history
This 18th-Century British Queen Turned King Arthur Into a P.R. Strategy, Drawing on Myth to Promote Her Dynasty’s Claim to the Throne
In 1735, Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach commissioned a cottage called Merlin’s Cave, which linked the German House of Hanover to both Britain’s ancient heritage and its future success
Palaces and the Pope: the fascinating story of how Renaissance Rome was rebuilt
by Alyssa Rusonik
Uncertainty over whether the seat of the papacy would remain in the city explains why Rome was a late developer when it came to palace-building, lagging behind Florence and Venice.
You can find two interesting books on this subject in the PG catalog:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36817
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69619
Many thanks to my 8/16 #FineArtAmerica client from Richmond, VA for their purchase of a 1,000 piece puzzle of "The Colonial Williamsburg Apothecary." This should be a fun one!! Enjoy!!
At my website as puzzles, wall art, coffee mugs and more: https://lois-bryan.pixels.com/featured/the-colonial-williamsburg-apothecary-lois-bryan.html
And at Fine Art America: https://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-colonial-williamsburg-apothecary-lois-bryan.html
#art #giftideas #Williamsburg #Colonial Williamsburg #history #digitallyhandpainted #NotAi #LoisBryan
Y’all… Soviet history is crazy.
Today I learned that because literature was so heavily censored, people would illegally print banned texts by typing them on home typewriter machines and then distribute them.
AND THE COOL PART is that to try and stop them, the Soviet government had restricted production of typewriters, assigning each machine a unique serial number AND a specific signature of defects (tilted letters, lighter or heavier pressure letters, etc.), the government would store the keys for which typographical signature corresponded to which machine and whom it was sold to.
So what did the people do in response? Split typing a single text up across multiple people’s machines and shuffling pages; OR fixing up some letters by hand with a pen.
Crazy cool!!!!
"The President and the Assassin: McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century" by Scott Miller. My rating: 4 out of 5 stars. Published in 2011.
Book description: In 1901, as America tallied its gains from a period of unprecedented imperial expansion, an assassin’s bullet shattered the nation’s confidence. The shocking murder of President William McKinley threw into stark relief the emerging new world order of what would come to be known as the American Century. The President and the Assassin is the story of the momentous years leading up to that event, and of the very different paths that brought together two of the most compelling figures of the era: President William McKinley and Leon Czolgosz, the anarchist who murdered him.
Not only was this book a well told story, but it also brought into clear focus much not detailed in history textbooks I experienced.
#nonfiction #history #UnitedStates #Presidents #books @bookstodon
How A Fake Disease Known As Syndrome K Saved Dozens Of Jewish Romans During The Holocaust
As Nazi forces occupied Rome during World War II, doctors at Fatebenefratelli Hospital took in Jewish residents and diagnosed them with Syndrome K, a "highly contagious" disease they invented to keep the Gestapo out of the building.
🧱 The secret ingredient holding the Great Wall of China together is sticky rice.
Ming Dynasty masons (1368-1644) mixed boiled sticky rice soup into their lime mortar. The result was a tough, flexible, water-resistant binder that has held brick sections together for around 600 years.
The chemistry: sticky rice is packed with amylopectin, a complex starch. In 2010, chemists led by Bingjian Zhang at Zhejiang University found that amylopectin acts as a template, steering calcium carbonate crystals into a dense, interlocking structure instead of large brittle chunks.
That compact microstructure is why some wall sections have shrugged off earthquakes and still keep weeds out of the seams centuries later.
Read more:
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ar9001944
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/100608-sticky-rice-mortar-china-science
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100530093704.htm
"An Inconvenient Widow: The Torment, Trial, and Triumph of Mary Todd Lincoln" by Lois Romano. My rating: 4 out of 5 stars. Published in 2026.
Book description: A new biography of one of the most misunderstood and vilified First Ladies in America. Mary Lincoln was at the center of politics at a time when society’s expectations for women were rigid and circumscribed. The product of Southern aristocracy, she grew up among an influential clan of politicians and elites. Mary’s early exposure to the male-dominated world of politics instilled in her a keen political acumen and a fierce ambition. She steadfastly supported the Union war effort, visited encampments, tended to wounded soldiers, and generously donated money and gifts to refugees from slavery. She was an unconventional, larger-than-life character who dressed too ostentatiously, grieved too publicly, suffered a shopping addiction, and seemed unable or unwilling to corral her emotions, her temper, and her opinions. She also suffered almost unimaginable tragedy and relentless grief.
I've read a few other books and biographies about her, and I am pleased to see this one, with a more realistic and balanced approach, minus an effort to vilify her.
#nonfiction #biography #history #politics #women #books @bookstodon