Wonders & Marvels–and me!

For those of you who don’t know it, Wonders & Marvels is one of the best history sites on the web.  Holly Tucker, the author of Blood Work, has put together a lively community “for curious minds who love history, its odd stories and good reads”. In addition to book reviews and guest posts by…

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A Crusade by Any Other Name….

Sometimes the name you give to an historical event says a lot about where you stand in relation to that event.  Is it the Civil War, or the War of Northern Aggression?   The Sepoy Rebellion, the first Indian war of independence, or (my personal choice) the violence of 1857? Other times, what you call an…

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Word with a Past: Assassin

The original Assassins were members of a revolutionary Shiite splinter group founded in eleventh century Persia by Hassan Sabbah. Like many schismatic religious groups, the Assassins believed that Muslims, including mainstream Shiites, had taken a wrong turn.  Islam needed to go back to its foundations.  As far as other Muslims were concerned, Sabbah’s beliefs were…

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