Category: History

Stories From My Grandfather

Prince Faisal kissed him, reached into his robe, and pulled out a revolver. Three shots rang out in the hall.

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Everyone except for the dinosaurs

Samuel Bollen on Dinosaurs.

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Eugenics at Princeton

The perception of people with intellectual disabilities as “defective” is grounded in an intellectual superiority that finds its natural home among the academic elite.

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The Parapsychologists

“From the driveway, Professor Jahn was visible standing behind the screen door. He did not motion or wave as we drove off. He just watched us leave.”

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A Prince at Princeton

In September 1940, Japan’s prime minister, Konoe Fumimaro, concluded the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy, committing the three countries to support each other against the United States in the event of American entry into World War II.

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Disappearing Histories

In the bowels of Firestone Library, behind bombproof walls and inside climate-controlled rooms, lies the entire life’s work of Nobel Prize-winning Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa.

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The Bust of Sokrates

“But then the Romans didn’t want paunchy, lumpy bodies in their villas (aside from their own), so they decapitated Sokrates, already green and moldy from the hemlock, and shoved his face alone in their alcoves, dressing him up in pure white marble.”

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Neighbors with Nazis

Fernand Lépinay is a friend of my grandparents who lives outside of the small town of Laigle in the rainy Orne department of Lower Normandy.

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THE PHILOSOPHICAL FIVE (my very objective opinion on the best and worst philosophers of all time)

“Also known as the father of all philosophy (daddy?) Socrates is the original playboy. Everyone, and I mean everyone, fangirls over him.”

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Between the Lines

Last June, working at the Rare Books and Special Collections Department hidden within Firestone, I found myself tearing up as I sifted through pages just shy of 150 years old. I had been processing the Civil War Letters of Adam Badeau for nearly a month, my longest and most meticulous project to date.

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Leon/Levy

Forgiving and living after the Holocaust

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Books@ Cafe

The rich history of a gay café in Amman, Jordan and the social change it inspired in a complex metropolis

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