Once described by 8th century Mercian king Offa as “a terrible place,” it’s an odd, out-of-the-way part of the world.
History
Posted inNonfiction
Queens of Infamy: Joanna of Naples
If you thought four (mostly) crappy husbands, vengeful Hungarian cousins, and the Black Death could cramp this queen’s style, think again.
Posted inBooks, History, Science & Nature, Story
Taming the Great American Desert
By advocating for agriculture in the arid West, Major John Wesley Powell challenged the way America viewed its right to develop the continent.
Posted inFood, History, Quotes, Science & Nature
Just Try It, You’ll Like It, It’s Good for You
Remember when you could only buy milk that came from cows and goats, rather than nuts and seeds? We live in a post-dairy world now, and soy milk started it all.
Posted inHistory, Quotes
Oral History Project Grounds Story of Monticello in the Lives of the Enslaved
“Monticello was a Black space. People of African descent shaped the entire landscape: how the food tasted, what the place sounded and felt like.”
Posted inHistory, Nonfiction, Quote Posts, Quotes, Science & Nature
Staten Island Wilderness, Going, Going, Gone?
One of the last pieces of wilderness on Staten Island might get bulldozed.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books, History, Story
The Camouflage Artist: Two World Wars, Two Loves, and One Great Deception
In the first war, Joseph Gray used his art to reveal his fellow soldiers. In the next war, he used it to hide them.
Posted inHighlight, History, Nonfiction, Quotes
How American Women’s Pro Baseball Kept Lesbians in the Closet
“Play like a man, look like a lady.” At Narratively, Britni de la Cretaz looks at the history of lesbianism in early pro women’s baseball and at the beautiful love stories that the movie “A League of Their Own” chose to ignore.
Posted inBooks, History, Story
Nell Battle Lewis, Storyteller for Jim Crow
How an otherwise high-minded social reformer preserved and perpetuated her white supremacist worldview.
Posted inNonfiction
Queens of Infamy: Anne Boleyn
In Tudor England’s big-sleeved game of thrones, winning and dying were not mutually exclusive.