(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) I was initially going to title this essay “Folk Medicine.” But some of what I’ve discussed already falls under that header, and there are plenty of other medical treatments that … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Ah, the humble herb. Simultaneously a relic of a bygone medical era, and one of the cutting edges of pharmaceutical research today. The term “herb” doesn’t have a very rigid … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Just as the miasma theory of disease wanders in the direction of something useful (germs) before veering off to be totally wrong (bad air), so too does the notion of … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Some cities are special. Capitals are the obvious example of this — in some ways all the more so because not all cities you think of as capitals actually have … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Our image of a premodern city tends to vaguely involve squalid buildings crammed cheek by jowl, tightly hemmed in by a defensive wall with a few monumental gates cut into … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Defining a “city” is easier said than done. Much ink has been spilled on that topic in fields ranging from archaeology (we can’t study the rise of urban settlements without … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) I’ve only seen one episode of the TV show Call the Midwife, but the thing I remember most vividly about it is how many children there were in it. Everywhere. … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) It’s the fifth Friday of the month . . . which means that, by the grace of my patrons, I bring you a theory essay! The concept of duality is … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Travel has rarely been free. I don’t just mean the monetary costs. I mean that for nearly as long as there have been state-level societies with borders to defend, there … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Once you’ve found your way to where you’re going . . . what then? Where are you going to stay once you get there? Let’s start, as we so often … Continue reading
