History & Biography – Page 4

The Soviet Machiavelli

2014-08-13 2021-05-15 Blog & Blogging / History & Biography / PoliticsLeave a comment

I’ve written a new piece for my Municipal Machiavelli blog about the late (1982) Mikhail Suslov, the “Soviet Machiavelli.” You can read it here: www.ianchadwick.com/machiavelli/the-soviet-machiavelli/ Suslov was the power behind the Soviet throne; in fact behind several thrones. From joining the Party in 1921, he rose to the top echelon. He was appointed National Party Secretary by Stalin in 1946, joined the the politburo in 1952, and finally became a full member in ’55. He survived three-and-a-half decades of intrigue at the highest level, outlasting all of his … click below for more ↓

Neolithic site dig uncovers sophisticated structures

2014-08-01 2014-08-01 Critical Thinking / Culture / England and Britain / History & Biography / Media Issues / Places & Geography / Science & TechnologyLeave a comment

A Neolithic site in the Orkney Islands shows our ancestors had sophisticated building skills more than 5,000 years ago. According to a story in The Scotsman, A groundbreaking excavation of a 5,000-year-old temple complex in Orkney has uncovered evidence to suggest that prehistoric people were a great deal more sophisticated than previously thought. The archaeological dig at the Ness of Brodgar, which is still in its early stages, has already thrown up discoveries that archaeologists say will force us to re-evaluate our understanding of how … click below for more ↓

Lawrence in Arabia

2014-07-10 2020-11-11 Culture / Film & Reviews / History & Biography / Personal Reminiscences / War & MilitaryOne Comment

I recall with some vividness seeing David Lean’s masterpiece film, Lawrence of Arabia, when it was first shown in Canadian theatres. I was 12 and utterly astounded by the movie. Not simply the great, sprawling, adventurous tale that meandered through 220 minutes (plus the intermission), but by the incredible scenery. It was a world totally alien from my cultivated, manicured suburbia: wild, dangerous, exotic. And stunningly beautiful. So much of an impression did it make on my young mind that today I can still remember sitting … click below for more ↓

A Cup of Dragon Well

2014-07-05 2014-07-05 Books & Reviews / Food & Drink / History & Biography / Personal Reminiscences2 Comments

Legend has it that, in the Qing Dynasty, Qianlong (1711-1799 CE), the grandson of the Emperor Kangxi, went on a holiday to the West Lake district, in the Hangzhou area of Zhejiang province, China. He stopped at the Hu Gong Temple, nestled under the Lion Peak Mountain (Shi Feng Shan). There, he was presented by the monks with a cup of green tea made from the temple’s own tea bushes. He was so impressed with the tea that, when he became Emperor himself, Qianlong gave … click below for more ↓

The Hollow Crown: Henry V

2014-06-12 2016-07-05 Books & Reviews / Culture / England and Britain / Film & ReviewsOne Comment

As I started to watch the last film in the Hollow Crown series, I wasn’t sure whether Tom Hiddleston was up to playing the iconic role in Shakespeare’s most patriotic (and jingoistic) play. I thought Hiddleston’s Prince Hal in Henry IV had just a little too much of Loki – and maybe the bully – in it for me to see him as a majestic king. But I was quickly won over. Whether the movie itself was good Shakespeare is another question. First a note … click below for more ↓

Lost Shakespeare play found?

2014-04-18 2014-04-18 Books & Reviews / History & Biography / What I'm Reading NowOne Comment

Cardenio. Written by William Shakespeare. Based on an episode in Miguel Cervantes’ novel, Don Quixote. The novel was translated from Spanish into English in 1612. The play was known once, but lost. Performed by the King’s Men in 1613, the same year Shakespeare penned Henry VIII, or All is True and The Two Noble Kinsmen. Performed before June 29th, the day the Globe theatre burned down during a performance of Henry VIII. Cardenio was entered in the Stationer’s Register in 1653 as a collaboration by … click below for more ↓

Tudor politics: Elizabeth’s struggle

2014-04-17 2014-04-17 Books & Reviews / England and Britain / History & Biography / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

David Starkey’s book, Elizabeth: the Struggle for the Throne, is the best book I’ve read on the period of Elizabeth’s life between the death of Henry VIII and her own coronation. It gives a clear, richly detailled picture of the machinations, the politics and the society that she lived in during the 25 years before she became monarch – 1533 to 1558. And what a life it was. In and out of favour, imprisoned, in fear of her life, threatened, cajoled, living on her wits, … click below for more ↓

