Perspectives
Amman Citadel: Layers of History and Civilization in Jordan
The Amman Citadel, perched on Jabal al-Qal’a, offers a living chronicle of civilizations stacked across time. From the Ammonites of the 9th century BCE, whose inscriptions to Milkom survive, to Roman temples, Byzantine churches, and Umayyad palaces, the site reflects continual reconstitution. The Temple of Hercules, colossal ruins, Byzantine adaptations, and Umayyad architecture illustrate layers of cultural inheritance, interrupted by earthquakes and restored in modern times. The Archaeological Museum, once home to the Dead Sea Scrolls, deepens the story. Visiting reveals more than ruins—it is a lesson in how civilizations adapt, recycle, and endure, while raising questions about humanity’s future.
By Scott Douglas Jacobsen5 months ago in History
The Parachute Wedding Dress: How Ruth Hensinger Turned WWII Survival Silk into Bridal Magic
The Parachute Wedding Dress: How Ruth Hensinger Turned WWII Survival Silk into Bridal Magic Imagine a pilot drifting down from a burning plane, his parachute the only thing between him and certain death. That same parachute, once a tool of survival in World War II, becomes the fabric of a bride's dream gown. In 1947, Ruth Hensinger sewed her wedding dress by hand from the nylon parachute that saved her fiancé's life, turning a symbol of war into one of love and hope.
By Story silver book 5 months ago in History
The World Mourns Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Humanity Through the Eyes of Chimpanzees
The Passing of a Giant in Science On October 1, 2025, the world awoke to heartbreaking news: Dame Jane Goodall, the legendary primatologist, ethologist, and conservationist, had died at age 91. According to a statement released by the Jane Goodall Institute, she passed away of natural causes while in California, where she had been continuing her tireless speaking engagements even in her ninth decade.
By Lynn Myers5 months ago in History
The Cola Wars: How America Fizzed, Fought, and Foamed From the 50s to the 90s
There are few battles in history that were waged not with bullets, but with bubbles. While empires rose and fell, while presidents debated policy and kids memorized baseball stats, a different kind of war rumbled quietly beneath the surface of American life. It was fought in grocery aisles, TV commercials, vending machines, and lunchboxes. It was Coke versus Pepsi... two titans of taste locked in a struggle for the soul of America.
By The Iron Lighthouse5 months ago in History
The Forgotten Cold Chain: America’s Iceman Era
There was a time... not so long ago... that the daily hum of American life depended on a man with a horse, a wagon, and a block of frozen water. Before refrigerators, before humming freezers in every garage, there was the iceman. He clomped through neighborhoods at dawn, iron tongs swinging, hoisting hundred-pound slabs into waiting iceboxes. For children, he was a summertime hero. For families, he was survival. For history, he was an empire of frost that melted almost overnight.
By The Iron Lighthouse5 months ago in History
The Black Tag Lady of 9/11. Content Warning.
On September 11, 2001, emergency medical specialist Ernest Armstead worked in the plaza between the Twin Towers. Surrounded by chaos, he moved from victim to victim, marking each with triage tags. Green meant minor injuries. Yellow meant serious but stable. Red meant critical. Black meant dead or soon to be.
By Brandon Brasson5 months ago in History
Sacred and profane in Mircea Eliade's theory - Alexis karpouzos
In Mircea Eliade’s thought, religion is seen as a universal and fundamental aspect of human existence, characterized by the experience of the sacred and the profane. Eliade believed that religion originates from an irreducible experience of the sacred, which is common to most human beings. This experience seeks outward cultural expression in myths and rituals. He emphasized that religious phenomena must be understood as uniquely and irreducibly religious, expressing meaning on a religious plane of reference.
By alexis karpouzos5 months ago in History
The Final Dance of the Spy: A Confession in the Shadows. AI-Generated.
The morning light, even here in Vincennes, has a sharp, indifferent quality. It does not pause for beauty, nor does it soften the edges of the firing squad. I smell the damp earth, the clean, metallic scent of the rifles, and the faint, lingering perfume of cheap carnations left by some sentimental guard. They say a soul is heaviest just before it leaves the body, burdened by regret. They do not know Mata Hari. I feel light. Lighter than the silk robes I used to shed on stage.
By Abel Green5 months ago in History
Fads Gone Wrong: When America Threw Elbows for Toys, Trinkets, and Sauce
Fog Horn Blast 🚨 Every few years, a shiny new obsession descends on America and flips a switch in our brains labeled MUST… HAVE… NOW. Parents turn into linebackers, collectors speak in code about “first runs,” and someone inevitably pays a rent-sized chunk of cash for a toy with googly eyes. This isn’t a list of fads, we all remember those. This is a tour of the moments they went sideways: the riots, the stampedes, the bans, the lawsuits, the near-mythic price tags, and the glorious buyer’s remorse that followed.
By The Iron Lighthouse5 months ago in History
