Chronicles of the Sages

Was Slavery about Racism or Economics?

In this historical study I discuss the topic of slavery and its fundamental causes. So many people today, especially in the Americas, are hyper sensitive to racial tensions, and many feel that racism was at the root of slavery. I make the case that racism was, not the cause of slavery, but one of its products. Also, we will discuss the case of slavery in the Americas as an example of two competing ways to interpret history; The materialist view and the Idealist view.



What is a Crusade?

To a historian, the answer to this question becomes more elusive as one learns ever more about the long history of this concept. There are four main schools of thought on what it actually means – or meant – to crusade; the traditionalists, the pluralists, the generalists, and those who favor a more spiritual/psychological approach.