The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “history”

The Two Pillars of the Sensible and Sensitive Mind: Carl Sagan on Mastering the Vital Balance of Skepticism and Openness
The Two Pillars of the Sensible and Sensitive Mind: Carl Sagan on Mastering the Vital Balance of Skepticism and Openness

Fine-tuning the machinery of distinguishing the valid from the non-valid.

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Blown Covers: <em>New Yorker</em> Covers You Were Never Meant to See
Blown Covers: New Yorker Covers You Were Never Meant to See

The art-science of walking the fine line between keen and crass.

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1 + 1 = 3: Ken Burns on What Makes a Great Story
1 + 1 = 3: Ken Burns on What Makes a Great Story

How stories keep the wolf from the door and why math has no place in storytelling.

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Sex and Punishment: A 4,000-Year History of Judging Desire
Sex and Punishment: A 4,000-Year History of Judging Desire

How we went from medieval male marriages to executions to marriage equality.

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Richard Feynman Reveals the Key to Science in 63 Seconds
Richard Feynman Reveals the Key to Science in 63 Seconds

“If it disagrees with experiment, it is wrong.”

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Douglas Adams’s Prophetic Vision for the Evolution of the Book
Douglas Adams’s Prophetic Vision for the Evolution of the Book

How we went from boulders to scrolls to screens.

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Snoopy’s Guide to the Writing Life: Ray Bradbury on Creative Purpose in the Face of Rejection
Snoopy’s Guide to the Writing Life: Ray Bradbury on Creative Purpose in the Face of Rejection

“The blizzard doesn’t last forever; it just seems so.”

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Animated Anatomy of Shakespearean Slurs
Animated Anatomy of Shakespearean Slurs

Heartless hinds, fishmongers, and lots of thumb-biting.

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René Magritte’s Little-Known Art Deco Sheet Music Covers from the 1920s
René Magritte’s Little-Known Art Deco Sheet Music Covers from the 1920s

From wallpaper to Golconda by way of Art Deco.

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Graphing Jane Austen: Using Science to Extrapolate the Human Condition from Classical Literature
Graphing Jane Austen: Using Science to Extrapolate the Human Condition from Classical Literature

What literary Darwinism reveals about universal values.

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