We’d All Be Better Off With Napoleon
On the bicentennial of the Battle of Waterloo, Andrew Roberts argues that we’d all be better off with a little more Napoleon: A vast amount of literature has explored why…
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Frank Norris’s Early Cinematic Style
At The Public Domain Review, Henry Giardina examines how the then-recent invention of motion picture influenced Frank Norris’s novel McTeague and the development of naturalism.
Paradise Lost and Scurvy Found
Sudden sounds, such as the report of a musket or a cannon, were well known to kill scorbutic sailors. Even pleasant stimuli such as a drink of fresh water, or…
The Rumpus Interview with Erik Larson
Bestselling author Erik Larson talks about his new book, Dead Wake, his transition from journalism to history, and what, in his opinion, makes a first-rate nonfiction novel.
Forgotten Failures
For The Public Domain Review, Dane Kennedy looks at two accounts of European expeditions that undermined the popular Victorian view of African exploration.
Some Old Pick-Up Lines
I very much desire to make your acquaintance. If agreeable please return this card, appointing a time and place for interview, on the other side. Before Tinder or texting, people…
The Vibrant History of Cuba
I feel like if you look at the history of Cuba, it’s always been a tumultuous one, even going back to Columbus, right? It always seems to have been a…
A Picture of Nothing
For the image to work…the viewer must not see the image for what it is – a black square. The viewer must understand the square as formlessness, and the black…
How to Move Your Arms While You Talk
Slate looks at the 1857 book Sanders’ School Speaker: A Comprehensive Course of Instruction in the Principles of Oratory and its illustrations of what you should do with your arms…
The Saturday Rumpus Essay: The Cultural Constellations of Agee and Smith
But who said a chronology had to be straightforward?
A Comic History of Rome
The Public Domain Review takes a look at The Comic History of Rome, a book that satirized Roman history as well as Victorian society.
Neanderthals in 3D
The Public Domain Review examines “the masterpiece” that is Marcellin Boule’s L’Homme Fossile de La Chapelle-aux-Saints, a book published in 1911 that includes early 3D images.