The TV screen blares, “SPECIAL NEWS REPORT,” then a reporter, holding a hand to his earpiece, begins. “This news flash has just come in from New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman: the world is flat.” I repeat, “the world is flat.” Stepping closer to the TV set, making sure we heard it right, we’re shaken ...
The remarkable changes to Japanese life and religion instigated by Japan’s first military defeat and occupation are undeniable. After 1945, the nationalistic and militaristic trends that grew to prominence during the renewal period of the Meiji Restoration began to reverse, and a new religious landscape began to emerge in Japan reshaped by the Japanese reaction ...
During the Middle Ages, four separate and distinct castes emerged from the social institution of Feudalism. These were: the nobility, the clergy, the peasants, and the burghers or townspeople. The most powerful classes were the nobility and the clergy, but the burghers (mostly merchants and artisans) saw their numbers and influence increase significantly during that ...
Many Florentine artists and writers used characteristics in their works that made each painting or piece of literature either medieval or Renaissance thinking. Many famous Florentine artist and writers lived from the middle ages to the Renaissance. There are characteristics of each artist or writer’s works that can clearly be categorized as medieval or Renaissance ...
When the Spanish began to colonize the Americas there was a clear distinction between the natives whom they encountered and their own society. Though the Spanish attempted to maintain two wholly separate worlds, it soon became apparent that this would be near impossible. Miscegenation had spawned a plethora of new ethnicities, and racial mixing was ...
The bubonic plague, later called the Black Death raged from 1331 to 1353. In Switzerland, the Jews were accused of poisoning the water supplies, thus causing the plague. In the centuries following the Black Death, bubonic plague continued to break out as it did in London in 1664. The only action that proved effective against ...
It is not birthright that creates success, but rather the inherent drive that is within each one that determines what he can make of himself. William Shakespeare grew up in the town of Stratford, England. Born to a Glover in 1564, he experienced the rise and fall of social rank in seeing his father rise ...
Almost all critical analysis of Daniel Defoe’s novel Moll Flanders focuses on the question of whether the novel should be read realistically or ironically. Based on the overwhelming amount of critical study focusing on this bifurcation of viewpoints, it seems that choosing one of these interpretations is crucial in forming a critical appreciation of the ...
