Category Archives: history

Learning from the Gracchi – the “First Socialists” – from the History archive

Posted on June 20, 2022 by toritto

A lesson from history for today’s politics It is the year 135B. C  .in the Roman Republic. The Carthaginians had been finally defeated. The Roman Republic itself was already some 375 years old, (older than the United States today) dating … Continue reading →

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The Death of Thich Quang Duc – June 11, 1963

Posted on June 12, 2022 by toritto

This repost is for those too young to remember Vietnam, their father’s hell. Memorial to Thich Quang Duc – Ho Chi Minh City Thich Quang Duc was a Buddhist – a Vietnamese Buddhist living in South Vietnam in 1963. South … Continue reading →

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Cruising With Suzanne Pleshette – from the Archive

Posted on May 21, 2022 by toritto

“Suzanne Pleshette”  with some sharply dressed, well muscled geek (still wearing his U.S. Army issue eyeglasses) – 1969 While I was In the Army and stationed in Eritrea in the mid-60s my wife JoAnn got a job with The Greek … Continue reading →

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From Republic to Empire – from the History Archive

Posted on May 1, 2022 by toritto

Standard of the IV Cohort XXIV Legion At Cannae, in Southern Italy, the Army of the Roman Republic faced Hannibal in the 2nd Punic War. At the time a Roman citizen could not “join” the Army; it was an honor … Continue reading →

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Eunuch – from the History Archive

Posted on April 22, 2022 by toritto

Photo post-card of the Chief Eunuch of the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II, photographed at the Imperial Palace. The Qizlar Agha, was one of the most powerful and sometimes the richest men in the Ottoman Empire until 1908. He supervised … Continue reading →

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La Pasionaria – from the History Archive

Posted on April 3, 2022 by toritto

Dolores Ibarurri – 1895-1989 La Pasionaria bidding farewell to the International Brigades in Barcelona – 10/17/1938 before 13,000 foreign volunteers. “It is very difficult to say a few words in farewell to the heroes of the International Brigades, because of what they … Continue reading →

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Kronstadt and the End of the Revolution – from the History Archive

Posted on March 19, 2022 by toritto

A Re-Post from March 2015 It was the first weeks of March, 1921 in the new Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics. Kronstadt was and still is a naval fortress on an island in the Gulf of Finland. It served … Continue reading →

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Alessandro de Medici – “Il Moro” – from the History Archive

Posted on March 3, 2022 by toritto

Do you like fairy tales? Have you heard the one about the black slave girl living in the great house of a noble lord as a helper to his great lady? Of how she slept with his younger 17 year … Continue reading →

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Strange Fruit – from the History Archive

Posted on February 24, 2022 by toritto

Abel Meeropol and his sons Robert and Michael play with a train set. Once upon a time, when I was a young teen, the public high schools of New York City were the crown jewels of public education in America.  … Continue reading →

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France Before the Revolution – For Bastille Day

Posted on July 10, 2020 by toritto

The Queen’s Chamber at Versailles What was it like to be a common man, a member of the Third Estate in the time just before the French Revolution, which was to change the course of European history?  How bad did … Continue reading →

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