Our association of coffeehouses is limited to cigar-smoking old men reminiscing about the past. While enjoying a steaming cup of coffee, of course. But things used to be not so meek in coffee houses. Eminegül Karababa (University of Exeter, England) and Güliz Ger (Bilkent University, Turkey) delved
In the 1950s and 1960s, three quarters of the Dutch read a womens magazine like Libelle or Marguerite. With such reach, the magazines could have a major impact on, for example, Catholic womens thinking about birth control. None of that, concludes historian Marloes Hülsken in her dissertation:the mag
From October 16 to 24, the Week of History will kick off again in the Netherlands, this time with the theme “Land and Water”. And Kennislink is of course also present as a participant. We can almost speak of a kind of love-hate relationship when we look at the relationship between the Netherlands
The dynamism and stagnation in the Republic is part of the 2011 History Exam. An important part of this movement was the media. Pamphlets sparked open discussions among the Dutch about the social issues of the time. As a result, those in power had to increasingly take into account the opinions of th
You walk through a dusty town in Boeotia, Greece. A man on a donkey passes you. A boy has broken a water jug. The shards are next to the well. Market vendors sell their wares. A woman pitted olives. No car, no smart phone in sight – you are back in time, in a virtual world. The above could well be
As of this week, the life-size statue of the Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut is back in the National Museum of Antiquities. The sculpture has been on display in the US since 2005, including in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and as the eye-catcher of a traveling exhibition. Queen Hatshepsut, a
The Museum van den Arbeid opened in 1923, as a tribute to the countless nameless workers who made everyday industrial products under difficult conditions. Almost ninety years later, Science Center NEMO emerged from this. Judith Gussenhoven did PhD research into this history at the University of Twen
Nowadays we find it quite normal that our waste water disappears through the sewer, but less than a century ago the bucket poo in Amsterdam was collected by horse carts and used on the farmland. We have to reinvent the reuse of our waste water. As of this week, the Amsterdam water company Waternet,
The political film is dead. The social mirror that we are still sporadically presented with comes from documentary makers. The IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, 20 Nov – 1 Dec 2013) is a good time to discuss this development. Guest columnist Helen Westerik gives beautiful exam
In the course of the nineteenth century, a true obsession with history arose in the Netherlands. Historical novels, monuments, history education, everything that previously had little interest sprang up like mushrooms. Why the sudden history? In the summer of 1825 a placard appeared in the streets
HISGIS, a historical geographic information system, has added a new map:that of Amsterdam. Anyone who likes it can now get to work with historical data from the 19th century, spread over the city map. Time travel is so close… Geographical information systems (GIS) have become an important part of o
Manichaeism was an important movement within Christianity that had many followers until the Middle Ages. What we know of it has always been based largely on the work of Christian Church Fathers. Research by VU PhD student Roland van Vliet provides new insights into this age-old religion. Manichaeis
How is it possible that a culturally eminent people suddenly started running after Adolf Hitler, that fallen corporal without training with his strange ideas? This question has puzzled historians for years. Emiritus professor Frits Boterman now turns the question around in an intriguing way:He argue
Get rid of that medieval nonsense and move on to modernity! That, in short, was how many nineteenth-century historians thought about the Enlightenment. Today we know that the Enlightenment is a difficult period to understand. Its multi-colouredness becomes clear in the collection Enlightenment in th
To this day, Jews and Christians around the world use the text of Psalm 91 to ward off evil spirits and demons. Gerrit Vreugdenhil investigated the historical context in which this Old Testament song came about, and why this text appeared so early on amulets and in magical texts. In Chile or other
Shocking are the many accidents involving nuclear weapons over the past half century. Nevertheless, no nuclear weapon has ever gone off accidentally. How (often) did the world escape disaster again and again? In 1958, a B-47 bomber burns down on an American base in Morocco. There are some nuclear w
The royal aspirations of the Oranges go back further than our first King William I. His ancestor Frederik Hendrik and especially his wife Amalia van Solms did everything they could to compete with the royal houses of their time. Think of luxurious palaces, a court life mirrored to the French court a
Where do our ideas about modern citizenship come from? Do they come straight from the French Revolution, or is there more to it? And what does that say about our time? Sometimes our citizenship ideals seem to come directly from the French Revolution. If citizenship is based on anything, so the thou
On the basis of questions, a member of De Jonge Akademie offers us a glimpse into their personal fascination with science in general and their own research topic in particular, and how it came about. This time Bé Breij on the art of persuasion… How do you tell what kind of research you do at a part
Since the establishment of the first crowdfunding platform for scientists last year, more and more Dutch scientists have become fascinated by the possibility of having their projects sponsored by ordinary citizens. Which crowdfunded research projects are there now and how can the results influence y
The castle of Sarre is located in the alpine valley from Aosta, just over 15 kilometers from the capital that gives its name to the valley. This castle is located on a small hill in the small town of Sarre, from which it perfectly overlooks the Dora Baltea river basin. Brief history of the Castle of
Napoleon Bonaparte, apart from numerous victories on the battlefields, also had many love conquests. He was interested in both well-born ladies and ordinary townswomen. It is worth considering what the French Emperor really thought about women ... If you think he was a romantic type, you are se
It derives its history from a princely dependent on the Golden Horde. For centuries it remained on the sidelines of Europe. Today he is one of the most important players in the international arena. How has Russia built its power and can it hold it? HISTORY OF RUSSIAN NATIONALISM IN CONTACT WITH
He went down in history as a conqueror of the Swedes, the great victory of the Battle of Kircholm in 1605. More than once he managed to defeat a much stronger enemy. What was the secret of his successes? Charisma and war experience are not enough to achieve brilliant successes. When at the end o