Printing Press: Did you mean...?

Last time we learned about the Enlightenment, and the philosophers and thinkers whose ideas would shape governance for hundred of years. This week, we're learning how monarchs across Europe were influenced by those ideas. Adoption of Enlightenment...

From Ur, southern Iraq, about 2600-2400 BC This is one of an almost identical pair discovered by Leonard Woolley in the 'Great Death Pit', one of the graves in the Royal Cemetery at Ur. The other is now in the University of Pennsylvania...

The Song (aka Sung) dynasty ruled China from 960 to 1279 CE with the reign split into two periods: the Northern Song (960-1125 CE) and Southern Song (1125-1279 CE). The Northern Song ruled a largely united China from their capital at Kaifeng...

William Tyndale (l.c. 1494-1536) was a talented English linguist, scholar and priest who was the first to translate the Bible into English. Tyndale objected to the Catholic Church’s control of scripture in Latin and the prohibition against...

Huldrych Zwingli (l. 1484-1531) was a Swiss priest who became the leader of the Protestant Reformation in the region at the same time Martin Luther (l. 1483-1546) was active in Germany. Zwingli is known as the 'third man of the Reformation'...

Buddhism, in Korean Bulgyo, was introduced by monks who visited and studied in China and then brought back various Buddhist sects during the Three Kingdoms period. It became the official state religion in all Three Kingdoms and subsequent...

Printed Christmas cards became popular in the Victorian period (1837-1901) thanks to a combination of cheaper printing techniques and even cheaper post, with the arrival of the Penny Black postage stamp. Coming in all shapes, sizes, and materials...

During World War II, Nazi Germany undertook the imprisonment and summary execution of many of its own citizens, and citizens of the nations they occupied. One of the groups that came under assault was the European Jewish population. More...

During our last several episodes, Europe and the European-controlled world have been in crisis. Wars, disease, climate changes, and shifts in religious and political power threw the European world into turmoil. People were looking for a scapegoat...

In eastern Europe, in the 17th Century CE a couple of "great powers" were coming into their own. The vast empire of Russia was modernizing under Peter the Great, and the relatively tiny state of Prussia was evolving as well. Russia (and Tsar...