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Academic Insights for the Thinking World

  • Author: Frances Courtney Kneupper

Can medieval apocalypse commentaries help us feel better about the US election?

In 1453, medieval Europeans were reeling. The great Christian city of Constantinople, which had stood as the capital of the Eastern half of the Roman Empire for over a thousand years, was conquered by the Muslim Ottoman Turks. The militarily superior Turks had been expanding into the Christian territories for more than a century. It was almost inevitable that they would take Constantinople. But few in the West expected this blow.

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