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Why do we: • Christen ships and sailing vessels or refer to them as ‘she’? • Avoid the number thirteen, breaking mirrors or walking under ladders? • Use the phrase having a ‘skeleton in the cupboard’? • Dress baby boys in blue, speak of ‘true blue’ or ‘blue-blooded’? • Decorate the Christmas Tree or eat Easter Eggs? • Kiss under the mistletoe or 'trick or treat’ on Halloween? In this easy-to-read book – a revised and updated re-publication of her previous book, Curious and Curiouser! – author, lecturer and public speaker, Dr. Monica-Maria Stapelberg, shares the results of her many years of research to uncover the historical background behind numerous commonly-held beliefs and traditions. These range from general popular beliefs to the more specific and enlightening traditions of western culture. Strange but True also brings to light how many of our day-to-day words, phrases and actions are anchored in past ritual or sacrificial observances, or simply based on fearful superstitious notions. This book is a must read for a curious mind!
In Curious and Curiouser, Dr. Monica-Maria Stapelberg shares the results of her many years of research and her extensive travels around the world uncovering the historical background behind numerous common beliefs and traditions. This easy-to-read book is a collection of interesting facts and fascinating things you never knew you wanted to know the type of book a reader can dip in to at any time. The topics covered range from those of general interest to the more specific, enlightening readers and busting old myths. Included are varying forms of magic and divination; strange beliefs about charms and omens; select customs surrounding birth, marriage and death; intriguing notions regarding the...
The fascinating history of medicine in Europe is filled with curious, often bizarre, strange, and gruesome cures, enthusiastically espoused by physicians and other medical practitioners of the times. Repulsive and disgusting examples of 'medications' often dominated treatment directives and many proposed cures were all but useless, highly dangerous and even lethal. This book explores compelling, and at times shocking facts, offering select glimpses into the journey of Western medicine 'through the darkness'. Guaranteed to astound, interest and occasionally make one shudder at what constituted orthodox therapeutic observances of the past, the author highlights diverse medical practices, as well as dreaded diseases. Ever mindful of not lapsing into what historians have called 'the enormous condescension of posterity', the book serves as an exposition on the 'growing pains' of a field born of supposition, and reared in a milieu of theocracy and superstition, before finally emerging as the modern science of medicine we know today.
A history of western medicine
Pierre Elliott Trudeau was one of Canada’s most charismatic--and polarizing--politicians. His tenures as Prime Minister during the 1970s and 80s were marked by conflict and crisis but also by a sense of nationalism, the development of multiculturalism and Canadian pride. He is known for invoking the War Measures Act in response to FLQ terrorism during the October Crisis; for introducing the Official Languages Act to improve the position of francophones in Canada; and, perhaps most memorably, for the patriation of the Canadian constitution and the establishment of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Trudeau: La Vie en Rose pays tribute to the life and career of this influential Can...
This book redresses popular interpretations of concealed objects, enigmatically discovered within the fabric of post-medieval buildings. A wide variety of objects have been found up chimneybreasts, bricked up in walls, and concealed within recesses: old shoes, mummified cats, horse skulls, pierced hearts, to name only some. The most common approach to these finds is to apply a one-size-fits-all analysis and label them survivals and apotropaic (evil-averting) devices. This book reconsiders such interpretations, exploring the invention and reinvention of traditions regarding building magic. The title Building Magic therefore refers to more than practices that alter the fabric of buildings, but also to processes of building magic into our interpretations of the enigmatic material evidence and into our engagements with the buildings we inhabit and frequent.
A witty, irreverent tour of history's worst plagues—from the Antonine Plague, to leprosy, to polio—and a celebration of the heroes who fought them In 1518, in a small town in Alsace, Frau Troffea began dancing and didn’t stop. She danced until she was carried away six days later, and soon thirty-four more villagers joined her. Then more. In a month more than 400 people had been stricken by the mysterious dancing plague. In late-seventeenth-century England an eccentric gentleman founded the No Nose Club in his gracious townhome—a social club for those who had lost their noses, and other body parts, to the plague of syphilis for which there was then no cure. And in turn-of-the-century ...
Erläutert wird die Poetik von Lyrik und früher Novellistik in engem Zusammenhang mit der Persönlichkeitsstruktur Storms. Die Orientierung an den sich im Frühwerk herausbildenden Motivkonstanten erlaubt zudem eine differenzierende Darstellung der Novellistik bis hin zum 'Schimmelreiter'. Die Bemühungen der Forschung galten - nach der faschistischen Funktionalisierung Storms - seit den sechziger Jahren vorrangig der Entdeckung der gesellschaftlichen Potenziale von Storms Werk.
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This book guides readers through 10 pervasive fictions about medieval history, provides them with the sources and analytical tools to critique those fictions, and identifies what really happened in the Middle Ages. This book is the first to present fictions about the medieval world to serious students of history. Instead of merely listing myths and stating they are wrong, this volume promotes critical historical analysis of those myths and how they came to be. Each of the ten chapters outlines a pervasive modern myth about medieval European history, describing "What People Think Happened" and "What Really Happened," and illustrating both trends with primary source documents. The book demonst...