My Historical Journal...

"History, an enterprise requiring human effort, is often written from national motivations. History, in order to be scholarly, must in some way be freed from the limits this imposes." ~Timothy Snyder

"…if they should ever lose moral feeling, the sons of modest families that know nothing of ambition decline very rapidly into complete good-for-nothings."

Reblogged from thedailynietzsche

Human, All Too Human, Part I by Nietzsche (via thedailynietzsche)

Posted January 22, 2012 at 4:23 pm 18 notes

"But when from a long-distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, taste and smell alone, more fragile but more enduring, more unsubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, remain poised a long time, like souls, remembering, waiting, hoping, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unflinchingly, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection."

Reblogged from fuckyeahexistentialism

Marcel Proust, À la recherche du temps perdu [lit. In search of lost time, trans. as Remembrance of Things Past] (vol. I, Swann’s Way) (1913) (trans. C.K. Scott Moncrieff & Terence Kilmartin)

(Source: books.google.com)

Posted January 22, 2012 at 4:23 pm 240 notes

poundoflogic: Japanese Buddhist monks wearing gas masks during training against possible air raids, 1936

Reblogged from poundoflogic

poundoflogic:

Japanese Buddhist monks wearing gas masks during training against possible air raids, 1936

Posted January 9, 2012 at 6:10 pm 179 notes

Reblogged from demons

(Source: demons)

Posted January 9, 2012 at 6:10 pm 35 notes

"The main interest in life and work is to become someone else that you were not in the beginning."

Reblogged from madkingsweeny

Michel Foucault (via madkingsweeny)

Posted January 7, 2012 at 11:48 am 10 notes

demons: Starting on Christmas Eve, many German and British troops sang Christmas carols to each other across the lines, and at certain points the Allied soldiers even heard brass bands joining the Germans in their joyous singing. At the first light of dawn on Christmas Day, some German soldiers emerged from their trenches and approached the Allied lines across no-man’s-land, calling out “Merry Christmas” in their enemies’ native tongues. At first, the Allied soldiers feared it was a trick, but seeing the Germans unarmed they climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the enemy soldiers. The men exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings and sang carols and songs. There was even a documented case of soldiers from opposing sides playing a good-natured game of football. In other cases some soldiers used this short-lived ceasefire for a more somber task: the retrieval of the bodies of fellow combatants who had fallen within the no-man’s land between the lines. The Christmas Truce of 1914 came only five months after the outbreak of the war in Europe, and became one of the last examples of the outdated notion of chivalry between enemies in modern warfare. It was never repeated—future attempts at holiday ceasefires were quashed by officers’ threats of disciplinary action—but it served as heartening proof, however brief, that beneath the brutal clash of weapons, the soldiers’ essential humanity endured.

Reblogged from demons

demons:

Starting on Christmas Eve, many German and British troops sang Christmas carols to each other across the lines, and at certain points the Allied soldiers even heard brass bands joining the Germans in their joyous singing.

At the first light of dawn on Christmas Day, some German soldiers emerged from their trenches and approached the Allied lines across no-man’s-land, calling out “Merry Christmas” in their enemies’ native tongues. At first, the Allied soldiers feared it was a trick, but seeing the Germans unarmed they climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the enemy soldiers. The men exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings and sang carols and songs. There was even a documented case of soldiers from opposing sides playing a good-natured game of football. In other cases some soldiers used this short-lived ceasefire for a more somber task: the retrieval of the bodies of fellow combatants who had fallen within the no-man’s land between the lines.

The Christmas Truce of 1914 came only five months after the outbreak of the war in Europe, and became one of the last examples of the outdated notion of chivalry between enemies in modern warfare. It was never repeated—future attempts at holiday ceasefires were quashed by officers’ threats of disciplinary action—but it served as heartening proof, however brief, that beneath the brutal clash of weapons, the soldiers’ essential humanity endured.

Posted December 25, 2011 at 7:43 pm 3466 notes

Joseph Goebbels asked after reading Mein Kampf: ‘Who is this man? half plebian, half god! Truly Christ, or only St John?’ He saw him as a genius, wanted him as a friend, and wrote in his diary on 19 April 1926: ‘Adolf Hitler, I love you.’

Reblogged from demons

Joseph Goebbels asked after reading Mein Kampf: ‘Who is this man? half plebian, half god! Truly Christ, or only St John?’ He saw him as a genius, wanted him as a friend, and wrote in his diary on 19 April 1926: ‘Adolf Hitler, I love you.’

Posted November 23, 2011 at 9:27 am 130 notes

kvetchlandia: Sophie Scholl, Founding Member of the “White Rose” Anti-Nazi Resistance Group within Nazi Germany     Uncredited and Undated Photograph  

Reblogged from kvetchlandia

kvetchlandia:

Sophie Scholl, Founding Member of the “White Rose” Anti-Nazi Resistance Group within Nazi Germany     Uncredited and Undated Photograph  

Posted July 11, 2011 at 10:49 pm 26 notes

demons: “Onward to the East.” A Soviet propaganda cartoon showcases the feeling of betrayal upon news that Czechoslovakia was to be annexed by Nazi Germany. When the Anglo-Allies (Great Britain and France) more or less gave the county of Czechoslovakia to Hitler, the USSR’s feelings on the matter (to say the least) were not considered at all. They were Communists, and most of the West saw the Third Reich as a possible barrier between Stalin’s threat to spread the Red influence.

Reblogged from demons

demons:

“Onward to the East.”

A Soviet propaganda cartoon showcases the feeling of betrayal upon news that Czechoslovakia was to be annexed by Nazi Germany. When the Anglo-Allies (Great Britain and France) more or less gave the county of Czechoslovakia to Hitler, the USSR’s feelings on the matter (to say the least) were not considered at all. They were Communists, and most of the West saw the Third Reich as a possible barrier between Stalin’s threat to spread the Red influence.

Posted July 8, 2011 at 9:35 am 97 notes

demons: Wehmacht infantry entering Maribor, Slovenia (which had just been axed by Nazi Germany) were greeted by cheering locals on 8 April 1941

Reblogged from demons

demons:

Wehmacht infantry entering Maribor, Slovenia (which had just been axed by Nazi Germany) were greeted by cheering locals on 8 April 1941

Posted July 6, 2011 at 5:18 pm 27 notes