Worldwar I was hell on earth. Sometimes pupils will get destruction faster when seeinng a dead animal then when they see dead people. This picture will cause a great stirr in classroom, I’m certain, it will cause debate too, about the essence of destruction.
(Source: 1914-1945, via d-readnought)
I would use this picture to illustrate the life of a well to do citizen in Medieval Europe. The story about the drinking problems always works with the younger pupils. They love the fact that beer was a normal drink for almost anyone.
What People drank in The Middle Ages and Renaissance
Water
Water was rarely drunk due to the difficulties in obtaining clean drinking water (typhoid and other water-borne diseases were highly prevalent). If water had to be drunk, spring water was preferred, as it was less likely to cause disease than river water or still water (pond water). Water was also believed to be bad for the digestion, as they believed that it would chill the stomach and hinder digestion of food.Wine
Wine was believed to be very good for the health, and was commonly drunk with meals as it was also readily produced in many areas in Europe, and easily transported and stored. Good quality wines were the most popular mealtime drink of nobility, although poorer people could sometimes afford low quality wines.Spiced Wines
Spiced or mulled wines were also enjoyed. These were used as an aperitif, or to clear the palate after a meal. Spiced wines were also believed to have medicinal qualities.Hippocras was a red wine which was flavoured with spices such as ginger, cinnamon, sugar, cloves, galingale or nutmeg. Claret was a spiced wine which was often made from a white wine, and was flavoured with cloves, nutmeg, mace, caraway, ginger, pepper and other spices.
Beers and Ales
Beer and ales were very popular drinks, although they were generally consumed by lower class people rather than the nobility (who generally preferred drinking wine).Beer was made from grains such as oats, wheat, barley or rye, while hops were not added to beer in England until after their introduction to England in 1525 (although they had previously been used in beer production in Flanders for several hundred years). Hops add a bitter taste to beer, so most medieval beers would have lacked the bitter taste of modern beers.
Ales could also be flavoured with spices, similar to spiced wines. These spiced ales were called �braggots�.
Mead
Mead is produced by fermenting a honey and water mixture. Mead could also be flavoured with various spices, either during production or immediately before drinking. Mead was considered to be an ideal drink for invalids by the physicians of the time.Cider and other fruit juices
Fruit juices were drunk as either fresh fruit juice, or were fermented to produce alcoholic drinks like cider or perry.Cider is produced from whole apples, while perry is produced from pears. Murrey comes from blackberries or black mulberries, while prunelle is made from plums. A more unusual fruit juice is made from ground and strained pomegranate seeds.
Milk
Milk was not popular as a drink for adults- its use was generally confined to young children. Kumiss, which is an alcoholic drink made from fermented mare�s milk, was popular in the Middle East, but was only drunk in European countries when recommended by a physician.Tea & Coffee
Tea & coffee were not commonly drunk in Europe during our time period. Herbal infusions were sometimes drunk for their medicinal qualities, but tea was not commonly drunk until after our time period. Coffee was extremely popular in the Middle-East, and was introduced to Constantinople in 1554, but did not become popular throughout Europe for another 100 years.
(via lipsredasroses)
Over 20,000 years ago, humans won the evolutionary battle against Neanderthals. They may have had some assistance in that from their best friends.
One of the most compelling — and enduring — mysteries in archaeology concerns the rise of early humans and the decline of Neanderthals. For about…
Ballet was power-politics, in the 17th century
Boys in the age of fourteen can’t imagine that ballet was very much a macho-sport, if you lived in the 17th century. This movie (Le Roi Dance) shows very clearly and beautifully the king as the sun shining like gold and falling like a man.
This fragment speakes volumes about absolutism in it’s most elegant form.
We cannot imagine our leaders dancing as the sun. But we can imagine them ‘dancing like stars’ or dancing with talkshow-hosts. Our leaders have to be as ordinary as possible, it makes them human. No sun in our world, so it seems. This opposite view on leadership gives us something to talk about in class.
I had a entry about this very phenomenon, I love these photo’s! They are more great then mine were, so thank you!
