Charles River Editors
1) Shays' Rebellion and the Whiskey Rebellion: The History and Legacy of Early America's Domestic In
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Even as the young United States successfully secured its independence, the new nation was beset by problems. The drafters of the Articles of Confederation had deliberately avoided giving the national legislature the power to tax, because Parliament had so abused that authority against the colonies, but this proved to be a severe limitation on the national government. Besides hampering the Continental Army, the inability of the national government...
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Spanish accounts and Mesoamerican ruins have ensured that 500 years later, people remain fascinated by civilizations like the Maya and Aztec, as well as sites such as Chichen Itza and Tikal. What is often overlooked is that the Maya and Aztec established kingdoms on lands that had been inhabited for millennia before them, and ancient cultures had not only left ruins but also influenced the civilizations that came after them. Thus, while sites like...
3) The Diadochi: The History of Alexander the Great's Successors and the Wars that Divided His Empire
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On his deathbed, some historians claim that when he was pressed to name a successor, Alexander muttered that his empire should go "to the strongest". Other sources claim that he passed his signet ring to his general Perdiccas, thereby naming him successor, but whatever his choices were or may have been, they were ignored. Alexander's generals, all of them with the loyalty of their own corps at their backs, would tear each other apart in a vicious...
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The Third Reich's Luftwaffe began World War II with significant advantages over other European air forces, playing a critical role in the German war machine's swift, powerful advance. By war's end, however, the Luftwaffe had been decimated by combat losses and crippled by poor decisions at the highest levels of military decision-making, and it proved unable to challenge Allied air superiority despite a last-minute upsurge in German aircraft production.
When...
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Most scientists believe the evolution of humans has a history nearly as long as life itself. Anatomically modern humans and all other life that has existed on the planet first came about from the single-celled microorganisms that emerged approximately 4 billion years ago. Through the processes of mutation and natural selection, all forms of life developed, and this continuous lineage of life makes it difficult to say precisely when one species completely...
6) Battle of Cape Matapan: The History of the Biggest Naval Battle in the Mediterranean During World Wa
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Naval combat underwent a significant metamorphosis during World War II. Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan launched some of the most powerful battleships ever to sail the world's oceans, yet the conflict witnessed the emergence and triumph of the aircraft carrier as the 20th century's true monarch of the seas. Submarine warfare expanded and developed, while aircraft technology and doctrine experienced several revolutionary changes due to the unforgiving...
7) America's Most Notorious Con Artists: The History and Schemes of Successful Cons in the United State
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The art of the confidence trick is a controversial craft that is as old as time itself. In the early years of civilization, unscrupulous folks bottled and peddled assortments of fake cures and potions. Snake oil salesmen aside, charlatans posed as mystical beings with supernatural powers, promising to end droughts and other misfortunes of the gullible with what were in reality parlor tricks and illusions.
Indeed, throughout history, unabashedly brazen...
8) Allied Invasions of France in 1944: The History and Legacy of the Campaigns that Began the Libera
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By the end of D-Day, the Allies had managed to successfully land 170,000 men, including over 75,000 on the British and Canadian beaches, 57,000 on the American beaches, and over 24,000 airborne troops. Thanks to Allied deception, the German army had failed to react to prevent the Allies from making the most of their landings. Just one division, the Hitlerjugend, would arrive the following day. Despite a fearsome and bloody day, the majority of the...
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He was a pioneering film director who had 518 films to his credit. His work spanned the silent and sound eras. Most of his films were completed in a span of 15 years. But today he is known only for one of his films, one considered by historians to be a landmark in cinema as well as the most controversial ever made. He could not escape the controversy of this one film before he died in relative obscurity, his contributions to the motion picture industry...
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From approximately 3100 BCE until around 1075 BCE, ancient Egypt was ruled by 20 different dynasties. The length of the dynasties varied: some, such as those during the First and Second Intermediate periods could be quite short, while the Thirteenth and 18th Dynasties each contained more a one dozen kings and ruled over the Nile Valley for around 200 years each. Although the first 20 Egyptian dynasties varied in number of rulers and length, most shared...
