Terrible People from History

When you look at the witch-trial fever that swept over Europe in the 17th century, it’s noticeable how it largely left Ireland untouched. This wasn’t really because of greater tolerance on the part of the Irish people, but rather reflects…

War creates monsters, and not all monsters go away when the war does. Some still fight for their lost cause, some fight for their own survival, and some fight because they’ve discovered they love nothing more than killing. This was the case…

Modern western education has a lot of biases built into it, including a basic assumption that democracy is the most natural form of government. This fails to properly teach people how fragile democracy as a system can be, and how dependent…

There are always those who see opportunity in the chaos of revolution, a chance for personal glory and historical immortality. Sometimes these men succeed, and are remembered as great heroes. Sometimes they succeed and are remembered as…

When Louis Aragon died, the New York Times obituary ended with the line: “Even those who disagreed with his politics admired his talents as a poet and as a novelist.” Separating an artist from their beliefs is difficult at best and woefully…

There’s a cynical modern saying: “Steal a hundred pounds, go to jail. Steal a hundred grand, get a book deal.” This is far from a modern phenomenon. Throughout history those who commit audacious crimes have sometimes been rewarded rather…

During his lifetime, many men underestimated or ignored Luke Short. He stood less than 5’6” tall and seemed like a natural target for the type of bully that frequented the American “Wild West” period. But those who tried to take advantage…

Nothing makes history trickier to investigate than the whiff of scandal. Coverups and spin aren’t modern inventions, and when it makes every source you have unreliable then getting to the truth of the matter becomes all but impossible. So…

The genius of Eugène François Vidocq lay in one simple principle. In order to catch a criminal, you had to be able think like a criminal. And in his case that was easy, because he was one. He’s sometimes referred to as “the French Jonathan…

“Who was the worst Roman emperor?” is a commonly asked question, and one which is difficult to answer for many reasons. Not least of those is “worst for whom?” Rome was a slave economy after all, so an emperor good for the city of Rome was…