Roundabout History

Welcome to Roundabout History Dear History Enthusiasts, I'm thrilled to welcome you to the inaugural edition of Roundabout History, your weekly journey through the fascinating corridors of the past. Whether you're a seasoned history buff or just beginning to explore the annals of time, this newsletter is your ticket to uncovering the hidden gems, untold stories, and remarkable figures that have shaped our world. Roundabout History, seeks to show how history is more than just dates and...

Lesson Seventy Land of Fire Dear History Enthusiasts, This week, we sail to the edge of the known world, or at least what it once was. At the southernmost tip of South America lies a windswept archipelago known as Tierra del Fuego, or “Land of Fire.” For centuries, it stood as a place of mystery, a borderland between ocean and continent, myth and map. But its discovery, name, and strategic location would make it one of the most significant maritime waypoints in history. The Naming of the Land...

Lesson Sixty-Nine Mapuche Dear History Enthusiasts, This week, we travel to the southern point of the Americas to examine the story of a people who have endured, adapted, and resisted across centuries: the Mapuche of present-day Chile and Argentina. While many Indigenous societies were quickly overwhelmed by European colonial powers, the Mapuche stood their ground, becoming one of the few Indigenous groups in the Americas to resist Spanish conquest for over 300 years successfully. A Nation...

Lesson Sixty-Eight Inca Chasqui Dear Readers, This week, lace up your sandals—we’re hitting the trails of the Andes to explore one of the greatest communication systems of the ancient world: the Inca chasqui runner network. Long before postal codes or digital maps, the Inca Empire built a relay system so advanced that messages could travel hundreds of miles in just a day. It was swift, silent, and essential to holding together the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The Backbone of the...

Lesson Sixty-Seven Water Mirrors Dear Readers, This week, we’re reflecting (literally) on one of the lesser-known marvels of Incan ingenuity: the water mirrors of the Andes. In a civilization famed for its architecture, terraces, and imperial road systems, these shallow, reflective pools offer a quieter, more contemplative glimpse into the Inca relationship with the heavens, the earth, and time itself. Still Waters and Starry Skies Scattered across ancient Incan sites like Machu Picchu and...

Lesson Sixty-Six Il Porcellino Dear Readers, This week, we look not at an empire or event, but at a sculpture; solid, silent, and yet full of motion: Wild Boar (1925), carved in marble by Italian sculptor Pietro Bazzanti. With lifelike detail and mythic resonance, this piece embodies centuries of artistic tradition, Florentine identity, and the symbolic strength of an untamed creature. A Beast with a Pedigree Bazzanti’s Wild Boar is not an isolated creation, it is a refined replica of a much...

Lesson Sixty-Five Canis lupus familiaris Dear History Enthusiasts, This week, we turn our gaze not to a battlefield or a palace, but to a quieter, older history—one that began beside the fire, under the stars, thousands of years ago. The history of humanity is, in many ways, also the history of the dog. A Partnership Forged in the Ice Age Long before agriculture or writing, humans and wolves shared the same prey and terrain. At some point—perhaps out of mutual caution, curiosity, or...

Lesson Sixty-Four воры в законе Dear History Enthusiasts, This week, we turn our attention to a lesser-known but powerful criminal tradition born out of the chaos of revolution and repression: the Thieves in Law (vory v zakone), the elite brotherhood of the Russian underworld. The Birth of the “Thieves’ World” Although criminal networks had existed for centuries in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, and Armenia—ranging from rural bandits to urban gangs—it was the collapse of Tsarist authority during...

Lesson Sixty-Three Papal Infallibility Dear Readers, This week, we dive into one of the most controversial and defining theological declarations in modern Catholic history: Papal Infallibility—a doctrine formalized not in the Middle Ages or during the height of papal power, but surprisingly in the politically volatile 19th century. To understand why and how, we begin with a brief look at the First Vatican Council. A Church Under Siege The First Vatican Council (Vatican I), convened by Pope...