From 1941 to 1945, a platoon of Anglo-American reporters (and one or two Australians and Canadians) were housed in Moscows Metropol Hotel. They were there to report on the defense of the Soviet Union

Hello, at 2:09 in the morning on October 5th, 1930, the British airship R-101 crashed some 90 miles northwest of Paris. It was just a few hours into a journey that was supposed to take it to Karachi,

On two separate trips, he traveled throughout the southeastern corner of the North American continent. He collected plants, and seeds, which he sent to interested amateur plantsmen and gardeners, as w

In the early 11th century, an English monk wrote an imaginary conversation between two men haggling over the price of a book. After finally agreeing to a price, they then needed to establish what mea

For more than two centuries, the American South has fascinated Americansand increasingly those outside North America. Its economy, politics, religion, race relations, literature, and food have influe

John Singer Sargent, Henry Cabot Lodge - At the 1920 Republican Convention the journalist and H.L. Mencken observed with great amusement and interest the behavior of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, the cha

On a wall outside the reading room of the Museo Correr hangs a map of the world. It is not just any map. The oceans are painted cerulean blue, and on their waves travel ships of every nation. On land,

Its no secret that historians love to create periods and errors, and then physically argue about them. We love to talk about the long 18th century, the short 18th century, the long 19th century, the

"The Three-Story Head" - When the Republican convention reconvened on the morning of June 8, 1880, Congressman James A. Garfield of Ohio had precisely two nominations to be the Republican candidate fo

Caravaggio, David and Goliath: a dangling self-portrait - My guest Scott Samuelson didnt visit Rome until he was in his mid 30s. Since then, with COVID exceptions, he has gone to Rome every summer.