What’s your literary classic Halloween costume? [quiz]
This Halloween, why not let literature dress you?
Quatremère de Quincy: the founding father of museophobia?
Antoine-Chrysostôme Quatremère de Quincy (1755-1849) was celebrated during his lifetime as the greatest European writer on the arts. The architect Sir John Soane admired his essay on Egyptian architecture while Hegel considered his research on ancient Greek polychromatic sculpture a masterpiece. Despite the breadth of Quatremère’s writings, today he is famous for inventing an idea […]
How I used the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as a student
‘They court the notice of a future age/ Those twinkling tiny lustres of the land’. Today’s users of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography are members of the ‘future age’ that William Cowper talks of in his poem ‘On Observing Some Names Of Little Note Recorded In The Biographia Britannica’. For students, this makes the […]
Symbol swearing with the Grawlix
I miss a lot of things about the decline of paper newspapers, especially the comic strips. The comics were verbal humor with pictures and recurring characters, and the language of the comics provided a window into how spoken language was represented in print.
Nine reasons I love John Williams [playlist]
I wrote a biography of John Williams, essentially, because I have loved his music since I was nine years old.
Built on trust: the rigorous review process behind Oxford Law Pro’s Content [infographic]
Legal professionals need content they can depend on—accuracy, authority, and integrity are non-negotiable.
Prague: a playlist from the heart of Europe
Prague is a city steeped in history, where music has long been intertwined with its cultural identity. This playlist captures that spirit, featuring compositions that reflect the grandeur of its imperial courts, the struggles of its people, and the resilience of its artists.
Let’s stop talking about conspiracy “theories”
A few years ago, I taught an undergraduate course on “Cons, Cults, and Conspiracies Theories,” exploring the connections and parallels among those phenomena.
John Williams and the two notes that changed cinema
Two notes. Probably the most famous two-note unit of music in modern history.
When a composer has a hit song or an instantly iconic tune, it can be a blessing and a curse. That tune becomes eternally attached to you—and sometimes it can eclipse the rest of your work.
5 books to master your transition to college [reading list]
As the days get cooler and autumn approaches, it’s the perfect time for a fresh start. Back to school is here.
Back to school for happy and healthy kids
Every September, caregivers and kids alike prepare for one big change: the start of a new school year.
Caring fish dads evolved prostates faster
Animals caring for their young, such as a lioness carrying her cub by their scruff or a matriarchal elephant herd nursing young calves, are the kinds of behavior that many would pay good money to watch on a safari.
China’s state-led financialization for tech supremacy
The financialization of Western economies has unfolded as a prolonged systemic failure. What began as a mechanism to support productive enterprise has evolved into a structural dominance of finance over the real economy.
Sabotage of the Normandie? [excerpt]
In the 1940s, the Normandie was the epitome of elegance and engineering—a French ocean liner renowned for its Art Deco splendor and unmatched luxury.
The bordered logic behind the headlines
‘Where do you want to go today?’ served as the tagline for software giant Microsoft’s global marketing campaign running through the mid-1990s. The accompanying advertisements were replete with flashy images of people around the world of all ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds engaging in a diverse range of activities.
A cultural history of the purse [timeline]
In conducting research for The Things She Carried: A Cultural History of the Purse in America, Kathleen B. Casey discovered how one everyday object—the purse—could function as a portal to the past.