By Dr Kat Ellinghaus I began Blood Will Tell with the idea that I was going to tell a settler colonial story.  The book begins in the United States in 1887, when the horrific government attempt to assimilate Native peoples began, resting on the platform of a piece of federal legislation which divided Indigenous-held reservation lands into privately-held allotments. It traces the story of the … Continue reading Blood and the Ethics of History

Or: A reflection on the sadistic humour of the goddess Clio. By Dr Tamson Pietsch (continued from Part 2 and Part 1 of Chasing Constantine Raises) The official records of the 1926-27 Floating University have disappeared. The Raises collection overview notes that Raises himself presented this material to the University of the Seven Seas (a successor enterprise launched in 1960) after which it “may have … Continue reading Chasing Constantine Raises (Part 3)

By Toby Nash Historians like to be ambitious, span decades in their writing, even centuries, but there is often great utility in examining the little things. I have found my interest drawn to one particular night in New York City. In May 1757, New York was awash with wartime hysteria. Lord Loudon’s naval fleet of over one hundred vessels lay anchored in New York Harbour … Continue reading Night Raid in Manhattan: The 1757 Louisbourg Expedition Press and the Curious Absence of Trauma

Or: A reflection on the sadistic humour of the goddess Clio (continued) (continued from Part 1 of Chasing Constantine Raises) By Dr Tamson Pietsch There are aspects of the account told by Raises that do fit. In early 1925 Lough was publishing notices in the newspapers trying to drum up sufficient interest to enable him to purchase the SS President Arthur and these touted the benefits of his Floating University … Continue reading Chasing Constantine Raises (Part 2)

Or: A reflection on the sadistic humour of the goddess Clio. By Dr Tamson Pietsch There is an alternative origin story for the Floating Univeristy that does not (at the moment) get told in my book. It begins like this: Some time in the cold New York winter of February 1925, six men met for dinner on a ship moored on the East River at the southeastern tip … Continue reading Chasing Constantine Raises (Part 1)

By Dr Tamson Pietsch In September 1926, 500 American university students left New York aboard the Floating University, on a journey around the world that involved stops at forty-seven ports and visits to foreign dignitaries including the King of Siam, the Sultan of Lahej, Mussolini and the Pope. Organised by New York University professor, James Edwin Lough, and promising a ‘world education’ to its students, the venture was … Continue reading Great Gatsby Gap Year