Archive
Category: History
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Politics Wore Religious Clothing
I’ve spent many long afternoons in the hospital chapel, sitting in the heavy silence that follows a sudden, violent loss, and I can tell…
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Reform Happened on Both Sides
I spent many years in hospital wards, sitting in the heavy silence that follows a difficult diagnosis, and if those years taught me anything,…
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Several Causes Converged at Once
I spent thirty years in hospital wards, sitting by bedsides where people were stripped of their pretenses, and if there is one thing I…
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Cheap Books Changed Who Could Argue
We are often told a tidy, almost celebratory story about how the invention of the movable type machine democratized the world, as if the…
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Universities Began as Guilds of Students and Teachers
We are often sold this polished, inevitable narrative of academic history—a grand, teleological march from candlelit scriptoriums to the gleaming glass laboratories of today.…
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Philosophy and Theology Argued as Colleagues
I remember sitting in a drafty hospital chapel many years ago, listening to a young scholar try to explain the seamless harmony of the…
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Copying by Hand for a Thousand Years
I remember sitting in a dim corner of a university archive years ago, the scent of vanilla and decay thick in the air, watching…
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Monasteries Preserved More Than Prayers
I remember sitting in a small, drafty chapel in the North of England, watching a young man try to explain the role of monasticism…
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Disputes Were Settled by Argument and Politics Both
I remember sitting in a sterile hospital waiting room, the air smelling of industrial floor wax and stale coffee, listening to a young man…
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Roads Built for Armies Carried Ideas
I remember sitting in a cramped, dimly lit hospital corridor years ago, listening to a man describe how his family’s history had been swallowed…