#history

Slavery in modern America

Lola was taken into a household at age 18 and treated as a slave, doing all domestic chores without pay.

· Link post  #history
One of the closest calls with nuclear war was Russia versus China

Tensions between the Soviet Union and China escalated in the 1960s, culminating in a seven-month border conflict in 1969

· Link post  #communism #china #history
Jimmy Lai’s fight for freedom

Escaped Communist China aged 12 by fishing boat and rose from factory worker to build a garment empire.

· Link post  #history #china #communism
Democracy and capitalism: can they be reconciled?

One view posits that democracy inevitably leads to socialism, citing fears of a “road to serfdom” and the logic of democratic egalitarianism.

· Link post  #history
The Nobel Prize-winning case for a little monopoly

Innovation can be destructive in the short term, making old technologies obsolete while creating long-term potential.

· Link post  #history #startups
Why parents once used baby cages to hang infants out of windows

In the 1930s, parents in London resorted to hanging their babies in metal cages outside apartment windows for fresh air.

· Link post  #history
Taking risks in the new age of creative destruction

Deregulating finance and industry in the past led to significant productivity gains, higher living standards and sustainable economic growth.

· Link post  #history
Beauty is not a luxury

John Adams prioritised government and war over the arts for the sake of future generations, yet still believed in promoting culture through institutions.

· Link post  #history
The United States didn't really grow its way out of WWII debt

Debt/GDP fell from 106% in 1946 to 23% in 1974, but further analysis shows primary budget surpluses, surprise inflation, and pegged interest rates were key contributors.

· Link post  #history
Julia Margaret Cameron, photographer

Born in Calcutta and later part of the Anglo-Indian upper-class before moving to London

· Link post  #history #art
Britain's fight to end the slave trade

Britain’s naval campaign against the Atlantic slave trade began small but grew to involve over 14% of the Royal Navy.

· Link post  #history
Comancheria

The Comancheria once covered modern New Mexico, West Texas, and nearby areas, functioning as a powerful Comanche-controlled empire.

· Link post  #history
Peter Hague on ends and means

Certain viewpoints ignore that modern comforts arise from the systems being criticised.

· Link post  #history
The art of Paul Jacoulet

He was a French woodblock print artist who lived in Japan most of his life and survived the war in Karuizawa by growing produce and keeping poultry.

· Link post  #history #art
Scopes trial

John T. Scopes was charged in 1925 with breaking the Butler Act, which banned teaching human evolution in Tennessee’s public schools.

· Link post  #history
The old is dying and the new cannot be born

A crisis occurs when the old is dying and the new cannot yet be born.

· Link post  #history
The Sydney Ducks: Australian criminals in San Francisco

The Sydney Ducks were a gang of criminal immigrants from Australia in mid-19th century San Francisco, blamed for rampant crime and the devastating 1849 fire.

· Link post  #history
Harry Dexter White

Harry Dexter White (1892–1948) was a senior official in the U.S. Treasury Department who played a significant role in shaping American financial policy towards the Allies during World War II.

· Link post  #history #communism
The Soviet Union coveted legitimacy

The Soviet Union lacked internal legitimacy due to unfulfilled promises of communism’s material abundance, leading them to seek external validation as a superpower to bolster domestic support.

· Link post  #history #communism
US manufacturing did not move overseas, it moved to the South

Manufacturing jobs have shifted from the Rust Belt to Southern states like Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee, resulting in a reversal of manufacturing exports since 1970.

· Link post  #history
The story behind the Blue Willow china pattern

Blue Willow china is a classic tableware pattern featuring a transfer-printed design inspired by Chinese art, depicting a serene outdoor setting with consistent elements across various porcelain items.

· Link post  #history #china
Savitri Devi

Savitri Devi Mukherji (1905–1982) was a French-born Greek-Italian writer, Nazi sympathiser, and spy who worked for the Axis powers in India during World War II.

· Link post  #history
Painted protest

Over the past eight years, major biennials have focused on identity, rejecting Western perspectives, and reclaiming precolonial knowledge such as indigenous thought and magic.

· Link post  #history #art
Bureaucratic governance in Australia

Abul Rizvi, former Deputy Secretary of the Department of Immigration, treats migration as a technocratic solution to counter population ageing due to declining fertility in Australia.

· Link post  #history
Were the Nazis left-wing?

Hitler considered Nazism a form of socialism rooted in ancient Germanic traditions, emphasising national unity and race solidarity while rejecting Marxist internationalism.

· Link post  #history