A Brief History On November 15, 2024, we take pleasure in reviewing a new book about some of the less well known and popular ancient civilizations, aptly titled The Other Ancient Civilisations by renowned scholar and archaeologist Raven Todd DaSilva of London, England, which is hinted at by the British spelling of “civilization” in the title. Digging Deeper A book suitable for the casual reader or college classroom, the author blends academic information with an eminently readable style that does not bore or confuse the reader. Each of the 20 chapters about one of the title civilizations starts with a…
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A Brief History On October 25, 1854, the gallant but foolish Battle of Balaclava took place during the Crimean War, propelling the Light Brigade into immortality when Alfred, Lord Tennyson, penned his great poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade. Digging Deeper As horrible as war is, human combat has also inspired writers to create epic poems, books and even music to remember those that fought and died. Just a a few of these great works include: In Flanders Fields by Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian doctor, who was lamenting the loss of life at the Second Battle of Ypres…
A Brief History On September 6, 2024, we scurried to our local theater to watch the remastered RealD version of the 2009 blockbuster stop motion film, Coraline. The original film was not only mega-successful when released in 2009, it also became the third highest grossing stop motion movie of all time with a box office of $172.8 million against a budget of $60 million Digging Deeper While the original version is of course great, according to various viewers, this new version, put together with incredible painstaking detail by the original animators, is absolutely extraordinary. Colorful, fast paced, and combining comedy…
A Brief History On August 9, 1854, Henry David Thoreau published his book, Walden; or, Life in the Woods, a book about his life with nature and self-reliance, a reflective story of his own philosophy of Transcendentalism. Digging Deeper A leading proponent of Transcendentalism was Ralph Waldo Emerson, who along with Thoreau and other Americans decried the then current state of society in what they saw as senseless conformity and instead urged people to find their own individual way in the universe. The Transcendentalists also developed an aversion to the institution of slavery. Emerson praised Plato, Moses, Jesus, Luther, Copernicus,…
A Brief History On June 8, 1949, the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by English writer Eric Blair, writing as George Orwell, was published, telling a story of a dystopian future where an intrusive government controls all, sees all, and wages never ending war. Digging Deeper Modeled after the regimes of the USSR under Stalin and Germany under Adolf Hitler, the novel terrified a generation about the dangers of big government and what the future might hold. Politicians and others often referred to the work in an effort to prevent the creep of government power. Some other novels that have shaped public…