Category: History & Culture

It’s a chilly morning in 15th century France. You’re headed to the barber for a shave and a trim. As you approach, you hear singing inside and spot a bowl of blood in the window. Both chairs are occupied, so you grab an ale and look over the array of teeth strung up on the…

In the 1860s, while cities like London, Paris and New York epitomized the industrial revolution with factories, steamboats and railroads, Japan remained a medieval society ruled by feudal lords and knights called daimyō and samurai. Yet astonishingly, just 80 years later, Japan had developed modern cities with cars, trams, cargo ships and even aircraft carriers…