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"An earlier GeoCurrents post on Chechnya mentioned that the Chechens were deported from their homeland in the North Caucasus to Central Asia in February 1944. However, the Chechen nation was not the only one to suffer such a fate under Stalin’s regime."
Seth Dixon's insight:
This is a painful page in world history, but it needs retelling. The Soviet era profoundly reshaped the cultural, political and economic geographies of the region. Tags: Russia, migration, Central Asia, historical, war, ethnicity, political, gerrymandering. Delete the scoop?
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I love this visualization of New York City's evolving skyline from 1876-2013. The urban landscape of America's prominent cities has changed dramatically.
Tags: historical,urban, architecture, landscape, NYC.
if you look at the first picture...it looks like the tall building on the water could be the first stage of the Brooklyn Bridge...any suggestions to this?
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Suggested by Michael Miller |
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"What we know as the English Language today has evolved over thousands of years, influenced by migrating tribes, conquering armies and peaceful trade. Do you know the origins of the language you speak? Have a look at this detailed infographic from Brighton School of Business and Management."
Languages, just like cultures, are incredibly dynamic and have changed over time. Many people like to imagine an older version of their own culture of "how it used to be" or even "how it's always was." This is an illusion though, to pretend as though cultural change is something new. This fantasy allows for people to nostalgically yearn for what once was, even if that perceived pristine past was but a fleeting moment in history that was shaped by many other peoples, places and times.
Tags: English, language, culture, infographic, historical.
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Stratfor examines Japan's primary geographic challenge of sustaining its large population with little arable land and few natural resources. For more analysi...
Part of knowing Japan's expansionist history has to do with understanding the geographic setting of the islands.
Tags: Japan, population, historical.
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De-extinction is a new term for to me but this week a TEDx conference hosted by National Geographic focused completely on this concept on the possibility of reviving formerly extinct species. Just because we think we can bring back a lost species, does that mean we should? What would be the benefits? Disadvantages?
I've read enough about passenger pigeons to know that beyond overhunting, the species went extinct as large swaths of North American forests became fragmented and modified. While we may be able to theoretically bring back a species, we cannot rewind the clock and bring all the essential ingredients to their former ecosystem that allowed them to thrive in the first place. De-extinction would NOT be repairing the world so that it was as if the extinction never happened, since other species in the ecosystem have adapted to their absence. Given the length of their absence, could these be considered "invasive species?"
Tags: biogeography, environment, National Geographic, environment modify, ecology, historical, TED.
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This fabulous collection of African maps from 1535-1897 represents an historical geographic vision of both Africa and colonial visions of an imagined Africa. I chose this particular map to display because it beautifully highlights the Mountains of Kong. For generations, European cartographers erroneously believed that this long mountain range extended north of the West African coast and across the continent. Currently this map collection is at Plymouth State, NH, but much of it is archive online here.
Tags: Africa, cartography, colonialism, map.
An interesting historical perspective on the geography of the African continent.
Love seeing the change over time. Especially on a continent we often know so little about.
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This is a rich and fascinating angle on history enhanced by a bounty of beautiful reproductions. Rare is a book this aesthetically pleasing and intellectually original.
"Maps are not merely distilled representations of geographic realities. Over time, they come to represent an organic bundling of history: reconstructed, imagined, and manipulated. Historically, they have been the tools with which expanding empires have legitimized their conquests, imposed identities, and created administrative order, and with which victims have constructed alternative narratives and salvaged their own national memories. Never was this truer than in the period in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when a burgeoning Romanov empire joined Austria and Prussia in wiping Poland-Lithuania from the map and absorbing it into their swelling realms. Seegel intricately analyzes the cartography of imperial Russia and Poland-Lithuania as the science evolved and historical demands were placed on it. This is a rich and fascinating angle on history enhanced by a bounty of beautiful reproductions. Rare is a book this aesthetically pleasing and intellectually original. Seegel should be congratulated for creating it, and the University of Chicago Press, for producing it." You may also see this title on Amazon.
Tags: book reviews, Russia, cartography, historical.
Historically, they have been the tools with which expanding empires have legitimized their conquests, imposed identities, and created administrative order, and with which victims have constructed alternative narratives and salvaged their own national memories.
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New nations seem to pop up with alarming regularity. At the start of the 20th century, there were only a few dozen independent sovereign states on the planet; today, there are nearly 200!
This list of countries that no longer exist in their current form include Czechoslovakia, Tibet, Sikkim, the Ottoman Empire and the Soviet Union.
