The modern era, beginning with Christopher Columbus’ discovery of the Americas, has been characterized by more and more interconnection and blurring between the world’s societies. This phenomenon has only grown in intensity over time with the rise of technologies such as mass transport and telecommunications, but also intellectual developments such as the rise of internationalist […]
Little Timmy can already identify foreigners. There is an interesting new study from the University of British Columbia on infant babies’ ability to distinguish, and link, different races and languages. According to UBC (my emphasis): Eleven-month-old infants can learn to associate the language they hear with ethnicity, recent research from the University of British Columbia […]
Odysseus in Ithaca: The Father’s Revenge Odysseus engages the suitors in combat. 1814 painting by Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg Finally, Odysseus makes his way home and “he rejoiced to be in his own country” (13.165-243); “King Odysseus was filled with happiness, filled with joy that this land was his. He kissed the grain-giving soil of it, […]
Head of Roman-era statue of Odysseus, found in the grounds of the former villa of the emperor Tiberius. “Who are you, and from where? Where are your city and your parents?” Thus does a stranger ask Odysseus to identify himself in Homer’s poem dedicated to that hero, the Odyssey (10.325). Taking place after the travails […]
Go to Part 1. Go to Part 2. The Political Testament of 1752 and the Jews: “The Most Dangerous of Sects” Frederick the Great’s two political testaments are significant documents—systematic presentations of political doctrine, which rulers of Brandenburg-Prussia had composed since the days of the Great Elector (apparently inspired by Richelieu). These expound not only […]
Voltaire at the court of Frederick the Great. Go to Part 1. Frederick, Voltaire, and the Jews Frederick the Great and the famous French philosopher Voltaire had one of the most celebrated relationships between prince and intellectual of the Enlightenment. Indeed, on this rests some of Frederick’s claims to being an “enlightened despot.” Voltaire himself […]
Frederick the Great’s Jewish Policy: Between Containment and Profit Frederick II of Prussia, known as “the Great,” is one of the celebrated figures in Western history. On the one hand, he was an accomplished statesman and military leader, who through skill and dogged determination in wars with far larger states, doubling the size of his […]
