For many, Provence immediately conjures up images of crisp blue skies, gently swaying lavender fields, and picturesque village markets. Immortalized by figures such as Marcel Pagnol, Jean Giono, and Lawrence Durrell — and more recently by the writings of Peter Mayle and Julia Child — southern France continues to be viewed as something of a…
Category: Historical Study
Historical Study: The Jolt of Electricity that Forever Altered Warfare
On Jan. 6, 1838, a current ran along two miles of wire, forever changing how we wage war. In the wake of the Civil War, there were many legacies left by Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, with the abolition of slavery and the foundation of a national American identity at the front of most people’s lists. But…
In Memoriam: Dr. Robert Berger
A Holocaust survivor and former resistance fighter, his research established Nazis’ studies were falsified or otherwise unsound BOSTON — Dr. Robert Berger, an eminent cardiothoracic surgeon who discredited medical experiments conducted by the Nazis, has died. Berger, a Holocaust survivor from Hungary who risked his life fighting with the resistance, died Jan. 1 in Boston…
Cold War Files: Declassified: U.S. Military’s Secret Cold War Space Project Revealed
Newly released documents describe the U.S. Air Force’s secret cold war project known as the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) A newly released treasure trove of historical data reveals intriguing details about a secret Cold War project known as the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL). The U.S. Air Force’s MOL program ran from December 1963 until its cancellation in…
Cold War Files: Gary Powers, The U-2 Spy Pilot the U.S. Did Not Love
Steven Spielberg’s most recent movie, Bridge of Spies, tells the story of a Cold War prisoner exchange between the Soviet Union and the US. The deal allowed US spy plane pilot Gary Powers to return home – but once there he faced a chorus of criticism. Gary Powers had been in flight for four hours…
Historical Study: Mead and the Vikings
Being a European in the Early Middle Ages was rough. “Barbarians,” such as the Franks and Vandals that destroyed the Roman Empire were settling into kingdoms in their own right. Dynasties like the Carolingians and Merovingiansdominated Western Europe. Diseases, poverty, and starvation were rampant. However, the Early Middle Ages had another looming threat: Vikings. All…
Military History: The Lasting Influence of the Ancient Greeks on the Modern Military
Written more than two thousand years ago, texts by ancient Greeks still have a major impact on the modern militaries of today in numerous ways. At the start of the Cold War, the then US secretary of state, George Marshall, read the histories of Herodotus and Thucydides, convinced that the events of the Peloponnesian War…
Historical Study: Ivan the Terrible’s Military Arsenal Found
The full arsenal of a military commander who served Ivan the Terrible has been uncovered in Russia, the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences has announced. Found during a survey for a highway expansion outside Zvenigorod, an ancient town 18 miles west of Moscow, the cache consists of helmets stored in leather…
Navy SEAL Sniper Instructor Describes America’s Best Marksman Ever
In this excerpt from The Red Circle: My Life In The Navy SEAL Sniper Corps And How I Trained America’s Deadliest Marksmen, former Navy SEAL sniper instructor Brandon Webb, describes the deadliest sniper in US military history. Everything I’d experienced in the navy up to this point, from those early days as an aircrew search-and-rescue…
Cold War Files: A ‘Texas Tower’ Veteran Reflects on Cold War History
KINGSLEY, Mich. — Each time Victor Rioux sits in a church pew he takes a minute to say a special prayer. He honors the 28 men who died during the Cold War when Texas Tower No. 4 collapsed amid a fierce winter storm. “I never forget those guys,” Rioux said from his Kingsley farm house….