Art Nouveau Posters and the Dawn of Modern Advertising
The success of Art Nouveau posters lay in their skillful merge of artistry and messaging.
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Status Symbols of the Rococo Revival [Gallery]
Far from mere aesthetic nostalgia, Rococo Revival paintings functioned as deliberate status symbols, reflecting the tastes and aspirations of Europe’s aristocracy and emerging bourgeois elite.
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Severe Thunderstorm Warning: Dark Gothic Secrets of the 20th Century
Severe thunderstorm warning. In real life it is the sign that bad weather will come. In 20th century gothic tales it was the unpleasant atmosphere, an omen of something bad that is going to happen.
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Andrew Jackson’s Brush with Death: The First U.S. Presidential Assassination Attempt and Press War, 1835
On January 30, 1835, as President Andrew Jackson was leaving the U.S. Capitol building through the East Portico following his attendance to a funeral for a congressman, a man appeared, raised a pistol at him, and pulled the trigger.
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“Every contractor is a thief.”: Logistics, Insurgents, and the Art of War in Early Napoleonic Spain, 1808–9
Unexpected setbacks to Napoleon’s plan to control Spain at the onset of the Peninsular War (1808–1814) required the emperor to launch a 270,000-man counteroffensive into the heart of the country in late 1808 – culminating with the British defeat at the Battle of Corunna, January 16, 1809.
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