History
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘History’
Plutarch tells us how Alexander the Great came to bond with Bucephalus, the mighty stallion that bore him to so many victories.
Plutarch’s Parallel Lives, probably written early in the second century, compares the characters of various great men of classical Greece and Rome. Among them is Alexander the Great, the young King of Macedon who in the latter part of the fourth century BC conquered cities and peoples from Egypt to India. His horse was Bucephalus, a mighty stallion that took some conquering too.
Nothing seemed likely to stop Napoleon Bonaparte from conquering Europe, but one little fellow slowed him up a bit.
The Battle of Castiglione in northern Italy, on August 5th, 1796, was a resounding victory for Napoleon Bonaparte over the Austrian Empire. The general, who at that time was still serving the French Republic, read Helen Maria Williams’s account of his Italian campaign and told her later ‘that he would answer for the truth of all that she had reported’ — including, presumably, this poignant little scene.
Frédéric Bastiat made a tongue-in-cheek appeal to the French government, asking them to protect candlemakers from a cut-throat competitor.
In the 1840s, powerful lobbyists managed to get most European governments to pass legislation protecting their industries from being undercut by rivals. Frédéric Bastiat held this short-sighted indulgence up to ridicule, penning a tongue-in-cheek ‘Petition’ to the Chamber of Deputies in which French candlemakers begged them to crack down on a particularly glaring example of unfair competition.
Inspired by economists in Britain, Frédéric Bastiat explained to his own Government why their initiatives to boost the economy so often fail.
So long as it makes work for the working man to do, almost any initiative will have its champions. A superfluous rail upgrade, a local government vanity project, even burglary or a war, we are reconciled to them on the grounds that ultimately they create jobs and get the economy moving. Yet as Frédéric Bastiat explained back in 1850, the thought may be comforting but it isn’t really true.
After winning the English crown at the Battle of Hastings, William of Normandy ensured everyone understood what kind of man their new King was.
Edward Freeman — Liberal politician, Balkan nationalist, and Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford — was a man of vigorous (and at times objectionable) opinions, but in the following passage he puts that passion to good use. He casts an eye for us upon the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings in 1066, the day when William of Normandy seized the English crown from Harold Godwinson.
Sir Humphry Davy explains in simple terms what it is that leads to scientific progress.
In 1812, research chemist and popular lecturer Humphry Davy was knighted for his services to Science. In that same year, he published an overview of his discipline, Elements of Chemical Philosophy, and prefaced it with an introduction to the basics of the new scientific method. There were, he said, three essential components to it.