Author: Jill Summerville

Romeo and Juliet, Lancelot and Guinevere, Tony and Maria — all of these fictional lovers sacrifice their lives (sometimes literally) for a romantic passion that overwhelms them. The trope is popular, but it is not always realistic. These real life lovers made great personal sacrifices for love. Sacrifices they later profoundly regretted. 10. Frank Sinatra…

Read More

The 1973 children’s educational program Schoolhouse Rock! featured cartoons and catchy songs explaining the fundamentals of math, grammar, and the functions of the United States government. The song for the cartoon about the US Electoral College contains the lyric, “Everyone who graduates becomes the president.” Thus far, most presidential candidates who have won the Electoral College…

Read More

Whether or not someone’s name is in a history book varies depending upon who is writing the history. All of the people on the list below championed civil rights in the United States. Not all of them are as well known as the people who were mentioned in the sidebars of our social studies textbooks,…

Read More

Often, what constitutes deplorable behavior is determined by the sociocultural and sociopolitical norms of a particular time period. All of the people on this list were publicly condemned in their own time for offenses that most people would consider forgivable within the societal value systems of contemporary Western culture. But in their time, they suffered…

Read More

According to Jean Kim, M.D.’s 2017 article in Psychology Today, “Why Do People Follow Tyrants?”, an effective tyrant recognizes and responds to certain fundamental human desires. The tyrant’s strength and authority may allow him or her to present himself or herself as a parental figure, caring for an entire nation. Sometimes the nation’s parental figure…

Read More

Maps reveal the world around us. They also reveal how we see that world and how our interpretation of what we see changes over time. The art of cartography is shaped by the limits of particular landmasses. It is also shaped by the limits of human knowledge, and the limitlessness of human ambition. Below is…

Read More

As of 2019, the British foreign intelligence agency, MI6, is seeking new hires. The name MI6 originated during World War II, when foreign intelligence was the sixth division of British military intelligence. Agent Alex Younger says that the most important qualities for a job candidate to possess are empathy and intelligence. Of course, MI6’s most famous fictitious…

Read More

The current incarnation of America’s Central Intelligence Agency was established in 1947. The CIA is a foreign intelligence agency authorized to undertake covert operations in order to protect American interests. Of course, the matter of whether a particular operation protects American interests is subjective. Whether or not the operations on the list below are justified or…

Read More

Until the mid-19th century in America, corporations’ incorporation charters—the articles that clarify a corporation’s mission—were selectively granted. Their charters were subject to alteration or revocation by the governments of the states where they were headquartered. Charters were evaluated based on how well a corporation’s practices exemplified its stated mission. In the Citizens United v. The…

Read More

In his novel The Colour of Magic, fantasy author Terry Prachett says, “You can’t map a sense of humor.” Perhaps not, but a cartographer can certainly have his tongue firmly in cheek while drawing a map. Not all of the maps in the list below are intended to be humorous or whimsical. Some of them…

Read More

The Roman Empire has been represented in cultural contributions as diverse as the 1959 American film Ben Hur and the 1979 British film Monty Python’s Life of Brian. The Romans are the villains of the Christians’ New Testament. Yet they are also the people who gave contemporary civilization some of its most practical architectural innovations. Anyone who…

Read More

In his 1961 book Madness and Civilization, theorist Michel Foucault argues that an effective method for revealing a society’s sociocultural values is by determining whom its citizens attempt to marginalize. Focusing on Europe, Foucault examined which conditions were considered madness from 1500 to 1800. According to Foucault, what is classified as a psychological disorder in…

Read More

What is the most iconic image associated with the United States of America? Is it the starred and striped flag Betsy Ross allegedly sewed? Is it the Golden Arches of McDonald’s, copyrighted as a logo by franchise owner Ray Kroc in the 1960s? Though the Big Mac’s place in history has yet to be determined, some…

Read More

In his 2014 article for Elite Daily, Adam Pliskin argues that milennials are especially fascinated by celebrity culture. Unlike fans from previous generations, milennials have constant, limited access to celebrities. A computer is a standard technological convenience in most contemporary homes, and access to social media is widely available. Anyone who can access a social media…

Read More

The Roman Empire has been represented in cultural contributions as diverse as the 1959 American film Ben Hur and the 1979 British film Monty Python’s Life of Brian. The Romans are the villains of the Christians’ New Testament. Yet they are also the people who gave contemporary civilization some of its most practical architectural innovations. Anyone who…

Read More

Like all workers, bank robbers are adapting to a changing culture. According to Albert Samaha’s 2014 article for The Village Voice, “How Bank Robbery Trends have Shifted in America over the Years,” only one-third of the bank robbers who committed robberies in 2000 used guns. Since contemporary tellers are instructed to comply with robbers’ demands…

Read More

The common belief that idioms such as “saved by the bell” and “working the graveyard shift” originated due to live burials has been discredited. However, the fear of being buried alive was more than just a mythos in 19th century culture. On August 25, 1868, Franz Vestor received a patent for a security coffin that…

Read More