Heraldry played a very dramatic role in Medieval history. Heraldic arms signified and defined your families stature in the community and country. It was a symbol of family pride that could not be argued and gave the bearer a link to his ancestral family. It was also necessary in the often violent and war filled…
He spent his life in voluntary poverty, enthralled by the study of nature. Two years, in the prime of his life, were spent living in a shack in the woods near a pond. Who would choose a life like this? Henry David Thoreau did, and he enjoyed it. Who was Henry David Thoreau, what did…
Gladiatorial contests (munera gladitoria), hold a central place in our perception of Roman behavior. They were also a big influence on how Romans themselves ordered their lives. Attending the games was one of the practices that went with being a Roman. The Etruscans who introduced this type of contest in the sixth century BC, are…
Frederick Douglass’s writings reflected many American views that were influenced by national division. Douglass was a very successful abolitionist who changed America’s views of slavery through his writings and actions. Frederick Douglass had many achievements throughout his life. Douglass was born a slave in 1817, in Maryland. He educated himself and became determined to escape…
Francis Bacon was the founder of the modern scientific method. The focus on the new scientific method is on orderly experimentation. For Bacon, experiments that produce results are important. Bacon pointed out the need for clear and accurate thinking, showing that any mastery of the world in which man lives was dependent upon careful understanding.…
Both Michel Foucault and Truffaut’s depiction of a disciplinary society are nearly identical. But Truffaut’s interpretation sees more room for freedom within the disciplinary society. The difference stems from Foucault’s belief that the social control in disciplinary pervades all elements of life and there is no escape from this type of control. Foucault’s work deals…
Dolley Payne Madison was born in Guilford County, North Carolina on May 20, 1768. Dolley was born the first girl in a family of several children to Quaker parents, John Payne and Mary Coles. She spent her childhood in Scotchtown, Virginia. “The Paynes were well connected and sufficiently prosperous, small planters in Hanover County.”1 The…
Dionysus was the most widely worshipped and popular god in ancient Greece. It’s not difficult to see why; he was their god of wine, merriment, ritual dance, warm moisture, and later, civilization. He was often depicted as a handsome young man, dressed in fawnskin, and carrying a goblet and an ivy-covered staff. Some myths hold…
His Early Life Dante Alighieri was born under the sign of Gemini, he was thought to be born on May 29, but this is not certain. He was born in Florence, the son of Alighiero II, his family was one of lower nobility. His mother died when he was a child and his father when…
The Anasazi, who were named by the Navajos, knew how to chart the seasons by observing the sky. The biggest mystery of Chaco Canyon is why the Anasazi decided to leave the home that they had built over so many years. the one thing that is quite interesting is that they were able to construct…
A fraternity, as defined by the The American Heritage Dictionary is “a chiefly social organization of male college students, usually designated by Greek letters.”(pg. 523) This definition, however, is very limited and leaves plenty of space for short sighted people to believe the stereotype conveyed by the popular media, where fraternity members are depicted as…
Chivalry, the order of knighthood, and especially, the code of knightly behavior, comes from many origins. In Middle English, the word “chevalrie” meant “mounted horseman”. In Old French, the word “chevalrie” meant knightliness or “chevalier” meaning knight. (Microsoft, Encarta) Almost all origins of the word meant horseman. Warfare was not an option in the medieval…
Charles Manson is known as one of the most sinister and evil criminals of all time. He organized the murders that shocked the world and his name still strikes fear into American hearts. Manson’s childhood, personality, and uncanny ability to control people led to the creation of a family-like cult and ultimately to the bloody…
Frederic Ogden Nash was an American humorist who lived from 1902 to 1971. He was born in 1902 in Rye, New York, where he grew up with well educated parents. Microsoft Encarta 95 said that his parent’s names were Edmund Strudwick Nash and Mattie Nash. During his childhood years, Nash was educated at several private…
Samuel Clemens based his works on things that occurred throughout his personal life. He gained many interests and talents while on the Mississippi River that contributed to his writings. Samuel Clemens was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri. He was two months premature. At the time of his birth, Haley’s comet was in…
“There is no exquisite beauty without some strangeness in the proportions” (Biography on Poe 8). Edgar Alan Poe endured a very difficult life and this is evident in his literary style. He was once titled the “master of the macabre.” One of the aspects in his life with which he struggled was social isolation. He…
One of the greatest city states of all time was the city state of Athens from which we take many of our modern ways. Their government was a full democracy in which they had an assembly was all male citizens over 25 years old, they had a council of five hundred which was chosen by…
Caius Julius Caesar, a Roman consul, was a great leader and a terrible dictator. Many of his reforms were excellent, but he also was hungry for the power of Roman Dictator, which would give him absolute power for as long as he required it. Throughout his life he did many things including creating the calendar…
Anne Boleyn was a very important, if not the most important character in Anne of a Thousand Days. The way that she behaves, and the decisions that she makes, effect the way that the ends. For example, Anne could have refused to marry Henry, and could have run away. These actions and decisions would have…
The ancient Romans were similar to today’s generations in their eating habits but never ate three hearty meals a day. Lentaculum and prandium were merely appetizers that filled their stomachs until the large cena, the event they looked forward upon awakening. They had names for their meals similar to ours, breakfast (ientaculum), lunch (prandium), and…