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Feb 10 ā€¢ 12 tweets ā€¢ 3 min read ā€¢ Read on X
This is what great European cities looked like a century ago... (thread) šŸ§µ

1. London (1930s)
...and Westminster bridge in 1896
2. Paris (1902)
...and the Notre-Dame in 1896
3. Barcelona (1909)
4. Vienna (1896)
5. Milan (1896)
6. Berlin (1896)
7. Amsterdam (1922)
8. Warsaw (1927)
And Paris again, where it was the norm to dress impeccably during the 1920s. What changed?
My (free) newsletter explores the beauties of the old world every week šŸ‘‡
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More from @Culture_Crit

Nov 14
To us, Ancient Greece is a distant culture of mystery and intrigue.

But the Greeks also lived in the ruins of a civilization they couldn't understand ā€” or build themselves.

What Homer wrote about them will transform your understanding of history... (thread) šŸ§µ Image
People living in Ancient Greece were amazed by the palatial ruins of their ancestors.

They couldn't understand how they were built, and assumed mythological beings had been involved. Image
Structures of massive, tightly-fit limestone blocks came to be known as "Cyclopean".

According to the Greeks, only the mythical, one-eyed giants (Cyclopes) could move stones that big... Image
Image
Read 16 tweets
Nov 12
New analysis recently revealed the Shroud of Turin (Christ's alleged burial cloth) to be 2,000 years old.

But that's just one of the relics of Jesus ā€” the Vatican claims to have far more.

Here are the most interesting, and why they could be real... (thread) šŸ§µ Image
Relics associated with Jesus are some of the most sought after objects in existence.

Countries have paid their entire annual budgets to get hold of them, or traded them off for armies... Image
Turin's Shroud is perhaps the best known: a linen cloth said to be the real burial shroud, imprinted with a miraculous image.

New X-ray analysis of the linen's flax cellulose has dated it to the time of Christ. Image
Read 21 tweets
Nov 11
Why is university education today so broken?

In the Middle Ages, it was profoundly different ā€” it wasn't about acquiring skills, but about thinking.

By teaching you the 7 liberal arts... (thread) šŸ§µImage
Ancient and medieval societies had a vastly different idea of what higher education should be.

It wasn't about readiness for work, but cultivation of the moral and intellectual virtues that free the mind... Image
From the 12th century, a standard university course consisted of 7 liberal arts: 3 humanities (the trivium) and 4 sciences (the quadrivium).

These weren't exactly subjects in and of themselves, but modes of learning. Image
Read 19 tweets
Nov 7
The Lord of the Rings is a deeply Christian story ā€” once you see it, you can't unsee it.

Tolkien's elves aren't just mythical beings; they're Mankind before the Fall.

And Middle-earth is no imaginary world ā€” it's our Earth, a long time ago... (thread) šŸ§µImage
Middle-earth is meant to be our world thousands of years ago. With LOTR and his legendarium, Tolkien was trying to create a mythology for England.

He said himself: "Middle-earth is our world..." Image
"I have (of course) placed the action in a purely imaginary (though not wholly impossible) period of antiquity, in which the shape of the continental masses was different." Image
Read 18 tweets
Nov 6
Reminder: this is how American cities looked 100 years ago.

Everything in this image was demolished.

Here's why ā€” and how we can bring it back... (thread) šŸ§µ Image
At the turn of the 20th century, exhibitions known as World's Fairs transformed American cities into vast architectural displays.

They were moments of immense civic pride and confidence for the future... Image
For example, St. Louis turned its parks into lagoons and waterways, navigated by visitors on Venetian gondolas and electric boats.

1,500 neoclassical buildings built in a few years. Image
Read 17 tweets
Nov 1
Ancient Greek thinkers like Socrates and Plato hated democratic elections.

They saw democracy as part of an endless cycle of regimes ā€” destined to slip into mob rule.

But Polybius knew how to break the cycle... (thread) šŸ§µ Image
Socrates likened the state to a ship. The uneducated voting in elections is like a ship taken over by a crew with no knowledge of sailing.

When selecting a captain, the crew is easily swayed by whoever is best at persuasion ā€” not navigation. Image
Voting, thought Socrates, is a skill to be learned.

In Plato's 5 forms of government, democracy ranks only above tyranny, which it will inevitably become.

Why? Image
Read 14 tweets

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