Civilization (series)

Civilization is a series of turn-based strategy video games, first released in 1991. Sid Meier developed the first game in the series and has had creative input for most of the rest, and his name is usually included in the formal title of these games, such as "Sid Meier's Civilization". There are six main games in the series, a number of expansion packs and spin-off games, as well as board games inspired by the video game series. The series is considered a formulative example of the 4X genre, in which players achieve victory through four routes: "eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate".
All titles in the series share similar gameplay, centered on building a civilization on a macro-scale from prehistory up to the near future. Each turn allows the player to move their units on the map, build or improve new cities and units, and initiate negotiations with the human or computer-controlled players. The player will also choose technologies to research. These reflect the cultural, intellectual, and technical sophistication of the civilization, and usually allow the player to build new units or to improve their cities with new structures. In most games in the series, one may win by military conquest, achieving a certain level of culture, building an interstellar space ship, or achieving the highest score, among other means. Later games have introduced gameplay concepts and victories based on religion, economics, and diplomacy. Meier had adapted an approach for each new title so that it contains a third of existing features, another third that are improvements from the previous game, and the remaining third as introducing new features. Newer games often include extendable downloadable content that adds to that game, and often will become part of the new features in the next main game of the series.
The series was first developed by Meier while at MicroProse, the studio he co-founded. After MicroProse was acquired by Spectrum Holobyte, Meier left with other designers to form Firaxis Games in 1996, which has been the principal developer of the series since. Over the years, some of the crew involved in developing the series became successful in producing their own strategy games, such as Bruce Shelley ("Civilization" co-designer) of "Age of Empires" fame, Brian Reynolds ("Civilization II" lead designer and programmer), who went on to create "Rise of Nations", and Soren Johnson ("Civilization III" co-designer and "Civilization IV" lead designer and programmer), who worked on "Spore" and "Offworld Trading Company". Some issues associated with the "Civilization" name, due to the 1980 "Civilization" board game created by Francis Tresham, arose during the late 1990s but have been resolved through agreements, settlements, and publishing company acquisitions; presently Take-Two, the parent company of Firaxis, owns full rights to both the name and intellectual property for the series. As of February 2017, the series has shipped more than 40 million total units.
History.
Development at MicroProse (1989–1996).
Sid Meier and Bill Stealey co-founded MicroProse in 1982 to develop a number of flight simulators and military strategy software titles. Around 1989, Meier wanted to start developing new types of games to expand his repertoire, inspired by the recent successes of the god games "SimCity" (1989) and "Populous" (1989). Meier considered these games demonstrated that video games did not need to be about destruction all the time. He worked with a recent hire, Bruce Shelley, a former board game designer from Avalon Hill, to craft new god games. They first created "Railroad Tycoon" in 1990, inspired by Shelley's work at producing Avalon Hill's "", inspired by Francis Tresham's "1829". Meier brainstormed upon his idea of combining global conquest inspired by "Risk", city management from the early "Empire" games, and adding in the concept of a technology tree. Meier worked back and forth with Shelley to refine this prototype before presenting it to the company in full to bring to a full release, which became the first "Civilization" game, published in September 1991. The name was selected late in the process, and after realizing that Tresham had already published a 1980 board game of the same name, MicroProse was able to negotiate a license for the name from Avalon Hill. The addition of Meier's name to the title identifying it as "Sid Meier's Civilization", was from Stealey's suggestion at the time. Since games like "Civilization" diverged from MicroProse's combat simulators, Stealey suggested the addition of Meier's name as to capture the interest of players that would recognize Meier's name from the previous titles he developed and give these other games a try; Meier found this worked and continued to use his name as part of the series' branding.
Following on "Civilization", Meier was prompted to develop a number of similar simulation titles, a situation that did not sit well with Stealey who wanted MicroProse to continue to develop flight simulators; at this point, Meier did not actually work for MicroProse but served as a contractor, having sold his shares to Stealey. One of these titles included "Sid Meier's Colonization" (1994), during which Meier worked with another recent hire, Brian Reynolds, as he had done with Shelley. With Meier less involved with MicroProse, he opted to give Reynolds the development lead for creating "Civilization II" (1996), the first sequel to any of Meier's previous games and also the first to have two expansion packs, Conflicts in Civilization and Fantastic Worlds. Meier gave Reynolds some advice on the direction to take the game, and subsequently, Reynolds worked with Doug Kaufman, another MicroProse employee that had worked on writing their adventure games, for "Civilization II".
