What Animals Were Really on Noah’s Ark?
By Erin Blakemore at National Geographic: In the beginning, there were two—animals. The Bible only specified two—a raven and a dove—among the multitudes it said were aboard Noah’s ark (depicted
Western Christianity Triumphed Not By Destiny But Accident
In the beginning there were many different sons of God John Gray at The New Statesman: In 1950, while travelling in the southern marshlands of Iraq, the explorer Wilfred Thesiger
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Talking Point: “Indian Civilization is an Idea But Also an Enigma”
Karan Thapar at The Wire interviews Namit Arora, the scriptwriter and anchor of the series on Indian history called ‘Indians: A Brief History of a Civilization’, which covers a sweep
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Ibn Khaldun on a Failed Nation–Seven Hundred Years Ago
“A defeated nation always admires the conqueror, imitating his dress and adopting the signs of his power, such as gold buttons and buttons of authority, insignia of honor, the manner
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Frans de Waal (R.I.P.) and the Origins of War
John Horgan at his own website: I interviewed de Waal in 2007 while researching my book The End of War. At the time, high-profile scientists were promoting the notion that
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The Violent Origins of Political Societies
Niccolò Machiavelli’s profound insights about the violent origins of political societies help us understand the world today Essay by David Polansky in Aeon: Niccolò Machiavelli is better known for his
The World’s First Author
Anna Della Subin at the LRB: The earliest known author was married to the moon. In the 1920s, in the shadow of an anti-colonial uprising against British rule in Mesopotamia,
Black History: Tunes and Beats Before 1865
From Negro Spirituals: The tunes and the beats of negro spirituals and Gospel songs are highly influenced by the music of their actual cultural environment. It means that their styles are
A Nuanced Account of the British Empire’s Impact on the World
Nandini Das in The Guardian: Sathnam Sanghera’s Empireworld tells the story of Bartram and Kew as part of a nuanced, complicated account of the British empire’s impact on the world as we
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Tariq Ali on Winston Churchill: “His Times, His Crimes”
Tariq Ali, a writer, activist, and longtime public intellectual has authored many books and is a member of the editorial committee of the New Left Review. He contributes to The
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World’s Lost 8th Continent Finally Found After 70,000 Years
World’s lost 8th continent is about 1.6 times larger than United Kingdom Scientists have discovered evidence of a long-lost continent off the northern coast of Australia that supported 500,000 people
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Study Reveals That Scythian Warriors Likely Carried Leather Quivers Made From The Skin Of Their Enemies
By Austin Harvey in All That’s Interesting: New archaeological evidence seemingly confirms the Greek historian Herodotus’ account of the brutal ways in which Scythians used their dead enemies’ bodies. In his