Now reading Figes’ The Crimean War and I did not expect it to start with accounts of a bunch of priests and good Christians murdering each other in their “holiest” churches in Jerusalem in the 1840s. That’s interesting
@alice@GrittyLipids@bookstodon@histodons@SusanHR One interesting thing about the case in this book: the author asked for names and dates, then traveled to investigate them. Some of the history was valid but the names did not exist.
If the entities can get facts, why did they lie, and then make excuses when he came back and confronted them?
Maybe they are forbidden from knowing certain things.
Or maybe they deliberately lie to drive off the skeptical, while recruiting the credulous.
@mike805@GrittyLipids@bookstodon@histodons@SusanHR It's a tactic used by 419 ("Nigerian") scammers and other fraudsters. Sure, the scam might sound flagrantly obvious to many but for the target victims, it's perfect. An intelligence test.
If they don't reject the scam out of hand, they're the most likely to fall for it. This optimizes the effort and attention of the scammer by not wasting time on bad marks.
A youth holds a snake in their left hand and reaches towards another with their right. It’s not clear whether the snake to the right is biting the youth or the youth is holding the snake by the jaw…
Gramsch, Robert, Das Reich als Netzwerk der Fürsten: politische Strukturen unter dem Doppelkönigtum Friedrichs II. und Heinrichs (VII.) 1225 - 1235 (Mittelalter-Forschungen 40), Ostfildern 2013.
The list of exciting forthcoming books keeps growing! "Focusing on previously neglected cultural expressions of colonial-period Korean socialism such as Marxist philosophy, Marxist historiography, and travelogues by socialist writers, The Red Decades reveals Marxian socialism as a cultural phenomenon of colonial-age Korea...[]...this text offers a rich, nuanced description of the microcosm of Korean Communism..."
On this day in 1723, Isaac Meredith died aged 27. The Journals show a drawing of the coat of arms that was carved on his gravestone at Comber, Co. Down: https://bit.ly/mere1723
@worldhistory@histodons That's really cool, and took me on a little historical research trip that made me much more kindly disposed to the Jesuits in general, they seem much more beneficial than I supposed.