the history avenue

News Stories

Captain John Grant Tod, Texas Sailor in the Heart of Sin City Mexico, 1848

Born in 1808 near Lexington, Kentucky, John Grant Tod, the youngest of nine children born to pious immigrants from Scotland, left home at seventeen.

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Cold War’s End: How Did Winds of Change Shape Pop Culture? 

The Cold War in film, literature, and music from the late 1980s and early 1990s is a valuable remembrance of a world in transition and the public’s perceptions of those changes.

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From Mediator to Hostage: Terry Waite’s Odyssey Through the Turbulent 1980s

Terry Waite, an English humanitarian and negotiator, is best known for his peacekeeping efforts and the time he spent as a hostage in Lebanon. However, the early years of his life set the foundation for his later work and resilience.

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Albert-Jean Michel de Rocca and the Most Dangerous Road in Napoleonic Spain

Most memoirs by French officers who took part in the Napoleonic occupation of Spain lauded their victories and achievements on the battlefield with the exception of Albert-Jean Michel de Rocca (1788-1818), a lieutenant who served in the French Army until 1810 when he was injured and forced to hobble back to France on the most dangerous stretch of road in the war.

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King Sverre of Norway: The Birkebeiner Alliance and Rise to Power, 1177-1184    

Around the year 1175, when Sverre Sigurdsson learned he was the son of King Sigurd (II) Munn, he left the Faroes where he was raised and returned to the land of his birth.

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