 1878, Stalin had as many as forty names, nicknames,
bylines and aliases throughout his life. He did not start to use the name
Stalin, meaning man of steel, until
1912.
- Stalin began writing poetry while at school (mainly in a
romantic-pastoral style that was the convention for ...
The Era of Witchhunts (10/08)
The period of the 'Great European Witch-hunt's' started around 1450. There are many theories as to why the witch-hunts started in the first place (which are neatly outlined at this
website - which, should be noted, belongs to a Catholic College); but the flames were certainly fed by Pope Innocent VIII's 1484 papal bull, in which he ...
The Linking Threads of God and Gold (10/08)
As you might expect with a book about history such as
God and Gold, there's plenty of interesting points to highlight and even more for readers to birddog; but Mead is so polyhistoric in his knowledge and so profligate with his references, moving easily from Matthew Arnold to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, it's hard to choose where to begin. Do we...
Belief in Ghosts (10/08)
- A recent survey, cited by Boylan, reveals that 48% of people say they believe in ghosts, with women more
likely to say so (56%) than men (38%); overall, more than 1 in 5
Americans say they have seen or been in the presence of a ghost. Having said that, other
polls have put the general figures between 37%-65%, which does make ...
The story of Chess (10/08)
Chess is thought to have originated in northern India or Afghanistan. The earliest written references are from around 600 AD but there is some evidence that the game could have existed as early as 100 AD. Interest in chess spread along the trade routes from India, with different
variations found in different countries, such as Shogi in ...
The Lost Empire of Khazaria (10/08)
Khazaria (
map) was an empire founded by semi-nomadic Turks in the 7th century. Khazaria was a strong ally of the Byzantine Empire and enemies of the Crimean Goths. By the time of its decline in the 10th century, Khazaria covered much of what is now southern Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the ...
Janusz Korczak (09/08)
Tucked into
The Zookeeper's Wife is the equally myth-like
story of Janusz Korczak (
photo). A friend of the Zabinksis', Korczak was a Polish writer and pediatrician who founded a progressive orphanage for boys and girls in Warsaw in 1912. He had a popular radio show, enjoyed by both children and adults, and his children's book,
King ...
A Short History of Saudi Arabia (09/08)
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia covers an area about the third of the size of
the USA, and occupies most of the Arabian peninsula (
map),
most of which is desert.
Its population is about 27 million, of which 5 million are foreigners
(technicians, merchants, diplomats and soldiers). 90% of citizens are
Arabs and all are Muslims (...
A Short History of Haiti (09/08)
The Republic of Haiti occupies about one-third of the island of Hispaniola (the second largest island in the Carribean;
map); the remainder being the Dominican Republic (Hayti means
mountainous land in the native Arawak* language).
In 1697, the French colonized the island and imported African slaves to work the lush coffee and sugar ...
A Short History of the Dominican Republic (09/08)
The Dominican Republic occupies two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola, which it shares with Haiti (
map). Claimed by Christopher Columbus in 1492, Hispaniola became a springboard for Spanish conquest of the Caribbean and the American mainland. In 1697, Spain recognized French dominion over the western third of the island, which became ...
Laos and the Hmong (09/08)
A Brief History of Laos
The Lao People's Democratic Republic, commonly known as Laos (sounds like
'louse') is located in South-East Asia where it is sandwiched by Vietnam on
the East and Thailand on the West. It shares its northern border with
China and Burma/Myanmar, and its southern border with Cambodia (
map).
It's population...
eddie Chapman and the de Havilland Mosquito (09/08)
- After the war, Chapman dumped his various girlfriends and went back to pre-war lover Betty Farmer, who he last saw as he hurriedly extricated himself from dinner with her in order to escape the Jersey police in 1938. Their daughter, Suzanne, was born in 1954, and the Chapmans set up a health farm at Shenley Lodge in Hertfordshire (south ...
A Short History of Jamaica (09/08)
The island nation of
Jamaica is in the Greater Antilles about 385 northeast of the Central American mainland, and about 90 miles south of Cuba. Within a century of Columbus sailing the ocean blue and the subsequent Spanish occupation of the island in 1494, the native Arawaks (who called the island Xaymaca) had effectively died out, due to ...
Ichthyology (08/08)
Ichthyology is the branch of zoology that studies fish. This includes skeletal fish, cartilaginous fish and jawless fish.
There are at least 25,000 fish species in existence. Each year, about 250 new species are discovered and described.
The largest species of fish known is the
Whale Shark, which can grow to up to 50 feet in length and can ...
A Short History of Lebanon (08/08)
The area now known as Lebanon (
map) was settled by the seafaring Phoenicians (also known as Caananites) around 3,500 BCE. They established city states such as Beirut, Tyre and Sidon. Over the next five millennia the area would come under the control of numerous empires including the Persian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Crusader and ...
Rankin Inlet & The Inuit (08/08)
Rankin Inlet (
picture)
has a population of about 2,200.
It is located on the 63rd
parallel on the west shore of
Hudson Bay (
map)
approximately 1,100 miles north
of Winnipeg in the recently
formed territory of Nunavut,
which was ...
The Republic of Sierra Leone (08/08)
The Republic of Sierra Leone is a small country with a population of about 5.3 million on the west coast of Africa bordered by Guinea and Liberia. The life expectancy of men is 39 years and women 42 years. The name is an adaptation of the Portuguese, 'serra leoa' (lion mountains). During the 18th century it was an important center for the...
Yiddish Theatre in America (07/08)
More than 200 Yiddish theatre troupes performed in the United States between 1890 and 1940 (
photo of a theater group in 1909). In their heyday in the 1920s, twelve troupes resided in New York City alone, with 22 Yiddish theatres on the Lower East Side, the Bronx, and Brooklyn. Their repertoires spanned a variety of genres including ...
Selected Events from the early 1960s (from a British perspective) (07/08)
1960: Penguin Books put on trial under the 1959 Obscene Publications Act for publishingLady Chatterley's Lover (30 years after it had first been published in Italy). They are found not guilty and the prosecution is widely ridiculed as being out of touch with changing social norms when the chief prosecutor asks if it were the kind of book ...
Poliomyelitis (07/08)
Poliomyelitis, more commonly known as Polio, is a viral disease that has plagued humans since ancient times. It is transmitted primarily through direct fecal-oral contact. However, it can also be transmitted by indirect contact with infectious saliva or feces or by contaminated sewage or water.
In over 90% of cases there are no symptoms ...
All About Cheese (07/08)
Cheese can be made from the the milk of any mammal capable of being milked. Simply put, cheese making is the process of removing water from milk. The simplest method is to add an acid such as lemon juice or vinegar directly to the milk; an alternative method uses bacteria to create an acid in the milk; the bacteria also provides flavor ...
A Short History of al-Qaeda (07/08)
The history of the Sunni-Muslim organization al-Qaeda ('The Base') can be traced
to the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Osama
bin Laden, a young, wealthy Islamic idealist from Saudi Arabia, felt compelled
to assist his fellow Muslims in their struggle against these 'infidels.' He
moved his factories to Afghanistan, and ...
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