‘We The Living’ is the first published work of Ayn Rand. The novel deals with Communism and its various drawbacks. Having escaped from Communist Russia into the United States during her late teens, the novel thus represents a first-hand view of her experiences in Russia. In this sense, the novel can be considered part autobiographical…
Category: History
Highlights from Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
*The documentary film Guns, Germs and Steel based on the book of the same name expounds on a original thesis by author Jared Diamond. The main highlights of the film are as follows. *In the 13,000 year history since the end of the last Ice Age, European civilization has advanced the most compared to other…
The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico
The book The Broken Spears is a very interesting and illuminating scholarly work about the important historical event of the Spanish Conquest of the Aztecs. Author Miguel Leon-Portilla had undertaken the arduous task of translating key passages from the native-American Nahuati language accounts of the Spanish invasion and conquest. In the latest edition of the…
The radicalism of the Haitian Revolution
The Haitian revolution is the years of conflict during 1791 to 1804 between the white settlers and the enslaved black population. The French colony of Saint-Domingue was the center-stage of this revolution, which resulted in the mass murder of thousands of white people and led to the liberation of Haiti from the grips of colonialism….
An overview of native Australian art forms
Native Australian art forms have received renewed interest in recent decades, with anthropologists and historians arriving at a refined understanding of them. Of particular interest is the emphasis on artistic style and environmental sensitivity displayed by artefacts. Recent research on this interesting field was made possible through the analysis of numerous aboriginal wooden artefacts traded…
Alexander Hamilton’s contribution to the Federalist Papers
Alexander Hamilton, alongside such luminaries as Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and James Madison is rightly considered as a founding father of the United States of America. In the second half of the eighteenth century, when British colonies in America entered a period of fervent political change, intellectuals such as Hamilton played…
Three major developments, ideas, inventions or events in Ancient Greece
Despite major achievements in the political front, Ancient Greece would come to be defined by its vibrant and path-breaking intellectual culture. Such luminary figures as Aristotle, Socrates and Plato would found what is now referred to as Western Philosophic thought, which has continued to grow and develop over the course of two thousand centuries. Let…
The main causes behind the development of democracy in ancient Greece
A key development in Ancient Greece is the establishment of democracy, albeit to a privileged section of the population. Athenian democracy was thus the earliest instance of this noble institution, whose example continues to inspire and encourage contemporary nation states in various parts of the world. Although, it might appear counter-intuitive at first, the fact…
A comparison between the Arts of the High Renaissance and that of the Eighteenth Century
The term High Renaissance is used to refer to the blooming of the visual arts during the period of the Italian Renaissance. High Renaissance, which flowered toward the end of the fifteenth century and lasted a few decades, was a period that witnessed the creation of great works of art and architecture. With Rome as…
Richard Nixon’s Failures
Richard Nixon is one of the most controversial Presidents in the history of the United States. Having first served as Vice-President to President Dwight Eisenhower during the 1950s, he won the Presidential elections in 1968 and served in this role for the next six years. Affiliated to the Republican Party, his achievements were limited to…