Stephen Paul Aulridge Jr

The Akkadian Empire was one of the first empires in human history and certainly the first to involve the central government of a large, multi-ethnic populace. It also introduced things like the very first postal system and facilitated advances in...

The American Indian Wars, a series of conflicts between white settlers and Native Americans which took place in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, were complex, brutal and many. An official United States Census report published in...

He was the first emperor of one of the greatest empires ever known to man. He commanded unmatched authority in the ancient world and was always one step ahead of his opponents. He had an intellect and a sharp wit that could cut down his foes just as...

Of all the cities of ancient Mesopotamia, Babylon is virtually the only one which is still remembered today. The very word Babylon has entered the lexicon of popular understanding as a synonym for decadence and wealth. But what do we really know about...

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 had dealt a catastrophic blow to the United States Navy, but it had not knocked out all of the U.S. carriers. That was an omission that Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Japan’s fleet commander, intended...

This book provides an introductory text to one of the most intriguing wars of modern times—a war that saw several innovations, like the use of heliography and indirect fire, and caused the complete overhaul of the great Imperial British fighting...

Often portrayed as an awkward, disfigured, and clumsy man, Claudius was the unlikely ruler of the Roman Empire from 41 CE to 54 CE. His reign would prove to be one of the longest of the time even though his rise to the throne did not come without...

What would literature be without the works of Edgar Allan Poe? Would we have the detective story, as was created by this master of the art of deductive reasoning? How would the horror genre have turned out? Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most...

During the late years of the eighteenth century, the spirit of Enlightenment thinking and revolution were in the air. The world was changing, moving away from ingrained beliefs about religion, reason, society, and the rights of the individual and...

The Korean War, which began in 1950 and ended in 1953, is not considered one of the major wars of the twentieth century. However, in reality, it was profoundly impactful on global history. As an early crisis of the Cold War, it set important...

Have you ever heard of Marcus Aurelius? It wouldn’t come as much of a surprise if you haven’t. While names like Nero, Caligula, Hadrian, and Constantine grab all the attention with their exploits, Marcus Aurelius tends to sit more in the historical...

The life of Martin Luther King Jr. was painfully short but joyously valuable. Using non-violent direct action and the principles of Christian love, King became the most influential pioneer of the civil rights movement in the United States of America....

The Russian Revolution in 1917 was a moment in time when the will of the people put an end to a system of government that had been in place for centuries. The story of Russia’s transition from Imperial reign to eventual Communist dictatorship is a...

Sigmund Freud was a catalyst who signaled a seat change in how humanity came to understand the world and how it relates to the human mind. And if you have ever had a “Freudian slip,” you know full well that the concepts and theories of Mr. Freud are...

The Spanish Civil War is sometimes seen as merely a precursor to World War II, and it’s easy to understand why. The troops of the extreme right fought against those of the extreme left, and the soldiers and military hardware of Germany, Italy, and...

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is the traditional name for the unfinished record of his own life written by Benjamin Franklin from 1771 to 1790. This work has become one of the most famous and influential examples of an autobiography ever...

Between Rome and the Renaissance: Europe Finds its IdentityWhat do you think of when you consider the Middle Ages? Knights in armor and damsels in distress? Vikings plundering monasteries? Religious dissenters burning at the stake? The dead bodies...

Violent confrontation between armed groups over the supply of illegal narcotics is something we commonly associate with criminal gangs in modern cities, but in the mid-nineteenth century Great Britain went to war with Imperial China in order to...

Over the course of just two hundred years, the Ottoman Empire grew from a small, obscure Anatolian state into the most powerful Muslim nation in the world, controlling vast swathes of the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and North Africa. Within the...

From 1955 to 1969, the United States and the Soviet Union were locked in a high-stakes race to conquer space. It was a contest marked by bold ambition, tragic setbacks, and astonishing technological progress. What began as a race for scientific...

The Vietnam War remains one of the most iconic events of the twentieth century. In the United States, it polarized public opinion and changed foreign policy. It destroyed the presidency of Lyndon Johnson and was the catalyst for a massively impactful...

In 1812, Americans held two distinctly different visions of their country. Some saw growing production, manufactures, trade, and merchant ships traversing the globe bringing a vast array of staple and luxury goods to commercial centers and riches to...

The British people had no sooner finished rescuing their trapped army from Dunkirk than they found themselves preparing for an attack from the Germans once again. This time, the Nazi menace struck from the air, as Hitler’s Luftwaffe bombed the British...

Auschwitz is a monument to the barbaric inhumanity of the Nazi regime — the site where more than one million people were systematically tortured and killed in support of Adolf Hitler's determination to eradicate entire populations he viewed as...