Machiavelli and the Elizabethans

2014-03-16 2014-03-16 Books & Reviews / History & Biography / My Writing / PoliticsLeave a comment

In 1555, Bishop Stephen Gardiner wrote a treatise to King Phillip II of Spain, in which he borrowed (aka plagiarized) extensively from Machiavelli’s The Prince and The Discourses. Gardiner did not credit Machiavelli or attribute any of his quotes, but rather copied some of Machiavelli’s content verbatim or very closely. This was less than two decades after Machiavelli’s works had been first printed, and before Pope Paul placed it on the Index librorum prohibitorum, effectively banning it in Catholic countries (but also making it more … click below for more ↓

Reading Thucydides at last

2014-01-29 2014-01-29 Books & Reviews / History & Biography / Personal Reminiscences / Politics / War & Military / What I'm Reading NowOne Comment

Somewhere on one of my bookshelves, is an old Penguin paperback copy of History of The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides. It’s a bit worn, pages lightly yellowed, glue a little brittle. It’s been sitting on the shelf, stacked with many other paperbacks, piled two deep, floor to ceiling, for the past two decades and more. It’s never been read, not completely. I read the introduction, maybe some small sections, back in my wargaming days, 30 or 35 years ago. Like many of its companions on that … click below for more ↓

The Mac celebrates 30 years

2014-01-26 2014-01-26 Computers & Programming / History & Biography / Media Issues / My Writing / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

A recent article on Gizmodo shows off some previously unseen (or perhaps just forgotten) footage of a young Steve Jobs unveiling the Macintosh computer, back on January 30, 1984. Thirty years ago, this week. Seems like forever ago. But I remember it, and reasonably well. I remember where I was living then, what I was working on, and who I was with (I’m still with her…) The video clip also includes the famous Orwellian “1984” TV ad Apple used to launch the Mac. That’s worth … click below for more ↓

For want of a nail…

2014-01-21 2014-01-21 Books & Reviews / History & Biography / Literary pretensions / My Writing / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

Bought a book at Loblaws (of all places) this week, one by Harry Turtledove: The Big Switch. It’s one of his many alternative history novels, about what might have happened if things had happened a certain way – a different way from what actually transpired – in the opening years of World War Two. He’s written several in this vein and they’ve all been generally well received. I’ve liked what I’ve read of him in the past. Many authors have taken up this sort of … click below for more ↓

The Music of the Templars

2014-01-12 2024-08-06 Arts / Books & Reviews / Culture / History & Biography3 Comments

For the past 25 years, I have had a mysterious page in Latin, held in a cheap picture frame, and stored in a closet for many years. It’s a two-sided page from a book, printed in black and red letters. I bought it at a used-book store in Toronto back when I lived there and frequented such stores. I rediscovered it last week when cleaning out my workroom to create a ukulele space. The page is roughly 21 x 14 inches (53 x 35 cm) … click below for more ↓

Bread, Madness and Christianity

2013-11-09 2013-11-11 Books & Reviews / Bread & Baking / Critical Thinking / Food & Drink / History & Biography / Psychology & Sociology / Social Order & DisorderLeave a comment

The witch craze of Europe is a popular, albeit often misrepresented, part of our collective history. Everyone knows witches were hunted, tortured and often killed – burned at the stake, a particularly repulsive method of murder. While not a uniquely Christian form of killing, it was practiced widely by Christians throughout history in every European nation, perfected in ritual by the Spanish Inquisition. Hunting witches in the period between 1480 and 1750 (the so-called “classical period” of witch hunting) resulted in between 40,000 and 60,000 … click below for more ↓

What Bread Would Chaucer Have Eaten?

2013-11-04 2023-03-17 Bread & Baking / Chaucer / Culture / Food & Drink / History & Biography3 Comments

I was mulling over the growth of the whole ‘artisan bread’ movement as I made another batch of dough last week to cold ferment in the fridge. As I lay in bed reading one night, I started to wonder what sort of bread Chaucer would have eaten. Or Shakespeare. That led to: how was bread made 500 years ago? 1,000? What ingredients did they use? How did the technology and techniques develop? How was yeast’s work discovered and when? How authentic is today’s bread? Aside, that … click below for more ↓