It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a woman in possession of a love of history, must be in want of a blog.
One consequence of the expansion of European colonialism in the 17th and 18th centuries was that many Europeans came into closer contact with African peoples as the slave trade boomed alongside the plantations of the West Indies and the American colonies. With European planters and their slaves living in close proximity, it was inevitable that …
Soap, in some form or other, has been used by humans for millennia, with the oldest surviving products dating back to the ancient Babylonian period. Come the Industrial Revolution and the growth of mass consumption, distinct brands were formulated and aggressively marketed. Yet how could an advertisement for something as everyday as soap possibly be …
The Namib desert is a barren wasteland. The coastal edge of the desert in which the ruined town of Kolmanskop is located is particularly dry, receiving less than 50mm of rain a year. It seems an unlikely area for permanent settlement, yet a century ago Kolmanskop was a flourishing mining town. The town came into …