cacakerbamakhlukpolitik

Amazing. Haunting. The photo was taken at the end of the Civil War, so the children might have been recently freed (one can hope) but there was also documentation of one of the boy's names (John) and his price ($1150). This sort of photo is very rare and really brings to life the heartbreak of a sad time in American history. But it got me thinking about the kind of history I have found in old houses. In the first home my husband and I bought (a vintage 1888 Eastlake cottage), we found things that had been lost or hidden for 100 years---like Dr. Whitaker's Medicinal Elixir---cured chilblains, melancholia, diarrhea, boils and sore throats, circa 1898) and Civil War photos (behind the mantle). In the crawlspace I found a life-sized poster of John Wayne and under the brick sidewalk, a stash of 100 year old ceramic beer bottle caps, with the brewer's stamp still readable. A friend of mine just found her great-grandmother's ostrich opera fan (circa 1900, Paris) and is ecstati...

I’m a history nut, I admit it. Lately I’ve been reading ancient history (Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Persian Empire, etc.). For thousands of years in the Middle East, ever since the Sumerians settled between the Tigris and Euphrates river and ancient Egypt recognized a need to protect trade routes and control the Fertile Crescent, armies have been invading the flat, invitingly fertile lands of what is now Egypt, Iran, Syria, Palestine, and Israel. Such conquering forces were seeking a better life and they attained it by force. The Semitic Assyrians overran the peaceful non-Semitic Sumerian civilization, which fell to the Babylonians, which succumbed to the Assyrians... and on and on until by the 14th century B.C. three empires controlled the area now termed the Middle East: Egypt, the Hittites (Syria), and the Assyrians. Ever since then, the maps of the Middle East have been constantly redrawn as various kings jockeyed for power. Every nation wanted to survive, and war was the path. ...