Month: August 2017

In medieval Europe, you couldn’t just rent a hut and set up shop as a blacksmith, candle-maker or embroiderer. In most towns, you had no choice but to join a guild, which entailed apprenticing with a master practitioner for a number of years (without pay, but with room and board) until you became a full-fledged master yourself. At that point, you were expected not only to practice your trade, but to participate in the activities of your guild, which served double and triple duty as a social club and a charitable organization. Much of what we know about medieval guilds comes from the city of London, which kept the most extensive records about these organizations (which even had their own pecking order in the social hierarchy) from the 13th to the 19th centuries. Below, you’ll learn about 14 typical medieval guilds, ranging from bowyers and fletchers (makers of bows and arrows) to cobblers and cordwainers (fabricators and repairers of footwear). Read 14 Medieval Guilds You Didn’t Know Existed

For the average law-abiding citizen, it can be difficult to distinguish between the Hollywood version of the Mafia (as depicted in Goodfellas, The Sopranos, the Godfather trilogy, and countless other movies and TV shows) and the real-life criminal organization on which it is based. Also known as the Mob or La Cosa Nostra, the Mafia is an organized-crime syndicate founded and run by Italian-Americans, most of whom can trace their ancestry back to Sicily. Part of what has made the Mob so successful—and so difficult to eradicate—is its stable organizational structure, with various families directed from the top by powerful bosses and underbosses and staffed by soldiers and capos. Here’s a look at who’s who on the Mafia org charts, ranging from the least influential (the “associates” who can be whacked at will) to the most deadly (the mythical capo di tutti capi, or “boss of all bosses.”) Read The Structure of the American Mafia

In the 1944 Tom & Jerry short “The Zoot Cat”—only the thirteenth cartoon ever made starring that famous duo—Tom’s would-be girlfriend lays it on him straight: “Boy, are you corny! You act like a square at the fair, a goon from Saskatoon. You come on like a broken arm. You’re a sad apple, a long hair, a cornhusker. In other words, you don’t send me!” The sad cat goes out and buys himself some new duds from Smiling Sam, the Zoot Suit Man, prompting his wide-eyed gal pal to do a one-eighty.  “You’re really a sharp character! A mellow little fellow. Now you collar my jive!” Read A Cultural History of the Zoot Suit

There are few concepts in the history of economics that have been misunderstood, and misused, more often than the “invisible hand.” For this, we can mostly thank the person who coined this phrase: the 18th-century Scottish economist Adam Smith, in his influential books The Theory of Moral Sentiments and (much more importantly) The Wealth of Nations. Read The Invisible Hand of the Market