Artist Jonas Staal not only makes propaganda art, he also researches it. In his PhD research he shows that this art is not only made under dictators or in totalitarian states. NEMO Kennislink interviews him about this. The research of Jonas Staal (Leiden University) is about the relationship betwee
South Moluccan youth hijacked a train 40 years ago and took more than a hundred primary school children hostage in Drenthe. The Netherlands was turned upside down:nothing like this had ever happened here! This was not the first hijacking, but kidnapping children was a new low. What drove the South M
Mein Kampf of Adolf Hitler republish or not? A scientific version was published in Germany last year, after which the discussion erupted. Isnt the hate-mongering book banned for nothing? Historian Ewoud Kieft is in favor of a new edition. Only by studying National Socialism can we understand why thi
The antiquity still carries on to our time. For example in TV series like The Sopranos and a recent speech by politician Thierry Baudet in the House of Representatives, university lecturer David Rijser said during an evening lecture about the power of myths. According to him, classical texts still o
Spinoza has received a lot of attention in recent years. He is therefore not just a philosopher:he is seen as paving the way for secular, Western society. The Dutch canon describes him as follows:He initiated a liberal interpretation of the Bible, spoke out in favor of democracy and pointed out the
A piece of stone with red lines on it has been found in South Africa. Research indicates that these intersecting lines are intentional. This makes this 73 thousand year old drawing the oldest made by modern human hands. ‘The oldest drawing ever found.’ This claim is regularly in the news and not un
Dutch history is regularly used and claimed in the debate about national identity. That didnt sit well with many historians, so they wrote the World History of the Netherlands, a big pill full of stories about how things are. The recently released book World History of the Netherlands has already
Giving away free meals to the people was a common gesture of the Roman elite. From the third century onwards, these communal meals gradually disappeared, but it was not entirely clear why. Until now. Wealthy Romans organized and paid for free meals for the people on several occasions. For example,
Scientists reconstructed the location and history of Portus Pisanus, the ancient port of Pisa. This once important harbor fell into disuse when the sea inlet silted up and turned into an inland lake. You probably know the Italian city mainly because of its leaning tower, but Pisa was once one of th
Porcelain trade is not the subject of a historical research project on China. This time the Chinese culture and the mutual influence through contacts with Europeans is under a magnifying glass. The young Republic played an important role in this. China is popular in the Netherlands. Our country is
The most beautiful tunnel in the Netherlands has been given a biography. Former tunnel manager Henk van der Maas wrote a wonderful book about the Maastunnel. He talks about the doubts about safety during construction, the four hundred thousand tiles and the three belligerents who were the first to g
China was a closed empire in the seventeenth century. Foreigners were not welcome. Nevertheless, a few Dutch managed to get a foothold on Chinese soil. They looked at Chinese culture with admiration. Conversely, the Chinese also had an opinion about us. This image has now been captured in an exhibit
In a digital age, the smell of old books seems to be getting rarer. Scientists therefore propose to label dying smells as cultural heritage and have already investigated how you can catch such a smell. They developed a scent wheel as a framework. A recognizable scent immediately evokes memories and
Technologically we can do more and more, but products do not last as long. That must change quickly, otherwise our raw materials will run out and we will turn the earth into a mountain of waste. Thomas Rau and Sabine Oberhuber write this in Material Matters. They propose a radical economic model in
Archaeologists have found unique objects from Roman times in Tiel. The riches probably belonged to the local Batavian elite who lived in the countryside. However, further research is needed to trace the villa. The largest archaeological excavation in the Netherlands of recent decades is currently t
In complex societies, such as the Dutch, images play a decisive role. Images can create a sense of community. Through images, people develop an idea of their own and the other or strange, and that strongly influences who in this imagination belongs to a community and who does not. The depiction o
At a time when terrorist groups such as Islamic State, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda or the Taliban all rely on Islam as their driving force, no one can deny it:religion is not only a source of comfort or reconciliation, but also a source of conflict. Incidentally, this conflict is certainly not limited to
When there is war in Africa, you hear the word inevitable in the media:tribal warfare. The term tribe is very often used to understand conflicts on the African continent or in the Middle East. In South Sudan, for example, two major tribes, Dinka and Nuer, are fighting each other in a civil war. But
Within the problem of racism and discrimination, the Jewish people occupies a special place in history. The origins of the Jewish people are vague. While the outward and cultural differences are great, all Jews are bound by faith and its associated traditional customs. All that is not biology. It ar
It has long been thought that the practices of eugenics because of its racist tenor would have come to an end with the end of World War II in 1945. That is unfortunately a misconception. There are numerous examples at home and abroad that prove the opposite. The strict sterilization laws were enforc
Even today, many believe that rational thinking was largely responsible for the development of all scientific knowledge accumulated until then. Observation and experiments have helped man to unravel the great unknowns of nature. In this sense, it is customary to observe the natural sciences (Biology
3D reproduction of the mysterious cavity recently discovered inside the pyramid of Cheops Thousands of years after their construction, the pyramids of Egypt they havent stopped unraveling their mysteries yet and who knows if they ever will. The latest discovery it concerns the largest of the
They carried death to informers, traitors, tsarist officials and gendarmes. They suddenly appeared in a dark gate, in front of the apartment door. They carried out the sentence on the spot. A few blows with a knife - to the neck, chest and stomach - immediately took the life of the convict. This is
Ambassador Jan Wojciech Piekarski went to Laos in the middle of the civil war. A revolution found him in Iran. During the conflict between the US and Iraq, he conducted spectacular negotiations aimed at the release of an American citizen from an Iraqi prison. Now it reveals the backstage of these ev