Tags: unit 4 political, historical, devolution.
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Suggested by Tara Cohen |
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Readers Nick and Riela have both written to ask how and when English colonists in America lost their British accents and how American accents came
This is a great question about cultural divergence and the answer has it's roots in understanding class and place.
Tags: language, culture, unit 3 culture, USA, UK, historical.
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Suggested by cafonso |
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This is an excellent interactive topographic map of Switzerland with great detail at a variety of scales with historical layers from 1938 to the present.
Tags: Switzerland, historical, mapping.
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Scooped by Seth Dixon |
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Time lapse video compilation Civilization: Part I - Europe by professional photographer Dominic Boudreault. Shot in England, France, Spain and Italy.
This is a gorgeous video that was very intelligently constructed. The title 'civilization' coupled with the images of iconic architecture, makes me think differently and question how we conceptualize the ideas of civilization and society.
Tags: landscape, historical, Europe, time lapse.
Best way to get up-close and personal with these spectacular locations is from a charter yacht. We can arrange a hassle-free charter booking for yu, sail or power. www.americanyacht.net
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The stunning drop in global child mortality is proof that poor countries are not doomed to eternal misery. Here's how it happened.
Global health has substantially improved in the last two decades. This article explores the improvements in global health that have been made this year, and the attached interactive feature allows users to explore the changes in global health risks. Click here for the Guardian's version of this same data and interactive.
Tags: medical, historical, spatial, technology, development.
Global health has substantially improved in the last two decades. This article explores the improvements in global health that have been made this year, and the attached interactive feature allows users to explore the changes in global health risks. Click here for the Guardian's version of this same data and interactive.
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Scholars Online Videos feature top scholars answering a specific question in his or her field of expertise. These brief and informative videos are designed to supplement the Choices Program curricula.
In this Scholar's Online video, Jennifer Fluri briefly answers this question: How has Afghanistan's geography affected its history? This video nicely shows how contested international disputes have geographic dimensions to them. The very borders of Afghanistan were created out of geopolitical maneuverings.
Tags: Afghanistan, borders, political, culture, Central Asia, historical, colonialism.
Luxor Holiday Apartment Prahova Valley Romania
Cheap/budget self catering holiday accommodation in Brasov, Busteni, Prahova Valley, Romania. Busteni has a lot of churches, monuments, museums and castles and slopes.Luxor holiday apartment is just 45km away from Dracula castle.
http://www.bookingromania.blogspot.ro
about The Middle East and frontiers: a short video to better understand this country's history.
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Suggested by Michael Miller |
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An infographic of the etymology and cultural origins of the names that made the United States of America.
I would dispute the accuracy of some of the alleged linguistic origins of the state names, so take this with a grain of salt (still it's a clever concept for an inforgraphic and shows some interesting patterns). As with all long infographics on this site, you can "scroll down" on the image by putting the cursor in the top right-hand corner of the image and sliding on the translucent bar.
Tags: language, USA, infographic, toponyms, historical, colonialism.
The Names Behind The States | @scoopit via @APHumanGeog http://sco.lt/...
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Scooped by Seth Dixon |
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Africa may have achieved independence, but the old colonial ties are still important as France’s decision to send troops to Mali to fight Islamist extremists shows.
This is a very intriguing infographic (download high-resolution image here). How are old colonial patterns a thing of the past? How do old colonial patterns continue to affect the African continent?
Tags: Africa, states, language, infographic, historical, colonialism.
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Suggested by Kara Charboneau |
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A cholera outbreak in New York in 1832 led to broad efforts to clean up the city and others like it.
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Suggested by Michael Miller |
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This relic from ancient Persia had a profound influence on the Founding Fathers
This video can be seen as the three minute version of a 20 minute TED talk by Neil MacGregor, the Director of the British Museum. He discusses the profound importance that the Cyrus Cylinder (A clay cylinder covered in Akkadian cuneiform script) had on modern political though on multiculturalism.
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"What's the difference between Holland and the Netherlands?"
This video is produced by the same gentleman that made the video that explains the difference between the terms Great Britain, England and the UK and another one that details why London is not the City of London. His style is to bombard you with facts which tell a rich story about the intricacies of place, power and culture.
Tags: Netherlands, political, toponyms, historical.
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The federal government's relentless expansion has made Washington, D.C., America's real Second City.
