The atmosphere of the Bronze Age, alien as it is to us today, may appear savage at first glance; but this belies a very different quality that can be discerned in its literature …
Texts in Context: The Age of the Bronze Men Read More »
Strange shapes move half-visibly in the mists of time; but as the grey recedes, often as not, we seem to find not a window but a mirror.
Texts in Context: Now We’re Getting Somewhen Read More »
Disentangling traditional myth, archæological fact, and anthropological speculation is a tricky business, which—in a lucky break for historians—can be left to prehistorians.
Texts in Context: The Age of Saturn Read More »
History can be tricky, even when one is not being pursued by a rough-and-tumble college professor declaring that the artifact we are trying to study “belongs in a museum.”
Texts in Context: History & Its Discontents Read More »
Time is sometimes depicted as an ouroboros, a serpent eating its tail, a symbol of cyclical recurrence. History is like a bask of crocodiles: they are related to snakes, but have extra features that may distract us, to our peril.
Texts in Context: The Crocodile of Chronology Read More »
“History is a pack of tricks we play on the dead,” “History is written by the victors,” “History is bunk,” etc.—these are all evaluations of history. But before we decide whose fault it is, what is history?
Texts in Context: How to History Read More »
