Rabbit Holes ad Infinitum: Musings and Research

 Pyrrhic Victories and Pandemics: Yellow Fever, Malaria, and European Conquest in the Caribbean J.M. Rogers  …              In historical studies concerning Atlantic history, the focus on yellow fever and malaria's influence over transatlantic policy in the Caribbean is often neglected. Rather than dwelling on the seemingly mundane topic of disease-based mortality, the focus of these works often centers on the international arms race that the discovery of the New World produced or the atrocities that European imperialists committed in the name of colonization. Amidst such grand spectacles of human interaction, however, a subtler and yet equally important factor of West Indies development exists. Spanning across four centuries, from 1492-1888, documentation of repeated epidemics reveals how local diseases affected the lives of those who lived in the Caribbean and the Europeans who visited the tropical region in hopes of securing wealth an...

Charmed: Hitler’s Influence over Germany J.M. Rogers               To crudely simplify and then castigate the causes and effects of societal crises is the fundamental basis of radical thought. Such views rely on human emotion and personal ideology rather than pragmatic resolutions to issues that are rooted in logical reasoning. Societal problems develop in myriad ways that are too complex to explain with the simplistic rhetoric radicals offer, and yet, such explanations are undeniably attractive to those members of society facing unfamiliar or seemingly unsolvable dilemmas. What draws people to radical agendas are the uncomplicated solutions they offer, which often exaggerate the individuals’ intellectual grasp of the crisis at hand. When a radical leader gains mass popularity, such as in the case of Adolf Hitler, it is a direct result of the leader’s ability to manipulate the thoughts and feelings of the audience through provo...