Recently, I received The Recovery Agent from a particularly well-read aunt who thought I’d enjoy the story. The Recovery Agent is a recent (2022) novel from the prolific writer Janet Evanovich. Evanovich has written almost as many novels as Taylor Swift has breakup songs, but her books are new to me, so I was in. […]
Tag: Smallpox
The Plague of Cyprian – One of the Great Disasters of History?
The Plague of Cyprian was a terrible event, no question. How terrible is uncertain. But it seems to me that one cannot understand the middle years of the Roman Empire without discussing the Plague of Cyprian and its consequences. It probably killed two Roman Emperors. Yet, chances are good you’ve never heard of it. Lucky […]
Why are Passenger Pigeons a Perfect Key to U.S. History?
At first glance, the idea that the history of a bird can tell us much about American history seems a stretch, I suppose. The story of passenger pigeons, however, is an exception, and an enlightening exception at that. You might know one part of this story. Once abundant, humans caused the extinction of passenger pigeons. […]
What Caused the Salem Witch Trials – What Was Really to Blame?
In my last post (read it with this link) I described the events of what happened in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. Today, I’ll move on to what caused the Salem Witch Trials. Trials such as those in Salem are not common in American history. Perhaps the closest example from later American history would be in […]
Malaria and Sugar in the Caribbean
My last blog entry began the story of how sugar, malaria, and the Columbian Exchange resulted in the living hell of slavery flourishing in the Caribbean. I described the economic reasons why this took place. Today we’ll examine some more implications of this development. It involves the combination of malaria and sugar. To read previous […]
Sugar in the Caribbean, and the Columbian Exchange
This post continues my efforts to explain some of the consequences of the Columbian Exchange, one of my favorite historical topics. Today I want to talk about the importance of sugar in the Caribbean. To read previous posts about the Columbian Exchange, please see Introduction to the Columbian Exchange The Columbian Exchange and Human Extinction […]