History

Abnormitäten, im Allgemeinen unter Verwendung des trivialen Synonyms “Missgeburten” beschrieben, haben als Schau-Objekte stets eine bedeutende Anziehungskraft auf das sogenannte große Publikum ausgeübt, das in der Regel eine gewisse Befriedigung seiner Neugierde in dem gedankenlosen Anschauen derselben fand. Im Jahr 1900 stellte H.W. Otto (Pseudonym Signor Saltarino) dieses Buch zu Bildungs- und Unterhaltungszwecken zusammen. Es […]

This are two books, edited together: THE MAKERS AND MAKING OF MONTANA AND IDAHO and THE PIONEERS OF THE ROCKIES. So this is your lucky day: two books for the price of one! The truth of the adage that “Crime carries with it its own punishment” has never received a more powerful vindication than at […]

“The bush seemed to me pervaded with something supernatural, a spirit which was striving to bridge the animal and the human …”~ From the preface ~ Were the Human Leopard Society members cannibals for the purpose of satisfying an appetite for human flesh, or was it some far out religious rite? These and numerous other […]

This is Europe’s largely forgotten history of putting animal “criminals” on trial and either executing and torturing them or, for plagues of insects, ordering them to leave town not only by a certain day, but by an exact time. Such irrational barbarism is hard to fathom today, but as early as 824 all the way […]

A Jester, Court jester, Trickster or Fool was historically a comedian and entertainer during the medieval and Renaissance eras who was a member of the household of a nobleman or a monarch. He was employed to bring some lightness to the courts of Medieval Europe, and to take the “edge” of de burden of reigning […]

“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! STEP RIGHT UP! STEP RIGHT UP!” “We circus people have so high an opinion of our good qualities that we are not ashamed to introduce ourselves to you. As pilgrims with no abiding city, leading a life of multiplied activities and varied fortunes amid scenes of din and turmoil, hurry and agitation, […]

This is an account of the opium-smoking trend that spread throughout China in the early 1900s and gives staggering insights in a chapter in the history books that has conveniently been forgotten. Published in 1908, this microhistory takes you back to the horrors of hard-drugs and its impact on 1900s China. The dope-peddling Crown of […]