Formation of Firaxis (1996–2001).
Stealey had pushed MicroProse to look towards home video consoles and arcade games based on their flight simulator software, but these investments did not pan out, putting the company into debt. After trying to arrange financing from an initial public offering, Stealey opted instead to sell the company to Spectrum Holobyte in 1993, and eventually sold his remaining shares in the company and departed it. Initially MicroProse was kept as a separate company from Spectrum Holobyte. By 1996, Spectrum Holobyte opted to consolidate its brand under the MicroProse name, with that cutting many of the MicroProse staff. At this point, Meier, Reynolds, and Jeff Briggs (one of MicroProse's developers and music composers) left MicroProse to found Firaxis.
Firaxis published additional titles by Meier, the first being "Sid Meier's Gettysburg!" (1997). Lacking the rights to the "Civilization" name, they subsequently produced "Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri", a "space-based "Civilization"-style game" released in 1999 and published by Electronic Arts. "Alpha Centauri" uses a game engine similar to the one used in "Civilization II" and its storyline continues from where the "Civilization" franchise ends, namely the colonization of a planet in Alpha Centauri.
Naming rights litigation from Activision and Avalon Hill (1997–1998).
Prior to the first "Civilization" video game, an existing 1980 board game of the same name had been developed by Francis Tresham, published in Europe by his company Hartland Trefoil and licensed for publication in the United States by Avalon Hill. The board game and video game share many common elements including the use of a technology tree, and while Meier stated he had played the board game, he stated it had far less influence in his video game's design compared to the significant influence of "SimCity" and "Empire". When MicroProse opted on the name "Civilization" for the video game, the company worked out a deal with Avalon Hill to allow them to use the "Civilization" name.
In April 1997, Activision acquired the rights to the name ""Civilization" on its PC games from Avalon Hill. Seven months later Avalon Hill and Activision sued MicroProse over trademark infringement over the rights to the "Civilization"" name, asserting that the agreement with MicroProse on the name "Civilization" only extended to the first game and no others, specifically targeting "Civilization II". In response to the lawsuit, MicroProse bought Hartland Trefoil in December 1997. This move sought to establish "MicroProse as the preeminent holder of worldwide computer game and board game rights under the "Civilization" brand". In January 1998, MicroProse counter-sued Avalon Hill and Activision for false advertising, unfair competition, trademark infringement, and unfair business practices as a result of Activision's decision to develop and publish "Civilization" computer games.
In July 1998, Avalon Hill and Activision settled their case against MicroProse out of court. Under the terms of the settlement, MicroProse kept all the rights to the "Civilization" brand, Avalon Hill had to pay MicroProse $411,000, and Activision acquired a license from MicroProse to publish "", released in April 1999. Avalon Hill accepted this settlement as there were already discussions for Hasbro Interactive to acquire both Avalon Hill and MicroProse. The acquisition of both was completed a month after this settlement, giving Hasbro Interactive the full rights to the "Civilization" name. which consolidated the "Civilization" franchise under Hasbro.
Publishing by Infogrames (2001–2004).
In January 2001, the French company Infogrames bought Hasbro Interactive for $100 million, which included the rights to the "Civilization" franchise, the rights to the Atari brand, and Hasbro's Game.com handheld game console. Following the sale, Hasbro Interactive was renamed Infogrames Interactive, Inc. In May 2003, Infogrames changed the name of Infogrames Interactive to Atari Interactive.
Infogrames/Atari Interactive published several of Firaxis' games, including "Civilization III", released in 2001. Briggs served as the lead designer with Soren Johnson as lead programmer, and the title included two expansion packs, ' and '.
Publishing and acquisition by Take-Two (2004–present).
Take-Two bought the rights to the "Civilization" franchise from Infogrames in 2004 for $22.3 million. In October 2005, 2K Games, a Take-Two subsidiary, published "Civilization IV", which was developed by Firaxis with Johnson as game designer. By this point in the series, Meier had adopted a design philosophy of making sure each new "Civilization" game had "one-third old, one-third improved, and one-third new", a means to allow the new game to be enjoyed by existing fans while able to draw in new players.
