By Kevin Curran, University of Lausanne What is it about Shakespeare’s writing that makes it endure? Why do his plays and poems continue to entertain, engage, and instruct more than 400 years on? I think it might have something to do with…
By Anna Clark It is widely assumed that the concept of human rights only emerged after 1945. However, I have found that the concept of human rights was deployed in Britain in the 1890s. For instance, in 1898 Hypatia Bradlaugh-Bonner…
Thomas Jefferson maintained a flock of geese to supply him with quills for his pens. The fastest speed for a professional business-letter-writer in 1834 was 30 words in 60 seconds, with the pen travelling 16.5 feet per minute. Jourdan Anderson,…
By Leemon B. McHenry. 15 February is the birthday of British mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, born in 1841 – he would have been 155 today. Whitehead delivered his masterpiece of metaphysics, Process and Reality, at the Gifford Lectures…
By Mary Nash By the 1960s the right to paid holidays and the development of cheap package tours facilitated mass tourism in Europe. Under the Franco dictatorship Spain then became a major destination attracting tourists to its beaches and warm…
In this post, James Hunter reflects on an article he wrote for the very first volume of Northern Scotland published in 1972. You can read James’ article ‘Sheep and Deer: Highland sheep farming, 1850-1900‘ free online. This was my first…
By Catriona M.M. Macdonald Historians frequently address reputations in their work, indeed they are central to some of the most important debates in historiography. They are typically less inclined, however, to address common assumptions regarding the work and legacy of…
By Asher Jiang The concept of physical power in its modern forms has been introduced by Sir Isaac Newton in his great work Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. Although Newton has embedded this concept into a precise mathematical framework, the power…
The Seljuks reshaped the Middle East and established enduring Turkish political, cultural and religious traditions.