The Vietnam War (1955-1975), was a significant conflict in American history. When reflected upon today, it often instills a sense of regret. An immensely costly war in terms of casualties, displacement and destruction, the conflict is often perceived as one fought for nothing more than ideological motivations. But what was the Vietnam War and how Continue Reading
America’s Gun Affair
Earlier this month, on 1 October 2017, a lone gunman named Stephen Paddock opened fire on a group of oblivious concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas. The worst mass shooting in recent US history, killing 59 people and injuring 546 more, it should have shocked the world, but did it? Continue Reading
The Cuban Missile Crisis
Robert F Kennedy, the US Attorney General, described the Cuban Missile Crisis as a clear moment where the US and USSR ‘brought the world to the abyss of nuclear destruction’. Those thirteen days in October 1962 were arguably the most dramatic in Cold War relations, namely due to the severity and consequence of using Continue Reading
The Discovery of America
12 October 1492 marks an event which was to change life on both sides of the Atlantic forever; this date represents the discovery of America. In 1492, the navigator Christopher Columbus, funded by the Spanish Crown, sailed westward from Spain in hopes of finding a new sea route to South and Southeast Asia. Despite initially Continue Reading
Jazz: A History
Our modern perception of Jazz is considered to have taken form in the streets of New Orleans around the late 19th century, yet its origins can be traced back almost one hundred years earlier to West Africa. With the arrival of the slave trade, a new style of music emerged from Africa which allowed displaced Continue Reading