Blog
Blog.
Essays, notes, and the history behind the moments we render.
Essays
Recent posts
Essay
Standing where they stood
Most of what we mean by 'historic' is geometry, not events. An essay on why standing in the same column of space is the only honest form of time travel, and what it tells us about the rest of the way we look at the past.
Essay
The other people in the room
Every famous historical moment has two kinds of people in it: the ones we know by name, and the ones who held the door open. An essay on Cicero's secretary, Vermeer's milkmaid, and Tolstoy's argument that the named actor is a shorthand history can no longer afford.
Essay
What letters remember
A letter is the one historical document written for exactly one person, exactly once. An essay on what we hear when we read other people's mail, from Cicero to Pliny, and on what the slow letter trained that the fast one does not.
Essay
The witness who didn't know
Pliny thought he was studying weather. The Sarajevo bystanders thought a young man had shot a stranger. The sacristan who saw a list pinned to the church door did nothing unusual. An essay on the historical witness who could not know what they were watching, and on the cruelty of hindsight.
Essay
Quiet histories
For most of human history the loudest thing within a day's walk was a thunderstorm, a waterfall, or a bell. An essay on the acoustic environment of the past, the politics of the village bell, and what we no longer hear because we hear constantly.
Essay
History happens at eye level
Most of the history you can name happened at a height of about five and a half feet, and the people who lived it could see only what was in front of them. An essay on the bird's-eye view as an accessory, and ground-level imagination as the only honest way back.
Moments
Moments
The locations we render, with their history.
Moment · 1937 · US
Lakehurst — katastrofa vzducholodi Hindenburg
6. května 1937 v 19:25 — při přistávání na americké námořní letecké základně Lakehurst vzplane a během 37 sekund shoří německá vodíková vzducholoď LZ 129 Hindenburg. Z 97 lidí na palubě jich umírá 36.
Moment · 1949 · KZ
Semipalatinsk — RDS-1, první sovětský jaderný test
29. srpna 1949 v 7:00 ráno místního času Sovětský svaz odpaluje na poligonu u Semipalatinsku svou první atomovou pumu RDS-1 (Pervaja Molnija, 22 kt), čímž ukončuje americký jaderný monopol.
Moment · 404 BC · GR
Athény — pád města a konec peloponéské války
Duben 404 př. n. l. — Athény se po 27 letech peloponéské války vzdávají Spartě. Spartský velitel Lýsandros nechává za zvuku auletek strhnout Dlouhé zdi spojující město s přístavem Peiraieus.
Moment · 1850 · JP
Edo Nihonbashi — obchodní čtvrť
Dřevěný most Nihonbashi v Edu, pozdní šógunát Tokugawa, hektický obchodní den.