Posts by Pamela
The Russian Revolution, Part 2
Save Save When we last left Russia, Tsar Nicholas had been forced into accepted a limited monarchy in 1905 and was not playing nicely with the new parliament. Never a good idea if you want to stave off civil unrest.* In the years between 1905 and 1917, things went from bad to worse for Russia.…
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The Russian Revolution, Part 1
The hundredth anniversary of the Russian Revolution isn’t causing a stir yet in the places where history buffs hang out on line. Or at least not that I’ve seen.* It doesn’t have the cachet/glamour/melancholy/nostalgia accorded to the beginning of the First World War or the sinking of the Titanic. Unlike the Battle of Waterloo, there…
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The Great Wall of China
When faced with a threat or simply with contact with what we learned in graduate school to call The Other, our natural instinct is to build a wall to keep Them out or to keep Us in. * The earliest cities that we know of, the tel culture in what is now Palestine, were built…
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