Berfrois

November 2020

On the Berfrois Radar

On the Berfrois Radar

The survival of remains of one of the tiltyard towers was known, but the radar survey has shown up tantalizing glimpses of additional structures...

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Centuries of Constantinople

Centuries of Constantinople

She dwarfed all other remaining cities of the Roman Empire as well as former western Roman imperial and cross-frontier territories, and all but a few eastern cities...

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Sold-out meant three seats apart…

Sold-out meant three seats apart…

My first experience was at the Konzerthaus Berlin, a beautiful old building with a huge concert auditorium whose ceiling reaches up 90 or 100 feet above the seating area...

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Science needs birds and frogs…

Science needs birds and frogs…

If the history of physics with its creative interplay between frogs and birds is any guide, there is much cause for optimism...

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‘There were always more books than the small shelves could contain’

‘There were always more books than the small shelves could contain’

I grew up in the aftermath of Nasser’s Egypt, where public education was made free for all. For me, learning has always been remote…

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How objective was Japanese transwar fieldwork?

How objective was Japanese transwar fieldwork?

The post-1968 era inaugurated the unraveling of Japanese anthropology’s transwar consensus about its goals to produce objective, field-based research that uncovered universal laws of social development and diffusion...

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Rachel Howard: How We Voted

Rachel Howard: How We Voted

I now worship, through my computer, at a church 140 miles away, where talk of “social justice” is a normal part of nearly every sermon...

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Sikkim’s Integration/Annexation/Merger

Sikkim’s Integration/Annexation/Merger

How the change came about is a story with multiple plots involving India’s greatest spymaster, a defiant king, his ambitious political rival, and two enigmatic foreign women...

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Vida Goldstein and Australasian Suffragists in the International Sphere

Vida Goldstein and Australasian Suffragists in the International Sphere

What does this Federation-era snapshot tell us about Australia’s relationship to the wider world? And what is Goldstein’s place in larger histories of Australasian suffrage and democracy?

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Call for Poetry Submissions

Call for Poetry Submissions

We are very happy to announce that Berfrois is currently welcoming Poetry Submissions...

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Albert Rolls: Myself/Condition

Albert Rolls: Myself/Condition

Wilt thou rob this leathern-jerkin, crystal-button, non-pated, agate-ring, puke-stocking, caddis-garter, smooth-tongue Spanish pouch?

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With the Seine as its mirror and protector…

With the Seine as its mirror and protector…

The site has been holy since antiquity, perhaps explaining why Notre Dame feels spiritual, even for nonbelievers. A Druid shrine and then a pagan temple dedicated to Jupiter, the chief of the Roman gods, are believed to have stood on this spot...

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A History of the Idea of Ending Poverty

A History of the Idea of Ending Poverty

History confirms the intuition that ‘ending poverty’ has little political traction as a near-term goal when mass chronic poverty is seen to be the norm and poor citizens have little political influence...

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