Category Archives: History

White Paper: Samuel Ryan Curtis as a Political and Military General in the American Civil War

Posted on December 18, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive Summary Samuel Ryan Curtis (1805–1866) was one of the most unusual Union generals of the Civil War: an engineer, a West Point graduate, a three-term Congressman, a military administrator, and the victor of the strategically important Battle of Pea … Continue reading →

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White Paper: The Earliest Historical True Crime Literature and What It Reveals About Readers’ Appetite for Crime and Punishment

Posted on December 18, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive Summary True crime is often considered a modern genre, shaped by mass literacy and commercial printing. In reality, the fascination with recounting real acts of violence, theft, deception, and justice is nearly as old as recorded history. Across ancient … Continue reading →

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White Paper: The Quiet Weight Beneath the Piano: Melancholy as a Structural Thread in the Lyrics of Billy Joel

Posted on December 18, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive Summary Billy Joel is often remembered for buoyant melodies, radio-friendly hooks, and a public persona associated with wit, storytelling, and New York bravado. Yet beneath this accessible surface lies a persistent, carefully managed melancholy that runs through his lyrics … Continue reading →

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Arms Diversity vs. Strategic Concentration: A Comparative White Paper on Multi-Arm Militaries and Single-Approach Forces from Antiquity to the Present

Posted on December 17, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive Summary Throughout military history, polities have faced a recurring strategic choice: whether to invest in multiple complementary military arms (infantry, cavalry, naval forces, artillery, air power, cyber, space, etc.) or to maximize a dominant approach optimized for a specific … Continue reading →

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White Paper: Ignorance and Transgression: Distinguishing Uninformed Anomaly from Deliberate Innovation in Unusual Works

Posted on December 17, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive Summary Unusual works appear in every creative, intellectual, and technical field. Some arise because creators do not know the rules of a genre or discipline; others emerge because creators know the rules and deliberately violate them. While both categories … Continue reading →

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White Paper: Jane Austen: Life, Reputation, and the Making of a Cultural Institution (c. 1775–2025)

Posted on December 17, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive summary Jane Austen (1775–1817) lived a relatively quiet provincial life, published her novels anonymously, and died before she could see the full arc of her public reputation. Over the last 250 years, however, her standing has moved through distinct … Continue reading →

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White Paper: Infantas as Brides in European Royal Diplomacy—and Whether the Alliances Held

Posted on December 16, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive summary From the late medieval period through the 18th century, the daughters of Iberian monarchs—infantas of Spain (and similarly in Portugal)—were among Europe’s most valuable diplomatic assets. Their marriages were not primarily “romantic unions,” but instruments designed to (1) … Continue reading →

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White paper: How Czech Beads and Belgian Rifles Reached Chadron, Nebraska—and from there the Plains tribes—in the 19th century

Posted on December 16, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive summary In the 19th century, “trade goods” moved on a long, predictable conveyor belt: European manufacture → Atlantic shipping to U.S. ports → U.S. wholesale hubs → interior transport by river/road/rail → frontier posts and agency towns → Indigenous … Continue reading →

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White Paper: The History and Approach of African Martial Arts: A Comparative, Cultural, and Functional Survey

Posted on December 16, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive Summary African martial arts represent one of the world’s oldest and most diverse bodies of combat knowledge. Rather than forming a single codified “martial arts tradition” in the modern East Asian sense, African systems developed organically across ecological zones, … Continue reading →

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White Paper: The Mothers of the Kings of Judah: A Biblicist Examination of Maternal Backgrounds, Status, and Theological Significance

Posted on December 15, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive Summary The biblical record of the kings of Judah is unique among ancient Near Eastern royal annals in its consistent naming of the king’s mother (Hebrew: ’ēm hammélek). Far from being incidental genealogical detail, this pattern signals theological, moral, … Continue reading →

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