Original article And how to break the endless cycle Ancient Greek philosophers like Socrates and Plato held deep reservations about democracy. They saw it as inherently flawed and doomed to descend into tyranny. But a later thinker saw a way to avoid this inevitable cycle. The Greek historian Polybius, writing …

Original article A uniquely American vision Frank Lloyd Wright’s legacy represents one of the most significant chapters in American architectural history. In an era when modernism was shaping life to feel wholly inorganic, Wright went against the grain, shaping buildings to instead sit harmoniously with their surroundings. From his spiritual …

Original article How did a brilliant young man who considered himself too smart for Christianity become the 20th century’s greatest advocate for it? C.S. Lewis is widely considered one of the sharpest minds — and pens — of the last century. After becoming Christianity’s “most reluctant convert,” he turned his …

Originally posted on the author’s Substack Leonardo’s notebooks: a window into his boundless curiosity The iconic Renaissance man Leonardo da Vinci was more than one of history’s greatest artists. He was also a medical researcher, an inventor, and an engineer. For Leonardo, though, these streams of thought weren’t separate from …

A brief history of evil… The question of evil is foundational to human culture — but what actually is evil, why does it happen, and what does it look like? Today, we take a stab at the third question: a brief history of what evil looks like, not just in appearance but …

Originally posted on the author’s Substack What the ancients knew that we forgot… The word education has meant a lot of different things over the centuries. You may think it comes from the Latin ēdūcere, “to lead out” — because the tutor of a wealthy Roman family would lead the children to school, …

Originally published on the author’s Substack An intro to Art Nouveau… Should objects be beautiful, or should they be useful? Faced with the crushing pressure of the Industrial Revolution, one artistic movement proved that culture need not choose between the two. Let’s dive into one of history’s most under-appreciated (yet …

Originally published on the author’s Substack Incarnation and culture Christianity began as an obscure religion in a remote strip of land in the ancient world. Within 300 years, it was the official religion of the world’s most powerful empire. But it wasn’t Christianity’s political power that changed the world. It …

Originally published on Substack Miracles of engineering and faith… From pyramids to temples, many of the great works of ancient architecture were built for a similar purpose: as monuments to a single man. But there’s something different about the great cathedrals of the Medieval era — instead of being ordered …

Portrait of Marie-Antoinette, Jean-Baptiste André Gautier-Dagoty (1775) Marie Antoinette, France’s last queen before the Revolution, is often remembered more for the scandals and accusations surrounding her than for her true character. From her arrival in France as a young Austrian archduchess to her tragic death at the guillotine, she became the embodiment …

And why he thought he was a failure…   The main ingredient behind Leonardo da Vinci’s incredible success can be boiled down to one thing: curiosity. His intense curiosity was the engine of his genius, propelling him to make groundbreaking observations and contributions across various fields. From anatomy to botany, …

A modern fairytale with a tragic ending…   The world’s most stunning castle doesn’t come from the age of knights. It’s the product of one man’s extraordinary imagination, built to keep the wonder of the medieval era alive in the modern age. Neuschwanstein Castle is as stunning as a movie …

What 40,000 years of art reveals about us…   What do our clothes really cover? When we remove them, what is revealed? Nudes are among the oldest and most ubiquitous forms of art that human culture has created, but they vary widely from era to era. These five pieces tell …

Originally published on Substack So what happened to it? Diagonal Norte, Buenos Aires (1936) When you think of cities that dominate the international landscape of culture, commerce and politics, does Buenos Aires make the list? Well, a century ago, Argentina was a world power that rivaled the United States — …

Originally posted on Substack The Round City of Baghdad and House of Wisdom — when razed by the Mongols, the Tigris ran black with ink… Temples to Wisdom Only truly civilized cultures dedicate themselves to building up a storehouse of knowledge. That’s why libraries are the trademark of civilization — …

For a brief period of time, there was a consensus view on the history of human civilization: humans were first hunter-gatherers, then developed agriculture, and finally developed religion, art, technology, and other aspects of culture. But then, a 20th-century architectural discovery threw all of this into question. Turkey’s Göbekli Tepe …

A 1,500-year-old wonder… Can stones and mosaics communicate divine wisdom? Can a single building showcase thousands of years of spiritual teaching? In the case of the Hagia Sophia, the answer is yes — and that’s exactly what makes it one of the greatest churches of Eastern Christendom. From the images portrayed in …

A guide to the very bottom… Few works of Western literature can compete with Dante’s Divine Comedy. It’s a fascinatingly engaging read, despite being written over 700 years ago and containing many complex references to history and myth. For those who want to master the cultural heritage of the West, it’s …

Originally published on Culture Critic Iraq’s answer to the pyramids: the Great Ziggurat of Ur (before and after restoration)   From the ruined walls of the earliest Mesopotamian cities to the skyscrapers of the 20th century, the story of civilization can be told through five main building materials. Without brick, …

A culture that never dies… Ancient Greece never dies. Every few hundred years, Western culture remembers its roots, and artists and architects find themselves harkening back to the civilization that started it all. In many ways, there’s a continuous thread running back in time from the United States Capitol Building …