Category: History

How California Got Its Name

(19-minute read) There are many Spanish-language placenames in United states. A few examples: the states of Nevada (“snowy”), Arizona (“dry area”), Colorado (“red”), Florida (“flowered”, as in “flowered holy day”, meaning Easter), and Montana (“mountain”); the cities of Las Vegas (“the meadows”) and Los Angeles (“the angels”); and Key West, which combines an Anglicized spelling… Read More How California Got Its Name

laurahaleywalker

Suffering and its Discontents: Reflections on the Bronze Age Collapse

(8 minute read) Once upon a time, there was a super-regional trade network of specialized economies that supported widespread prosperity and prolific innovation and creative output. Then the climate shifted abruptly to cause drought and plummeting agricultural yields, stateless marauders suddenly appeared on the scene, and a sequence of earthquakes crumbled cities along a major… Read More Suffering and its Discontents: Reflections on the Bronze Age Collapse

laurahaleywalker