Mary Clarke, was the organizer of the WSPU in Brighton. According to Sylvia Pankhurst: “Facing the rude violence of the seaside rowdies at Brighton, where she was stationed, she displayed a quiet, persistent courage, which made peculiarly large demands on one so sensitive. Exerting her frail physique to its utmost, she was grievously ill on the eve of Black Friday, and her Brighton comrades had begged her not to go. She had promised to take the easier course of arrest for window-breaking, and had telegraphed to Brighton from the police court.”
Clarke was arrested and sent to Holloway Prison, where she endured a hunger-strike and forced-feeding. She was released on 22nd December, 1924 but two days later Emmeline Pankhurst found her unconscious and she died soon afterwards as a result of a burst blood vessel on the brain. Clarke, like so many suffragettes, had probably died as a result of being forced fed in prison.
(via lipsredasroses)
Joaquin Phoenix, Commodus and politics, Roman style
Commodus was a interesting emperor, and as a famous Chinese saying goes, that couldn’t mean anything good for the other Romans. He behaved like a Persian king and shot wild animals in the arena (from above the arena, not in the arena). He came out one day in public in a lion skin and started following his wife who was dressed as an Amazone. It all seems odd behaviour yet it is politics, Roman style.
To become absolute ruler of his empire Commodus had to figure out on what idea he could claim absolute power as he didn’t want to consider the interests of wealthy Roman family’s.
So in Roman religion he sought what later Constantine and Theodosius found in Christianity; a solid reason for his absolute power. In Roman religious terms it meant he had to become a god. Like the Persian kings, he had to become divine.
To become a divinity in life was very risky in Roman politics. The few emperors who had tried it, died very soon afterwards of unnatural causes. So even Commodus was cautious, he became a halfgod, Hercules, the Greek who became a god after his death.
In Commodus’ political concept he portrayed himself as Hercules, conqueror of the Amazons, ruler of the world and beyond. In Rome (Museo Capitolini) stands this Hercules statue, of a bearded (Greek) Commodus, dressed as Hercules, an Amazon at his side, richess in cornucopia, and a globe with all the zodiac signs at its base.
Commodus may have been a cruel emperor but he was not as mad as he seemed. Dressing up as Hercules was just politics. He of course died, murdered by his Preatorian guard, very much Roman style.
Great idea, but how do I use it?
Just built this masterpiece of a bulletin board out of old newspapers and TIME magazines! Starting to get into the 50s, 60s, and 70s in US History!
I’m going to think about this. Should be a lot of fun. Trouble is, I get a lot of students a lot of different classes in one classroom every day:
Who do I give the honors?
What part of history do I want to show? And Why?
Still great idea, should be doable in the near future.
Photography as wartime propaganda (1853-1856)
English soldiers were having a hard time during de Crimean war. This war brought the first wartime journalist to the front. And this William Howard Russel wrote what he saw for the Times. His reports were highly disturbing for the voters at home, who read the Times religiously.
This was what brought Robert Fenton to the Crim, he was hired by the English governement to show that Russel was exaggerating. The first wartime photographer was no journalist. He made however great photo’s of relaxing soldiers.
Less than two decades after the first photo with real people, photography was used for wartime propaganda.
Still Fenton also made a great photo of Russel, maybe his ways to honour the first wartime journalist the world ever knew.
If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.
Robert Capa
How close to death Capa got isn’t quite certain with his most famous photograph. His wife Gerda Taro died in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) in which this photo was taken. He himself died in during the First Indochina War in 1954. He got to close to a landmine.
Stil this photo of a dying Spanish republican soldier can be a helpfull photo for discussion. It has been object of severe study to determine if it is a real photograph or a fake.
In 1936 the photo had in immense impact on young idealistic men and women who wanted to fight like this, then believed to be marxist, republican against fascism.
Is a picture more important than the truth? I think an interesting question in combination with this story.
What do you think?
Passchendaele, Belgium before and after the Battle of Passchendaele, 1917.
I was thinking of posting this, but it already was. So I reblogged it. There is almost not a better photograph to illustrate the hell soldiers and normal civilians went trough during WW1.
I always have to explain that the picture below consists solely of holes in the ground. It is hard to comprehend for young people that destruction in 1917 had this gruesome face. They always believe in a way that war before the Second World War was kind of childsplay.
(via d-readnought)
