The unexpected heir usurped, bereaved, and whose three children are the key to success…
Category: History
Profiles of our favorite badass ladies of history.
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A Brief History of Women’s History Month
I’ve been self-identifying as a feminist as long as I can remember, but it was only few years ago that I realized I didn’t know the history of March’s Women’s History Month. As part of rectifying this oversight, I wrote “A Brief History of Women’s History Month” for Persephone back in 2011 and we’ve rerun […]
What… or who… is actually being maligned?
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A History of Possession
My students always struggle with apostrophe use. Indeed, it’s probably the number one writing — error? problem? nonstandard usage? — I see in my students’ writing. My guess is that apostrophe usage is on the way out. I suspect a hundred years from now, English writers will not use apostrophes. And that’s okay. I’m not […]
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Medieval Legends
Not many people know this, but I have a fondness for “Strange yet true!” tales, of the type that are clearly false (stories about aliens, Bigfoot, etc). Nothing like reading some Carl Sagan followed by Chariots of the Gods. Modern legends are easy to find, but older ones can be hidden, forgotten or wrapped into […]
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3 Medieval Outlaws
Was Robin Hood real? Most evidence (it’s lack) suggests no. He seemed real enough to medieval people. And stories about Robin may have been based on three real medieval outlaws: Hereward the Wake, Eustace the Monk, and Fulk Fitzwarin.
Rich, influential, and unscrupulous; the saviour and downfall of kings…
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Leagues and Leagues of Remarkable Women
It is utterly classic for me to get extraordinarily enthusiastic about a project and then, slowly and inevitably, get dragged down in to the muck and the mire of the details of getting it going. For instance: as a child, I spent hours sculpting the characters for the stories I was of course going to […]
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Happy Charlemagne Coronation Day!
I’m not religious, but I love celebrations. Instead of Christmas, I dedicate my tree to Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne.
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Colonial Christmas With the Cranes
Sleepy Hollow is not only my new favorite show of the season but my new favorite show in a long time. The cast is fantastic, the writing is engaging if breathless, the effects are creepy, and the stories are fun, weird, and off the wall. The writers play fast and loose with American history while […]
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Wassail Was-what?
The holidays are a time for family, friends, fun, and. . . hazy traditions. Wassail is a drink or a time to party or something right? Dating back to Ye Olden Days? Or is it something more?
What’s the first thing we jump to when we think of so-called “fast food” in late Victorian London? Fish and chips, right? And of course there are always the vendors who sold fruit such as oranges and apples to passersby who got the munchies. But here are three types of Victorian ready-made food vendors you […]
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Has It Always Been The End?
“I’m breaking in, shaping up, then checking out on the prison bus/This is it, the apocalypse/Whoa.” -“Radioactive,” by Imagine Dragons, aka the official song of 2013.
In second grade my teacher, Mrs. Kleinart, assigned all of us a book report to be presented to the class. I do not recall the name of the book I read for the assignment, but I do recall the misinformation. This book peddled the usual stereotypes about NDN peoples, that we all live in teepees, […]
A bloodthirsty son of royal parents, whose mother’s virtue was called into question… let’s meet Edward of Lancaster.