David Wilson

The tale of Sigemund and the Finnsburg Fragment are included in the story of Beowulf because the author wanted to create an allusion between the heroes of the story and the hero Beowulf himself....

Japan under the Tokugawa government had isolated itself from the rest of the world for centuries, preferring to keep outsiders away from Japan and keep their own culture and society free from...

Since the Assyrian Empire is not well-known to virtually anyone except ancient historians, qualifying the popularity of a ruler may be hard. There were no Assyrian rulers whose names are still...

King's Why We Crave Horror Movies looks deep into the human psyche in order to make its analysis. As a result, his conclusions may be as disturbing as a horror movie itself. King claims that all...

Jaret Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel has generated a great deal of controversy throughout a number of academic fields; there have been many editions printed and many counter-arguments written....

About 2,500 years ago, the Persian Empire was the largest political unit in the entire world. By comparison, around this time the ancient Greeks were divided and mostly limited to the Greek...

The Hellenic influence over the broader Mediterranean world, from Spain to Syria, was so great by about 300 BCE that it touched all cultures, Rome included. Just as American culture today is so...

The Crisis of the Third Century is sometimes considered the end of the pax Romana, the peace that had held through the Roman Empire (at that point the largest empire in the world) from Augustus to...

China is unique in that it has an unbroken history and culture dating back four thousand years; no other civilization has lasted half so long. However, this does not mean their history has been...

Both Hamilton and Jefferson had very contrary views of how the early republic's government should be established. In fact, they were the foremost advocates of their points of view in the scene of...

Slavery in many southern colonies changed drastically with the invention of the cotton gin in 1794. Previously, cotton had to be cleaned by hand, a long and labor-intensive process. The cotton gin...

There are several experiments run by the scientists of The Andromeda Strain, as the novel is hard science fiction with a very realistic depiction of medical investigation. One experiment in chapter...

In the aftermath of Julius Caesar's assassination in 44 BC, it was not entirely clear who would rule in the new Roman government, as well as who would take command of the armies that previously had...

The phrase "separate and equal station" in the Declaration of Independence relates to the declaration's central idea that the American colonies ought to be a free and independent nation. Thomas...

It is virtually impossible to separate religion from any context of early American colonial culture, especially in the New England colonies established as religious havens for Puritans seeking a...

The impact of European exploration on American civilizations cannot be understated. In fact, the history of American civilization can broadly be divided into events prior to 1492 and Columbus's...

While Greece is often considered the bedrock of European civilization, it is a region that is relatively difficult for humans to inhabit. It is a very volcanic region, which is why there are many...

Plato often links poetry with rhetoric—to the degree that it is hard to separate the two in his works. However, we know that Plato's attitude toward poetry is mixed: he famously contrasts poetry...

Rachel Carson's Silent Spring is usually considered the progenitor, or the first instance of, the environmental movement. Prior to the publication of this work, there were some famous individuals...

A government failure and a market failure can be roughly compared to a person drowning and to a lifeguard who drowns trying to save that person. Market failures can occur for many reasons,...

Greek colonization throughout the Mediterranean represented a very new type of progress. No other ancient European civilization expanded its culture in new areas the way that the Mycenaeans,...

There are a number of separate but related concepts here that involve the British Isles. The United Kingdom is the official name of the government that controls England, Scotland, Wales, and...

One of the major components of Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel is the idea of geographical determinism, meaning that a society is either limited or encouraged to flourish by its geography. Diamond...

The Persian Empire was a remarkable organization, by far the largest government in the world at the time of its founding about 2500 years ago. It included a huge variety of different ethnicities,...

Perhaps the easiest comparison to be made between women in the Paleolithic and Mesopotamian eras is that they were both responsible for the vast majority of child-raising. This is due to the work...

The river and ferryman of Dante's Inferno are based on Greek myth rather than on Christian concepts of the afterlife, a reflection of Dante's work during the Italian Renaissance, when themes from...

Christopher Columbus went to his grave believing that he had sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and arrived in India, perhaps the most famous misperception in all of history. This is the reason why...

There are a broad number of movements that could be classified as Islamic revitalization. Let's start chronologically. Usman dan Fodio's movement in Africa was one of the key Islamic revolutions in...

One of the central theses of Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel is the importance of animal husbandry, meaning the ability of a civilization to domesticate large animals like cows and horses...

Slavery in the United States has played such a major role in US history that it has impacted many aspects of economics, culture, morality, and social progress. By the time of the American...

In the novel Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo has already achieved a great deal of acclaim amongst the village of Umuofia because he is considered one of the best wrestlers: he has bested another...

Since many of the characters in Junot Diaz's Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao are themselves Dominican, they and the narrator often reference life, culture, and history on the island. Diaz expects...