Shinto – In Japan, recognizing the spirit of all things – from trees to mountains to interestingly shaped rocks – is part of Shinto. Older than writing in Japan, Shinto is the root of Japanese values and ways of thinking. Shinto is why the concepts of purity and impurity govern Read more…
The 1815 volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora changed history. The year following the eruption, 1816 was known in England as the “Year without a Summer,” in New England as “18-hundred-and-froze-to-death”, and “L’annee de la misere” or “Das Hungerhjar” in Switzerland. Germans dubbed 1817 as “the year of the beggar.” The Read more…
Today, we’re talking about the conservation movement and the creation of Americas National Parks in the late 19th and early 20th century. Listen, download, watch on YouTube, or scroll down for the transcript. Other Episodes of Interest: The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States: A Brief Overview Read more…
Today we will be discussing the history of natural history museums in America and the Western World. Many natural history museums, in America and in the western world, were developed during the nineteenth century. These museums are both places to view and understand nature, they are also places that have Read more…
Victorian Britons were obsessed with their homes. This was a period characterized by rapid industrialization, expansion of the availability of consumer goods, suburbanization, and the redefining of houses as domestic sanctuaries filled with the material evidence that a family was or was not “middle class.” Men and women no longer Read more…