Category: Academic
-
The Mongols: Conflict, Conquest … and What Else?
Written by Amy Hendrie. In the contemporary imagination, the Mongols are famed for their brutality and violence. But is there more to this history than meets the eye?
-
Leonardo da Vinci’s Aerodynamic Thought
Written by Kat Jivkova. Leonardo da Vinci is today associated with his career in art, but he spent a considerable amount of time working on the science of flight. Take a look into the development of aerodynamics and the surprising role da Vinci played in its history.
-
Wendell Willkie: The Hidden Architect of Post-war American Internationalism
Written by Fraser Barnes. American bipartisanship is a rare occurrence in today’s polticial climate. However, the often overlooked failed presidential candidate, Wendell Willkie, would prove instrumental in strenghtening Anglo-American relations and forging a new liberal internationalism in the wake of the Second World War.
-
Representations of Rehabilitation: Experiences of Disability in Africa, 1940-1963
Written by Jack Bennett. Policies towards disability were a central plank of the colonial and postcolonial state. A key factor in the development of policy was exchange between colony and metropole.
-
Booze, Brexit and Britannia – Britain’s Gin Crazes
Written by Sophie Whitehead. The long and complex history of gin is often overlooked when discussing Britain’s ‘drink of choice’, a history which still has implications for our understanding of gin today.
-
John Polidori: Edinburgh University’s Tragic Romantic and the Influence of The Vampyre
Written by Melissa Kane. A writing competition amongst travel companions in 1816 would birth some of the most influential works of Gothic and Romantic fiction. Among those was Edinburgh alumnus John William Polidori whose short story would give rise to the Vampire literature genre.
-
Paul Dirac and the Origins of Quantum Mechanics
Written by Kat Jivkova. Quantum Mechanics is as mystifying as it is precise, able to produce predictions with a high degree of accuracy. But where did some of its ideas originate?
-
Plato – A Totalitarian Advocate?
Written by Nikita Nandanwad. Karl Popper’s interpretation of Plato’s Republic as advocating totalitarianism is today considered overly hostile. But this argument was built from textual evidence, so how should we approach the Republic, and how should we understand Popper in his own historical context?
Retrospect Journal 