Yugoslavia (and therefore Croatia) gradually abandoned Stalinism after the Tito–Stalin split in 1948. In 1963 the People’s Republic of Croatia also accordingly became the Socialist Republic of Croatia. After World War II it became a constituent republic of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Following the disintegration of that state…
Spinoza is the only Jewish thinker among the rationalists. He was excommunicated from the Jewish community of Amsterdam, possibly on account of the heretical views that he held about the nature of God and the immortality of the soul, views later elaborated in his great systematic work, the Ethics. Spinoza’s…
Jamestown, the first successful European colony in the Americas, “is known for inaugurating the great American struggles over democracy (the colony established English America’s first representative government) and slavery (it was the first English colony to use captured Africans). The General Assembly was to be the voice of the people…
Hrothgar is an excellent and successful king. He builds Heorot, a magnificent hall, and builds love and loyalty through his generosity and wisdom. However, though once a great warrior, he can no longer defend his people from Grendel, and his sons also are too young to take up leadership of…
Beethoven first noticed difficulties with his hearing decades earlier, sometime in 1798, when he was about 28. By the time he was 44 or 45, he was totally deaf and unable to converse unless he passed written notes back and forth to his colleagues, visitors and friends. He died in…
The Marshall Plan was very successful. The western European countries involved experienced a rise in their gross national products of 15 to 25 percent during this period. The plan contributed greatly to the rapid renewal of the western European chemical, engineering, and steel industries. At the completion of the Marshall…
A song leading up to it, the world was wide enough tells the audience that Hamilton “wore his glasses” at the duel, and that he “methodically fiddled with the trigger.” It doesn’t say why, but tries to imply a sort of death-wish where Hamilton “threw away his shot” (fired into…
Although conservatives labeled Long as a communist, legitimate American communists sought to distance themselves from Long and his Share Our Wealth program. They believed his policies both preserved the capitalist enterprise and diverted interest away from their own party. To stimulate the economy, he advocated massive federal spending, a wealth…
The French Revolution was a major failure and a minor success. After all of the blood shed, the laws, civil rights, and codes did not get instituted effectively and did not represent the values that the citizens had fought for. Examples of this were the Napoleonic Code and Declaration of…
As a British commander, Arnold led forays into Virginia and Connecticut, and he was able to flee to Britain after the war concluded. Later in life, Arnold failed in several business ventures in Britain and Canada, and he died in England in 1801. At the British surrender at Yorktown, Benedict…