Category Archives: History

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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White Paper: Darfur: A Social and Political History from Regional Polity to Humanitarian Catastrophe

Posted on December 15, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive Summary Darfur, a region in western Sudan roughly the size of France, has a long and complex social and political history that predates colonial boundaries and modern nation-states. Far from being an inherently violent or stateless zone, Darfur was … Continue reading →

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A Typology of Reasons Why Animals Are Worthwhile to People: A White Paper on Instrumental, Relational, Moral, and Civilizational Value

Posted on December 15, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive Summary Debates about the value of animals often collapse into narrow frames: economic utility, emotional attachment, environmentalism, or animal rights. Such reductions obscure the reality that animals matter to people for multiple, overlapping, and historically persistent reasons. This white … Continue reading →

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White Paper: The Central Role of Comparative Reference Frameworks in Online DNA Ancestry Testing

Posted on December 15, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive Summary Online DNA ancestry testing services present themselves as tools for uncovering personal heritage through genetic analysis. However, the ancestry results they provide are not direct readings of genetic “origin” in any absolute sense. Rather, they are comparative inferences, … Continue reading →

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Rejoicing in the Birth of Jesus Christ Around the Feast of Trumpets: A Biblicist White Paper on Timing, Theology, and Liturgical Meaning

Posted on December 14, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive Summary This white paper argues that rejoicing in the birth of Jesus Christ in connection with the Feast of Trumpets (Yom Teruah) is biblically defensible, theologically coherent, and spiritually fruitful—particularly within a biblicist framework that prioritizes scriptural patterns over … Continue reading →

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White Paper: Curated Memory vs. Measured Success: What Bread’s Compilations Reveal About Popularity, Taste, and Soft-Rock Canon Formation

Posted on December 14, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive Summary Bread’s legacy is unusually shaped by compilation albums rather than by sustained attention to their original studio LPs. By comparing The Best of Bread (1973), a comprehensive view of Bread’s singles output, and later greatest-hits collections, this white … Continue reading →

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Egypt’s Repeated Efforts to Project Power into the Levant during the Third Intermediate Period (c. 1069–664 BCE): A Biblicist White Paper

Posted on December 14, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive Summary The Third Intermediate Period (TIP) marks Egypt’s transition from New Kingdom imperial dominance to a fractured landscape of Libyan dynasties, rival priesthoods, and regional strongmen. Modern historiography often emphasizes decline and disunity. The biblical record, however, fills in … Continue reading →

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White Paper: When Command Philosophy Fails at Scale: A Comparative Typology of Command Failure in High-Stakes Military Leadership

Posted on December 14, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive Summary This white paper develops a comparative typology of command failure, using Robert E. Lee’s vague order-giving as a central case study and placing it alongside analogous failures in commanders such as Napoleon (1812), McClellan, Rommel, MacArthur, and others. … Continue reading →

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Command Ambiguity and Operational Friction: The Negative Effects of Robert E. Lee’s Vague Orders on the Army of Northern Virginia

Posted on December 13, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive Summary This white paper examines the operational consequences of General Robert E. Lee’s habitual use of vague, discretionary orders within the Army of Northern Virginia (ANV), particularly during the middle and late phases of the American Civil War. While … Continue reading →

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