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The bright summer sun shined blissfully on a secluded valley tucked into the romantic Costa del Sol in southern Spain. Water bubbled friskily over a rocky streambed as trees swayed in the gentle tropical breeze and dappled the banks in playful shadows. A closer look reveals a man and a woman entwined on the rocky shore in an intimate embrace. The man trembles with longing as he bends over the woman, his parted lips just inches from hers. She eagerly...
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The British were only too aware of the dangers and potential of the Nazi rockets because the Nazi V-weapon bombardment of London and the south coast of England in 1944 and 1945 involved some of the most frightening attacks on civilians during the war. Not only did the V-1 missiles and V-2 rockets land unpredictably on civilian areas, causing damage and casualties, but they also represented the use of strange new technologies developed by Nazi scientists....
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Today, Egyptian practices for death and the afterlife are intimately associated with mummies, which have both fascinated and terrified people for centuries. In countless movies, these preserved dead bodies from ancient times are often shown to be mystical creatures that come back from the dead to exact revenge. In the same vein, over the centuries, Egyptian society suggested that there was a tomb curse or "curse of the pharaohs" that ensured anyone...
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In the 1600s, cotton and silk fabrics that bore colorful and exotic printed patterns, known as "calico," were flying off the shelves of the East India Company's stores. The rapidly escalating demand for calico had taken a visible toll on the European textile businesses. The trend spread across Europe and North America, and picking cotton was such an arduous task that even when relying almost entirely on slave labor, it was hard to make cotton a profitable...
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Shortly after Emperor Hadrian came to power in the early 2nd century CE, he decided to seal off Scotland from Roman Britain with an ambitious wall stretching from sea to sea. To accomplish this, the wall had to be built from the mouth of the River Tyne — where Newcastle stands today — 80 Roman miles (76 miles or 122 kilometers) west to Bowness-on-Solway. The sheer scale of the job still impresses people today, and Hadrian's Wall has the advantage...
16) 20th Century's Most Influential Artists: The Lives and Art of Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Andy War
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In their biography of Pablo Picasso, Hans Ludwig and Chris Jaffe note that "for him, art was always adventure: 'To find is the thing.'" Indeed, there is perhaps no artist who produced more art than Picasso, whose enormous oeuvre (which spanned most of his 91-year life) contained a countless number of paintings and drawings. Picasso also worked in other mediums as well, notably sculpture and lithography, and his constant experimentation with form makes...
17) Ottoman Empire's Greatest Sultans: The Lives and Legacies of Osman I, Mehmed II, and Suleiman the Ma
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In terms of geopolitics, perhaps the most seminal event of the Middle Ages was the successful Ottoman siege of Constantinople in 1453. The city had been an imperial capital as far back as the 4th century, when Constantine the Great shifted the power center of the Roman Empire there, effectively establishing two almost equally powerful halves of antiquity's greatest empire. Constantinople would continue to serve as the capital of the Byzantine Empire...
18) Antoni Gaudi and Frank Lloyd Wright: The Lives and Works of the Most Influential Modern Architects
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"Those who look for the laws of Nature as a support for their new works collaborate with the creator." – Antoni Gaudi
Halfway into the 19th century, Spain's Catalonia underwent a sweeping transformation when it was thrust into not one, but 2 golden eras – the Renaixença and the Industrial Revolution. It was during this explosive period of creativity, thriving prosperity, and invigorated patriotism that a steadfastly nonconforming and fascinatingly...
19) Animals in Ancient Rome: The History of the Roles that Different Animals Played across the Roman Emp
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Rome's complex relationship with animals goes right back to its foundation myth, and even today, the wolf remains a symbol of the Eternal City, forming part of the logo for the capital's football team, A. S. Roma. According to tradition, the city of Rome was founded by Romulus, who, with his brother Remus, was nursed and sheltered by a she-wolf. That tale, widely believed as a historical fact by ancient Romans, had a profound influence on Roman culture,...
20) New Zealand Wars: The History and Legacy of the British Empire's Conflicts With the Indigenous Māori
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In 1769, Captain James Cook's historic expedition in the region would lead to an English claim on Australia, but before he reached Australia, he sailed near New Zealand and spent weeks mapping part of New Zealand's coast. Thus, he was also one of the first to observe and take note of the indigenous peoples of the two islands. His instructions from the Admiralty were to endeavor at all costs to cultivate friendly relations with tribes and peoples he...