August 2011

Edmund Burke hated the French Revolution

Edmund Burke was an influential Irish writer and politician in 18th century England. Born in 1729, h moved from his native Ireland to Britain where he served as a Whig party member in the House of Commons for many years. He was a hugely influential thinker within his party and during his time period, shaping the Whig party politics for many years. In fact, he split the party into two—the conservative section that he lead called the “Old Whigs” in opposition to a more liberal group he called the “New Whigs.”

A Brief History of American Cities

American cities didn’t always resemble the kind of places that we know and recognize today. Government and police forces weren’t organized, but instead operated as volunteer forces. Plumbing and sanitation concerns killed hundreds of thousands of people. Roads weren’t designed and neither was housing organized. We 21st century city dwellers wouldn’t have known what hit us, that’s for sure.

Sex with Neanderthals Made Us Stronger

This gives a new meaning to the phrase sexy beast

A lot of groups might have us believe that breeding with other colors than our own or starting families with the same sex as our own would be an abomination. It wasn’t very long ago when mixed race couples were outlawed or violently opposed; they still face struggles in many areas today. The same can obviously be said of gay couples, who still face opposition in most states in terms of marriage. I wonder what the people so vehemently against these unions have to say about humans actually breeding with another species?

Dawisha's Views on Nasir's Arab Nationalism

Adeed Dawisha is an interesting guy. Born in Baghdad, he went to study political science in England. Now, he works in the political science department at Miami University in Ohio. Dawish takes his background and his way of thinking and writes quite a bit about Arab nationalism, especially about how Egypt’s  president in the 1960’s, Gamel Abdel Nasir, influenced Arab and Egyptian nationalism.  

Black Women in the North in the 1800's

We hear quite a bit about the plight of black Southern women during and after slavery. We know that they were discriminated against, given the worst possible jobs and relegated to systematic poverty. Why is it that movies like The Help portray black women as the most sought after maids in the city? But was it really so much better in the northern United States during this same period? Let’s learn a bit more about black women in the north:

Five Seriously Racist Advertisements

And some are newer than you think.

We’re used to seeing historical racist advertisements. Aunt Jemima, the smiling black mammy, selling pancake mixes.  Uncle Ben, the kindly slave father, hocking rice. All varieties of aboriginals, Native Americans and Asians peddling everything from shoes to coffee to alcohol. But it’s probably a bit more surprising to see that we’re still putting out racist advertisements today. Whether blatant of not, these ads still follow the racist traditions of yesteryear.  Let’s look at some of the most racists ads from the 1920’s to the present day:

India-Pakistan Wars of the 1940's

I bought a map from 1937 the other day at an antique shop.  It's a fascinating map--the individual who owned it first drew swastikas on the countries as they were taken over by the Nazis at the end of the 1930's and into the 1940's.  But the thing that I didn't quite remember was that at this time in history, India was even huger than it is now.  There is no Bangladesh or Pakistan.  Along with India, Pakistani states gained their independence from Britain in 1947. It became an independent Islamic state in 1956. Bangladesh was granted its independence from Pakistan in 1971. The history of the creation of Pakistan is one we often forget, so here's a reminder: