Category Archives: History

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If historical eras were pet choices, ancient Rome would probably be a dog; nearly everyone likes it, some people are really into it, and its one of the first go-to examples whenever people talk about the subject. Ancient Rome has loomed large in factual and fictional writing pretty much since the era ended indeed, some of the most influential and best books on Roman history were written while it was still happening and the Roman world has provided the setting for everything from films and TV series to comics (vive lAsterix!)

With the wealth of information out there on Roman history, its sometimes difficult to know where to begin as a new reader and researcher in the field. The Roman Empire lasted for over a millennium and spanned a huge chunk of the world; there are hundreds of different sub-fields to study, and thousands of important events and figures that had an impact on this crucial period in human history. Whether a reader wants to learn about the early days of Rome, when it was a small town in Italy instead of the massive global force it would become, or look into the final years of the Roman era as it became the Byzantine Empire, there is plenty for budding historians to grapple with. These books are just a few of the great entry points into the field of ancient Roman history.

While there are many interesting texts for scholars of ancient Rome to read and study, the field of Roman history is dominated by white authors, and there are few texts by authors of colour available. This is part of a wider issue with a general underrepresentation of historians of colour, both in academia and in historical publishing. However, new media is an area where historians of colour have been able to share their research and perspectives, and there are several excellent podcasts out there focusing on Black history and history from the perspectives of other people of colour, such as Witness Black History, The Black History Buff Podcast, Historically Black, and Asian American History 101.

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If you want to dive deeper into the history of the ancient world, try 100 Must-Read Books about Ancient History. If you want to theme your reading around a significant day in Roman history, check out 6 Books About Rome for the Ides of March.

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15 of the Best Books on Roman History - Book Riot

In a recent article in the Atlantic, the historian Anne Applebaum wrote that There is no natural liberal world order, and there are no rules without someone to enforce them. Her practical point was clear: Only by actively fighting back could the worlds democracies save themselves from Vladimir Putin and the worlds other newly assertive autocrats. But she was also making a deeper point: That there is no broad pattern to history or possibility of historical progress over time; outcomes are simply the result of actors duking it out over and over again. As she tweeted about the piece: There is no arc of history, nothing inevitable about either democracy or dictatorship. What happens tomorrow depends on what all of us do today. The arc of history likely refers to a favorite phrase of President Barack Obama, who often used it in adapting Martin Luther King Jr.s declaration, The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

In a narrow sense, Ms. Applebaums argument is incontrovertible. There is no underlying historical mechanism that brings us inexorably toward a liberal world order, similar to the Marxist belief that history would culminate in Communism. Mr. Putins attack on Ukraine demonstrates that many people in the West had grown complacent about the peace and prosperity brought about by the liberal order that has prevailed in recent decades. They didnt think that anyone would challenge that order, certainly not with tanks and rockets and outright territorial aggression. And it is clearly true today that the liberal order requires believers in democracy to actively support it, in Ukraine and around the world.

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The Long Arc of Historical Progress - The Wall Street Journal

This year and beyond, April 29 is National Rugelach Day, honoring the popular Jewish confection. Originating in Poland nearly four centuries ago, rugelach are today found in most Israeli cafes and bakeries, shaped in the form of a crescent by rolling a triangle of dough around a filling. This day can be attributed to Harlem bakery Lee Lees Baked Goods, the owner of which, Alvin Lee Smalls, successfully reached out to the National Day Archives in March to secure a special day for the treat the store has baked for over 50 years.

Rugelach is something that has always been near and dear to my heart, so I thought why not recognize and celebrate such a special little confection with the whole world, Lee said. This day has been designated for everyone to celebrate and enjoy the delight of rugelach wherever you are!

Lee Lees was established in 1988 after Lee became one of the first in the neighborhood to have an expansive selection of traditional Eastern European pastries, exposing those in the community to centuries of Jewish and Eastern European history through food. Lee, originally from South Carolina, first fell in love with rugelach after moving to New York in the early 1960s. To honor the very first National Rugelach Day, Lee Lees is throwing an all-day celebration to encourage rugelach lovers and rugelach newbies to try the much-loved dessert.

Though, rugelach has been around New York for decades prior, appearing at bakeries around the Lower East Side, the Upper West Side, the Upper East Side, and parts of Brooklyn in the late 1800s and early 1900s. When particularly Ashkenazi Jews immigrated to the U.S. through Ellis Island, Jewish bakeries popped up alongside delis and appetizing stores all over the city, preparing freshly baked breads, cakes, and fruit-filled pastries.

To keep within kosher laws, most bakeries only served dairy products and could only be open at most six days a week. Jewish bakeries were staples of each community with a large Jewish population, though as with most Jewish-owned food businesses, they dwindled following World War II, and only a few remain today. Most New Yorkers have heard of Yonah Schimmel, one of the long-standing Jewish bakeries open since the 1890s on East Houston Street. Though primarily known for knishes, Yonah Schimmel has kept sweet Jewish culinary traditions alive with options like cherry cheese and apple strudel knishes, alongside egg creams.

Most places in New York City serving up rugelach today are relatively new, though one long-standing spot is Kossars Bagels & Bialys, open for over 85 years (and at the Grand Street location since 1960). Isadore Mirsky andMorris Kossar first founded Mirsky and Kossars Bakery at 22 RidgeStreet on the Lower East Side in 1936. In 1953, Morris Kossar bought out his partner,after which the store was renamed Kossars Bialys. Though bialys are their specialty, Kossars also offers assorted rugelach, including a cinnamon variety.

Russ & Daughters, the famed appetizing store, only started baking its own rugelach in 2017 after the company formerly outsourced production. Russ & Daughters serves up a traditional raspberry version with a sweet-tart jam, raisins, and currants. In 1907, Joel Russ immigrated from Strzyzow in modern-day Poland, after which he sold schmaltz herring out of a barrel on theLower East Side. It took his first seven years to transition to a pushcart operation, a horse and wagon, and ultimately a brick and mortar store on Orchard Street. In 1920, he moved the store to its current home of 179 East Houston Street. His daughters Hattie, Ida, and Anne were involved in the business from a young age, and in 1935 Russ changed the name to include & Daughters, controversially making it the first business in the country with that included.

Orwashers, known for its raspberry and apricot varieties, has also been around for over a century, founded in 1916 by a Hungarian immigrant family as a small storefront on the Upper East Side. The bakery catered to the neighborhoods Jewish population with traditional rye, black, and grain breads. Since 2018, Orwashers is run by Keith Cohen and his team with additional locations in Lincoln Square and the Upper West Side.

On the newer side is Breads Bakery, opened in 2013 with all sorts of baked goods but with a particular emphasis on old-school Jewish New York staples. Breads was among the bakeries to popularize babka with Nutella and dark chocolate, as well as many types of challah. But its chocolate rugelach with an ultra-thin pastry is also a winner.

Out in Brooklyn, Shelskys was opened in 2011 as an appetizing store and deli with a bakery as well. At its locations, Shelskys offers some hard-to-find types like chocolate lingonberry, apricot walnut, and clementine and ginger. Also in Brooklyn are a handful of kosher favorites in Orthodox neighborhoods like Midwood, whose residents frequent Isaacs Bake Shop and Kaffs Bakery, and South Williamsburg, known for Oneg Heimishe Bakery.

Next, learn about the History of the Appetizing Store in NYC!

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On National Rugelach Day, A Look Into the History of Rugelach in NYC - Untapped New York

Q. What is the goal of the project?

A. This project critically revisits the histories and historiographies of the Mediterranean. The long story of world civilizationfor which the Mediterranean was, and still is, a hubhas usually been woven by quasi-horizontal and parallel vectors that move alternately between East and West. Incorporating into this field the African continent, we move beyond the west-east patterns that shaped and controlled the writing of Mediterranean art history.

Thus, Black Mediterranean places again the sea as the medial space for artistic interactions, but adds to it the north-south longitudinal meridians. The project is a corrective methodological tool that aims to include forgotten narratives and to revisit historiographies of racial subordination. It provides a forum for art historians to address overlooked Afro-Mediterranean chronicles, and is a call for a new critical humanism that revisits Mediterranean histories to offer better insights into past empires and colonial affairs. By reexamining these accounts, we can reframe Western hegemonic, epistemic control of the past. Terms such as Afro-American and Afro-European could be reconsidered around histories of Eurafrica.

Moreover, with Black Mediterranean, we hope to establish cooperation with mainly young and promising scholars in Africa, especially in countries where art history is an emerging discipline. Part of our goal is to build a regional network of academics, to foster collaboration among different art historians fields and areas of expertise.

Q. What is the historical timeframe that the project encompasses?

A. The project mainly focuses on about 600 years of history, from 1500 to the present, though trajectories that stretch back from premodern and modern times to the ancient and medieval Mediterranean world are welcomed, too.

Q. What parts of Africa will the project focus on?

A. In general, three vertical routes will be the focus: the eastern African route that moved from Ethiopia to Alexandria via Cairo (with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 as its culmination); the central sub-Saharan route that travels north to Tunis and Italy via Sicily (with the 1535 conquest of Tunis by Charles V and the 1571 Battle of Lepanto serving as anchors); and the west African route along the Atlantic coast, concentrating on the age of Portuguese expansion in Africa (circa 1415-1600).

Q. What will you specifically be teaching and/or researching as part of this project?

A. In the fall of 2022, I will teach a graduate seminar on Black Mediterranean. This course seeks to call our attention to the important artistic and cultural role played by Africa in shaping Mediterranean aesthetics and, paradoxically, the continents absence from most Mediterranean studies to date. While concentrating on the movement of artifacts, artisans, persons of power, and slaves, as well as revisiting trade routes and military conquests, the class will unveil the constant and mutual transfer of knowledge.

We will discuss various historical moments, such as the transfer of the relics of Saint Mark from Alexandria to Venice, the boom in the import of ivory from sub-Saharan Africa to Europe, the introduction of the Almohads aesthetic in Spain, as well as trading throughout the Mediterranean during the Fatimid period (around 1000 CE).

Also, moments of artistic transfer to, rather than from, Africa will be highlighted, including the introduction of the Abbasid royal aesthetics of Baghdad in North Africa, the settlements of Amalfitan traders in Fatimid Egypt, the Norman looting of Tunis around 1200, Jesuits in Ethiopia in early modern times, and, back to where the project started, the Habsburg conquest of Tunis in 1535.

Q. Will Black Mediterranean touch on current migration issues between Africa and Europe via the Mediterranean?

A. Indeed. The project already does. In February, I engaged Anthropology Professor Naor Ben-Yehoyada and Youssef Ben Ismail, a Mellon SOF/Heyman and MESAASlecturer, to interview the Algerian artist Rachid Korachiabout his project, Jardin dAfrique, in Tunis. For this work, Korachi designed and built a shrine and cemetery for the bodies of anonymous migrants who died crossing the Mediterranean from Africa to Europe.

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The Department of Art History and Archaeology Receives A Major Grant from the Getty Foundation - Columbia University

Denver Travel & Adventure Show

Saturday-Sunday. Travel lovers looking for inspiration and information might want to plan a road trip to the Colorado Convention Center this weekend for the fifth Denver Travel & Adventure Show.

There will be educational opportunities and interactive experiences, along with a wide variety of products and services. Experts offering their insights will include author Patricia Schultz and travel guru Peter Greenberg. Author Laurie Woolever will share her experiences accompanying the late Anthony Bourdain on his world travels while travel writer Andrew McCarthy will share highlights from his new book, The Longest Way Home.

It all happens Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets and event information: travelshows.com/shows/denver John Meyer

Saturday. Still one of the only theme parks directly inside a city, the historic Elitch Gardens (well, the names historic anyway) opens for the 2022 season on Saturday, April 30. Its back to full operations after two years of pandemic weirdness, although dont be surprised is staffing issues impact some attractions.

Colorados biggest and best-for-roller-coasters park also competes with heavies like Water World for the summer splash crowd, with its Island Kingdom water park set to open on Memorial Day. Concerts are back with Le Crea and a Hispanic festival, officials said, as well as drive-in movies at the water park.

Opening-day tickets are $45, with kids 2 and under free. Season passes start at $75. Prices for both are effective online through May 8. Parking costs $20. Located at 2000 Elitch Circle in downtown Denver. 303-595-4386 or elitchgardens.com. John Wenzel

Through June 30. With guided tours of Denver history hitting new heights of competitiveness there are currently dozens around the city History Colorado is taking advantage of renewed interest in our fast-gentrifying citys roots with exhibitions that peer past the typical mining and cowboy history.

Running through June 30, Rice and Resilience explores Colorados Asian food culture; an in-depth walking tour of Denvers Chinatown (for $35 per person) arrives on May 14 and will most definitely sell out soon. The Bold Women Change History lecture series continues with Ph.D. archeologist Bonnie Clark; and the long-overdue and vaguely Pride-timed Queer Capitol Hill exhibition begins on May 20.

Call 303-447-8679 or visit historycolorado.org/events to make reservations and to buy tickets. History Colorado Center is located at 1200 N. Broadway. John Wenzel

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Sampling the newest travel-tech, Elitch Gardens reopening, and more things to do in Denver this weekend - The Denver Post

By The Associated Press

Todays Highlight in History:

On April 29, 1946, 28 former Japanese officials went on trial in Tokyo as war criminals; seven ended up being sentenced to death.

On this date:

In 1429, Joan of Arc entered the besieged city of Orleans to lead a French victory over the English.

In 1916, the Easter Rising in Dublin collapsed as Irish nationalists surrendered to British authorities.

In 1945, during World War II, American soldiers liberated the Dachau (DAH-khow) concentration camp. Adolf Hitler married Eva Braun inside his Fuhrerbunker and designated Adm. Karl Doenitz (DUHR-nihtz) president.

In 1957, the SM-1, the first military nuclear power plant, was dedicated at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

In 1967, Aretha Franklins cover of Otis Reddings Respect was released as a single by Atlantic Records.

In 1983, the film Valley Girl was released in theaters.

In 1991, a cyclone began striking the South Asian country of Bangladesh; it ended up killing more than 138,000 people, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

In 1992, a jury in Simi Valley, California, acquitted four Los Angeles police officers of almost all state charges in the videotaped beating of motorist Rodney King; the verdicts were followed by rioting in Los Angeles resulting in 55 deaths.

In 1997, a worldwide treaty to ban chemical weapons went into effect.

In 2008, Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama denounced his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, for what he termed divisive and destructive remarks on race.

In 2010, the U.S. Navy officially ended a ban on women serving on submarines, saying the first women would be reporting for duty by 2012. The NCAAs Board of Directors approved a 68-team format for the mens basketball tournament beginning the next season.

In 2011, Britains Prince William and Kate Middleton were married in an opulent ceremony at Londons Westminster Abbey.

In 2020, scientists announced the first effective treatment against the coronavirus, the experimental antiviral medication remdesivir, which they said could speed the recovery of COVID-19 patients.

Ten years ago: Despite past differences, President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton began a summer fundraising blitz with an event in McLean, Virginia. An out-of-control SUV plunged more than 50 feet off the side of a New York City highway overpass and landed on the grounds of the Bronx Zoo, killing all seven people aboard, including three children.

Five years ago: President Donald Trump marked his 100th day in office with a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. A white suburban Dallas policeman fired into a moving car carrying five Black teenagers, killing 15-year-old Jordan Edwards. (Balch Springs officer Roy Oliver would be convicted of murder and sentenced to 15 years in prison.)

One year ago: Brazil became the second country to officially top 400,000 COVID-19 deaths. Police in Los Angeles said the woman who had returned Lady Gagas stolen French bulldogs was among five people arrested in connection with the theft and the shooting of the music superstars dog walker. The Jacksonville Jaguars made Clemsons Trevor Lawrence the first pick in the NFL draft; the first three selections were all quarterbacks.

Todays Birthdays: Actor Keith Baxter is 89. Conductor Zubin Mehta is 86. Pop singer Bob Miranda (The Happenings) is 80. Country singer Duane Allen (The Oak Ridge Boys) is 79.

Singer Tommy James is 75. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., is 72. Movie director Phillip Noyce is 72. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld is 68. Actor Leslie Jordan is 67. Actor Kate Mulgrew is 67. Actor Daniel Day-Lewis is 65. Actor Michelle Pfeiffer is 64. Actor Eve Plumb is 64. Rock musician Phil King is 62. Country singer Stephanie Bentley is 59. Actor Vincent Ventresca is 56. Singer Carnie Wilson (Wilson Phillips) is 54. Actor Paul Adelstein is 53. Actor Uma Thurman is 52. International Tennis Hall of Famer Andre Agassi is 52. Rapper Master P is 52. Actor Darby Stanchfield is 51. Country singer James Bonamy is 50. Gospel/R&B singer Erica Campbell (Mary Mary) is 50. Rock musician Mike Hogan (The Cranberries) is 49. Actor Tyler Labine is 44. Actor Megan Boone is 39. Actor-model Taylor Cole is 38. NHL center Jonathan Toews is 34. Pop singer Foxes is 33. Actor Grace Kaufman is 20.

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Today in History: Today is Friday, April 29, the 119th day of 2022. - wausaupilotandreview.com

CORVALLIS, Ore. Oregon State University history professor and author Jacob Darwin Hamblin has been awarded the 2021 Oregon Book Award in general nonfiction for his book, The Wretched Atom: Americas Global Gamble with Peaceful Nuclear Technology.

He accepted the award April 25 at Literary Arts first in-person ceremony since 2019.

It was very exciting I did not expect to win at all, Hamblin said. And with the category, general nonfiction, I was honored to be in the same mix with some of these really good writers across the state. It was cool to have a historical research book win.

Hamblins book, published by Oxford University Press, is a historical examination of the United States pattern of promoting nuclear solutions in developing nations across the world, and how these proposals are inextricably linked to race, the environment, colonialism, the arms trade and nuclear weapons.

These are all things we dont tend to associate with peaceful atomic energy. We think of it as nuclear power, he said. People ask me a lot whether this is a pro-nuclear book or an anti-nuclear book. It is neither anti nor pro; it is a historical work. I definitely have things to say in it that are troubling, but its not meant to be a book that can only be read by one side of that pro or con issue.

Hamblin is one of several OSU faculty members to win an Oregon Book Award in the last decade. Most recently, Elena Passarello, director of the Master in Fine Arts program, won for nonfiction in 2018, while Tracy Daugherty, writing professor emeritus, won for his biography of Joan Didion in 2017. Writing instructor George Estreich won in 2012 for creative nonfiction and OSUs poet-in-residence David Biespiel won for nonfiction in 2016 and for poetry in 2011.

As one of Oregon States most distinguished and productive scholars, Jakes latest book on the challenges surrounding non-military use of atomic energy continues the colleges tradition of outstanding writing about topics of enduring public interest, said Larry Rodgers, dean of the College of Liberal Arts. The Wretched Atom is as readable and engrossing as it is rigorous and deeply researched.

Hamblin teaches courses on the history of science and technology, along with environmental history, in OSUs School of History, Philosophy, and Religion within the College of Liberal Arts.

His research for The Wretched Atom took him to archives across Europe to uncover stories of different campaigns to bring nuclear energy projects to the developing world over the past seven decades.

He wrote about how both the U.S. and Great Britain promised nuclear-based solutions for a wide variety of problems, such as grain disinfection using radiation, crop fertilizers, medical uses with nuclear isotopes and nuclear power plants connected to water desalination plants used to irrigate deserts.

The war between Russia and Ukraine has reignited interest and concern over nuclear issues across the world, and Hamblin is among many nuclear scholars who have received press inquiries seeking to better understand current risks of nuclear war or contamination.

The climate crisis has also heightened discussion of nuclear power. Hamblin said his book aims to highlight the ways political rhetoric is used to link environmental problems to nuclear solutions.

Today we use climate as a way to promote nuclear energy, but there is a long history of promoting nuclear solutions using environmental threats: population problems, resource scarcity, insect control for disease management, Hamblin said. What I wanted to explore was how that was done by governments, and how those tactics worked for lots of different governments.

Hamblin is currently co-editing a book of essays with OSU history instructor Linda Richards about contested histories of radiation contamination and exposure at locations around the world.

The Wretched Atom is available through Oxford University Press and all major booksellers.

Continue reading here:

OSU history professor Jacob Darwin Hamblin wins Oregon Book Award for 'The Wretched Atom' - Oregon State University

The NC Democracy Eleven Elections interactive gallery shows how NC elections from 1776 to 2010 are still shaping democracy today.

GREENSBORO, N.C. Many North Carolinians will spend the next several weeks exercising their right to vote ahead of the May 17th primary election.

The evolution of democracy has allowed citizens to have a say in who represents the government.

TheGreensboro History Museumhas opened a new exhibit called NC Democracy: Eleven Elections' to show the many forms democracy took over 11 state elections.