From 1890-1990, Chicago was America's second largest city. Since then Los Angeles has been the second largest city, acting as the west coast capital for the United States. Both of these cities have declined in economic and political importance in the recession, and in this article Aaron Renn argues that Washington D.C. (although demographically not in the same category) could be considered an emerging second city and chronicles it's historic development. Readers may also be interested in how Renn ("the urbanophile") argues that all our impressions about Detroit are inaccurate.
Tags: Washington DC, urban, historical, unit 7 cities.
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If you look at this map of #NewYork when it was New Amsterdam, you will understand why Wall St is so named twitter.com/HistoryNeedsYo…
— Matthew Ward (@HistoryNeedsYou) February 19, 2013
Tags: historical, landscape, NYC.
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For years, researchers have puzzled over why Viking descendents abandoned Greenland in the late 15th century.
As the climate began to cool the diet of the Greenland settlers changed dramatically. Originally their diets consisted of about 20-30% seafood, but as farming became nearly impossible on this increasingly marginal land, it jumped up to about 80%. The economic livelihood of the settlements was in danger and the solution lay in a cultural transition, but one that they didn't want to make. "They saw themselves as farmers and ranchers rather than fishermen and hunters...[and were] worried about the increasing loss of their Scandinavian identity." In essence they abandoned Greenland in part because they chose not abandon their Viking heritage to embrace a culture that would have be more like that of the Inuits. Cultural factors may have mattered more than economic limitations.
Tags: Greenland, folk culture, historical.
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30-second animation of the changes in U.S. historical county boundaries, 1629 - 2000. Historical state and territorial boundaries are also displayed from 178...
I love this time-lapse animation of all the county and state-level boundary changes in United States history. Would you like to see this in greater detail? Would you want to download the data and create your own visualization of this? The Atlas of Historical County Boundaries has all of this data as GIS shapefiles, Google Earth KMZ files and PDFs for the whole country as well as for each individual state. This project sponsored by The Newberry and the National Endowment for the Humanities has tremendous potential for use in the classroom for history and geography teachers alike.
Tags: historical, USA, borders, time lapse, mapping, edtech.
What I find to be the most interesting aspect of this animation is that each fluctuation of the border has a story behind it. You could teach a really interesting class on just those small changes, and why they took place.
I love animation maps. Great for getting students interested in learning.
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I Have a Dream Speech Martin Luther King's Address at March on Washington August 28, 1963. Washington, D.C. When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring fro...
There is much to glean from Martin Luther King's famous I Have a Dream speech as a fantastic rhetorical device. This speech has a profound impact on the the psyche of the America culture and it has endured as a pivotal moment in history. As we celebrate his life and legacy this Monday, it is an appropriate time to contemplate that the ending of segregation (a spatial division of races) has reshaped the United States.
Many streets in the United States bear the name "Martin Luther King Jr." to memorialize both the man and the Civil Rights movement. This streets, as this YouTube video suggests, are often in poor, crime-ridden and violent neighborhoods. This video highlights the irony between the historical memory of Martin Luther King Jr. and places of memorialization that bear his name. This video echoes much of what the authors of the fantastic book "Civil Rights Memorials and the Geography of Memory" say (in fact one of the authors is shown in this video).
Questions to ponder: If Martin Luther King Jr. represents non-violence, then why are streets bearing his name often in 'violent' neighborhoods? Where should Martin Luther King be memorialized in the United States? Only in the South? Only in predominantly African-American communities? What does the geography of the spaces where he is memorialized say something about the United States?
Tags: historical, culture, landscape, place, race, unit 3 culture, USA, urban, poverty, unit 7 cities, book review.
Teachers: How great would it be to use the actual speech? Can you say, "primary source?" Here's an idea: Print it out and let students close read this important speech, too.
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The Great Mosque of Djenné, Mali, is a magnet for tourists, but it is increasingly difficult for locals to live a normal life around it.
This New York Times short video is an intriguing glimpse into some of the cultural pressures behind having the designation of being an official world heritage site. The grerat mosque combined with the traditional mud-brick feel to the whole city draws in tourists and is a source of communal pride, but many homeowners want to modernize and feel locked into traditional architecture by outside organizations that want them to preserve an 'authentic' cultural legacy.
Tags: Islam, tourism, place, religion, culture, historical, community, Mali, Africa.
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Stalin’s Ethnic Deportations—and the Gerrymandered Ethnic Map | @scoopit via @APHumanGeog http://sco.lt/...