The Fates – originally called the three Moirai – were the goddesses responsible for the destiny of one’s life. The extent of their influence over the other Greek gods is debated, but the control they exercised over the lives of humans is incomparable. They predetermined one’s fate all while permitting the individual to make their …
Ancient Mesopotamia has been called the “Cradle of Civilization” by many, but few realize the massive cultural and social impact its religion had on surrounding nations. Mesopotamian gods and goddesses are among the oldest in the world and their study provides invaluable insight into the world perspective of early man. After all, the gods seemed …
By: Andre Gunder Frank (Luxembourg) David Christian. Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. 642 + xxii pp. $34.95. No brief review can possibly do even minimal justice to an author and his summa cum laude opus whose foreword by the father of modern world history, William H. …
By: Edmund Russell IT WAS, evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky wrote in 1937, “probably the best proof of the effectiveness of natural selection yet obtained.”1 If we were guessing what Dobzhansky had in mind, we might nominate some of the classic examples from evolutionary biology and paleontology. Charles Darwin’s tortoises in the Galapagos Islands? The rise and …
By: David Eltis, Philip Morgan, and David Richardson Broadly speaking, two contrasting models dominate interpretations of Atlantic history. One draws on Old World influences to explain the nature of societies and cultures in the Americas, while the other assigns primacy to the New World environment. One stresses continuities, the other change. The polar extremes are persistence …
By: Simon Devereaux Their Own Executioners Shortly after two o’clock on the afternoon of Saturday, 19 September 1789, the last act of the sessions at Justice Hall in the Old Bailey began. London’s accused capital offenders were tried here eight times yearly. Those who were convicted and received sentence of death or transportation remained …