Word(s) With A Past: Left and Right as a Political Metaphor

As some of you may have noticed, here in the United States we’re coming to the end of a long, weird election season.  A lot of labels have been thrown about with little reference to what they mean or why. At some point, when I had become almost numb from the rhetoric, it dawned on…

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History, History, Everywhere…

From a history buff perspective, Florence was sometimes frustrating. I didn’t know enough and Florence wasn’t set up to fill in the gaps. The physical remnants of Florentine history are everywhere, but historical explanations are a bit thin on the ground. Renaissance palaces, forts, and churches are open as museums, but the emphasis is on…

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Jawaharlal Nehru: Architect of Independent India

In March, 1919, India’s Imperial Legislative Council passed the repressive legislation known as the Rowlatt Acts. The new laws continued the special wartime powers of the Defense of India Act, which had been intended to protect India against wartime agitators, and aimed them at India’s nationalist movement. At the time the Rowlatt Acts were put…

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