Historical Context

Historical Context: Ho Ho Ho!

May 14, 2010

What trip to Turkey would be complete without a visit to the birth place of Jolly Old Saint Nick! Yes, as we all learned in Christmas carols sung every year by the fireside, the man who has come to be known all around the world as Santa Claus was Greek.

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Historical Context: Language Roots

November 9, 2009

The afternoon before we left London for Amsterdam we realized that it was going to be the last chance for us to conveniently purchase any English literature for the next four months, so we swung by a bookstore and picked up a few books to tide us over (thinking specifically of the 6 internet-less days […]

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Historical Context: The Pony Express

August 13, 2009

As we travelled East through Nevada along Highway 50, we passed several historic small towns which listed Pony Express stations as part of their claim to fame. The Pony Express was established in April 1860 and shortened the travel time of mail from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific Coast to 10 days – a […]

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Historical Context: Mongols and Christopher Columbus

July 15, 2009

I recently finished reading “Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World” by Jack Weatherford, a fantastic book on the history of Genghis Khan and the Mongols. As with all empires, the Mongol dynasty had its high point and its eventual collapse – and just like Rome (and other empires) the Mongol dynasty had […]

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Historical Context: Lawrence of Arabia and Motorcycle Helmets

May 29, 2009

We recently watched the film Lawrence of Arabia as part of our ongoing movie research. The film starts with the death of Lawrence as he’s zooming through the English country side on his motorcycle. According to Wikipedia: “A dip in the road obstructed his view of two boys on their bicycles; he swerved to avoid […]

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Historical Context: Mongols and Assassins

May 27, 2009

In preparation for our time in Mongolia, we’ve listened to the audio book of “Genghis Khan: Emperor of All Men” by Harold Lamb and have almost finished reading “Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World” by Jack Weatherford. Both are great books, though I would recommend Weatherford’s over Lamb’s. That may be due […]

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