The exhibit starts with the 1776 election. Glenn Perkins, the curator of community history at the museum said they chose election years with interesting stories that brought about change.

We wanted to see how those elections opened up opportunities and presented challenges for people to claim their right to vote here in North Carolina, Perkins said.

One example of this is when North Carolina A & T State University graduate justice Henry Frye become the first black legislator in the North Carolina general assembly in the 20th century.

During the 1970 election, Frye wrote a bill to take the literacy test out of North Carlina law.

Voters approved, removing a barrier that kept certain groups of people from being able to vote.

Carol Ghiorisi Hart the director of Greensboro History Museum saidsome of the restrictions imposed on voters in the past are still present today.

Some of the same issues that were there from the beginning are still with us today. How easy it is to get to where you vote and what is required, that can be manipulated, Hart said. These are things that seem reasonable but when you look at it it's often very targeted to make it difficult for people to vote.

Bringing the exhibit to life took two years of research and meetings with scholars and historians from across North Carolina.

There are artifacts and essential pieces that bring history to life.

"There are cool things like we didn't know about the history of the secret ballot," Perkins said. "It's something we take for granted, that no one is going to look over our shoulder and know how we're voting. That's a late addition that didn't come until the 1920s.

The exhibit focuses on elections from 1776 to 2010, but there are themes and objects that surround the 2020 election and voting during a pandemic.

People have worked hard for 250 years for you to have the right to vote," Hart said. "To not exercise that right you're turning your back on the blood sweat and tears of generations of people.

The exhibit is free and will run well into 2023.

Gallery updates and programs will be held in exhibit rooms.click here for programing.

The history museum is open every day but Monday until 5 p.m.

Originally posted here:

New Greensboro History Museum exhibit: choices and changes over 11 NC elections - WFMYNews2.com

12 years ago, the Philadelphia Eagles traded up during the first round of the 2010 NFL Draft to the 13th-overall selection. Many thought, when they did so, the decision was made to allow themselves the opportunity to take Earl Thomas, an all-star safety out of Texas. They elected instead to go with a defensive lineman. That young mans name was Brandon Graham.

Thomas got off to the faster start and, in all likelihood, will find his way to Canton, Ohio, but even though it may have taken longer for the light bulb to come on with B.G., his selection worked out pretty well for the Birds. Were talking about the author of the greatest strip-sack in Super Bowl history.

Grahams career continues as hes set to begin year 13. Earl Thomas, though still technically a free agent at the time of this story being written and published, hasnt played for anyone since a one-and-done campaign with the Baltimore Ravens.

Meanwhile, history seems to have repeated itself in the City of Brotherly Love.

The first night of the 2022 NFL Draft was a lively one for Eagles Nation. The Birds brass threw some haymakers.

They traded the second of their two first-round picks, along with a Day 2 selection to the Tennessee Titans to acquire A.J. Brown, who was immediately signed to a four-year, $100 million deal.

Their first selection played out much like their first in 2010. As they did 12 years ago, they traded up to the 13th-overall selection and ignored the drafts best safety prospect to go with a defensive lineman, Jordan Davis, formerly of the Georgia Bulldogs.

How many of you were thinking the Birds might have a shot at landing Kyle Hamilton as the first round wore on though? Perhaps those of us who thought that there might be a chance of seeing that happen were ignoring Phillys nature to some extent.

We know the Eagles like to build from the defensive line out. Meanwhile, theyve only taken three defensive backs during the first round in their history: Roynell Young (1980), Ben Smith (1990), and Lito Sheppard (2002). Ironically, Hamilton went to the Baltimore Ravens one spot after Philly landed Davis

The former Georgia Bulldog is a Howie Roseman-esque selection. No one should be surprised that hes the guy Philadelphia wound up with.

Will they eventually regret passing on Hamilton? They may not. Jordan Davis figures to contribute faster than Graham did. Theres still an issue in Philadelphia though.

Who in the heck is going to play the safety position? Maybe they can get somebody in the mid to late rounds. Maybe they have Tyrann Mathieu in their back pocket. Whatever the plan, theyve given us much to talk about between now and the beginning of spring and summer camps.

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History repeats itself as the Philadelphia Eagles pass on Kyle Hamilton - Inside the Iggles

Picture it: The date is October 25, 2012, and Quartz throws a launch party from the space-age future. Photo: Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Quartz (qz.com)

Quartz, a business publication, today announced its sale to G/O Media. This is yet another chapter of several in Quartzs history, co-founder and now editor-in-chief Zach Seward tells me. But how many chapters? Over the last decade, Quartz has moved faster and broken more things than nearly any other publication. Is Quartz a cautionary tale for publishers? Or an inspirational one? You decide.

Quartz launches in 2012 as a premium ad space, for fancy brands that love to reach business consumers, in the bosom of Atlantic Media. Everyone loves it. Quartz India launches 2014; Quartz Africa launches 2015. This is Original Quartz breaking ground in terms of article format mobile first, then drafting on the back of building an audience through social, says Seward.

In 2016, Quartz achieves an operating profit and launches a much-discussed chatbotlike app that is debated by media companies for months.

Quartz also rides a profitable but eventually exhausting and undermining industry wave, funded and delivered by Facebook, of native social video, going from zero to 200 million video views.

We and many other publishers felt the pull of continued growth there. I dont even regret it! says Seward. It meant that Quartzs remit expanded greatly. Whether that was the right or wrong choice, then, when Facebook traffic went away, the most important thing was we had a distinguishable brand that was focused and for a certain type of reader.

In late 2017: Quartz observes its fifth anniversary. It promises ambitious video series, a new culture-and-lifestyle vertical, and a new at work vertical.

As the Facebook era ends for publishers, Quartz enters its subscription era and, in July 2018, sells to Uzabase, a public company based in Japan, for $86 million.

Being acquired by a public company, I wouldnt recommend it as a life experience for everyone, but it was super-interesting to go through, Seward says.

Quartz is a rare success in a media industry that continues to struggle to adapt to the internet says the New York Times though it notes that despite its strengths, Quartz needs to shift its business model to paid subscriptions. Uzabase says that, by 2023, it will be the most important business website in the world. Quartz agrees its next biggest source of growth will come from reader revenue; in late 2018, the membership program is rolled out. In 2019, a paywall descends. Also, two rounds of layoffs happen, both on the business side. That October, co-founder and editor-in-chief Kevin Delaney leaves, replaced with Harvard Business Reviews Katherine Bell. (Bell did not reply to inquiries.)

The company loses a ton of money: In 2019, Quartz reported a $18.4 million loss on $26.9 million in revenue. The next May, Quartz brutally lays off 80 people, nearly half its staff.

Then, six months later, in a very unusual move, Quartz buys itself back from its owner. I have reached an agreement to acquire Quartz myself and take us private, Seward writes at the time, and shares equity with the staff.

He plans to raise money, but cannot. The site is making about $11 million in revenue.

Through the pandemic, Quartz looks from the outside that it is scrambling through iterations of its business model. In August 2021, Quartz refocuses subscription program on email newsletters for paying readers. Then, in April of this year, Quartz has permanently dropped its paywall, replacing it with a regi-wall to harvest emails.

This is the end of Quartz as its own company, Seward says.

Not having raised any money in its period of independence, and losing nearly $7 million last year, today Seward announced Quartzs sale to G/O Media, which owns the remains of the Gawker Media Network and the Onion, the Root, and A/V Club.

He plans to eventually drop the general-manager title after the business transition and remain as editor-in-chief, with Bell departing. I miss journalism! Theres nothing like running a newsroom, he says. All I get to write these days is memos and I pour a lot into those.

Having a parent company also allows Quartz to return to what it was like in the beginning. Weve already made a bit of a return to original Quartz in our tone and approach, Seward says, shortly before going to address the newsroom at 12:30 p.m. ET today. What does he expect from that meeting? Just like any other editor-in-chief, lots of questions about work from home.

Fortunately, or not, now he has a boss. G/O Media honcho Jim Spanfeller, often brutally dunked on by the companys writers, apparently sent an announcement to the staff this morning with the subject line Quarts News.

Quartz can join the companys other brands, for now, in sometimes benefitting from and sometimes fighting with management. Im looking forward to a more traditional workplace battle, Seward says. Not everything has to be existential all the time, as it sometimes felt.

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Quartz Is the History of Internet Media in Just 10 Years - New York Magazine