Take Two bought Firaxis for $26.7 million including possible performance bonuses in November 2005 which resulted in Take Two owning both the developer and the publisher of the "Civilization" franchise. Since Take Two's acquisition, Firaxis has developed several more titles in the series, including two main releases, "Civilization V" (2010) and "Civilization VI" (2016), two lightweight versions of "Civilization" for consoles and mobiles in "Civilization Revolution" (2008), its sequel "Civilization Revolution 2" (2014), and "" (2014), inspired by their previous "Alpha Centauri" title.
Gameplay.
The main "Civilization" games are turn-based 4X games, where players attempt to achieve one of several victory conditions against other human and computer-controlled opponents through the actions of "eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate". "Civilization" uses historical aspects from the development of mankind's civilization, and turns take place over a time scale that starts with the dawn of civilization in the millennia before 1 A.D., and continue through present times and beyond. On each turn, players oversee their civilization's government, determine what technology, culture, and civics the civilization should develop, engage in diplomacy with other civilizations, set production and place improvements within cities, and move their civilization's units across the game's world map, often engaging in combat with other civilizations' enemy units.
Games are played on either pre-defined or procedurally generated maps, creating a world with varied terrain including mountains and oceans. Map generation can be set by several parameters, such as average climate or landmass types. Maps can vary in size, which will affect the number of civilizations that can be played by that map.
Players either select or are randomly assigned a civilization led by a historical figure, based on several factual reigns and empires, including the Romans, Aztecs, and Americans; the civilization choice provides certain unique bonuses, units, and improvements for that player. Players start at random locations on the map, and must found their first city, becoming its default capitol until changed by the player, and explore the map and lift its fog of war to find out what is nearby, including potential resources that can be used in production, and where other civilizations are located. Cities will generate several resources based on how large the city is which affects how many map spaces it takes up: food which is required to sustain large cities and allow them to grow; production units used to determine how fast a city can build new units and improvements, science and culture which affect progress along the technology tree, and currency which can be used by the player for several tasks including upkeep of cities and units, speeding up production of a unit or offered as gifts in diplomacy actions. Once a city is founded, the player can then start to produce new units or city improvements. Units include military units, commerce-based units such as caravans to establish trade routes with other cities, and civilian-based groups like workers to help improve the land areas around a city such as by constructing fields or mines. City improvements include buildings that help to boost production types, such a library or university to improve research output, or World Wonders, unique buildings that can only be built by one civilization that grants a large bonus to the first to complete it. Cities will grow over time, expanding to cover more territory on the map while requiring more food and money to maintain, and players can create units that will be able to found new cities, expanding their empire.
Units typically move a set number of spaces per turn, limited by terrain: swamps may slow down faster units, mountains are typically impassible except by air, and water spaces can only be traversed with sea-going vessels that can carry other units. Combat occurs when any unit moves into a space occupied by another unit that is not currently on diplomatic terms with that player. Each unit has attack, defensive, and health values, often factored by the type of terrain they are presently in and if the units are fortified. The results of combat are determined with a degree of randomness based on the attack and defense strengths. Defeated units are eliminated from the game, and if the attacks are victorious, that unit will occupy the space if no other enemy units are there. If this battle took place on a city's main map space, then the attacker unit takes over the city for that civilization, though some games in the series provide the option of razing the city as well. In this manner, a civilization can be conquered by taking over all of its cities, at which point that player is out of the game. In more recent games, cities can also be taken over through the influence of culture or religion from a nearby opposing city. Several units are available for performing espionage work, which are hidden from other players unless certain conditions are met. These units can gain information normally hidden to other players, steal technology and culture, or create unrest in an opponent's city to make it easier to capture.
The player also oversees the general aspects of their civilization. They set specific types of government that can affect production rates, growth, and other factors, though these government civics must be gained through research and culture growth. The player also manages the tax rate on cities, which helps to collect currency to pay for unit and improvement maintenance. The player must manage the happiness of their population, which can be impacted by government choices, taxes, nearby military units and actions, overcrowded cities, and pollution, and mitigated by special units and city improvements. Once a player has discovered an opposing civilization, they can send communication to them to request peace treaties, non-hostile relationships, or offer trades of currency, resources, units, cities, and technology; such trades can also be used to intimidate opponents to threaten to go to war if such demands are not met.
Multiple victory paths are available to players; the following victory conditions are general routes available in most games while other routes can also exist in others. The conquest victory route requires the player to wipe out or take over all capital cities of the other civilizations on the map while still retaining their own. A player may also attempt to win through a diplomatic victory. By establishing friendly ties with other civilizations, the player can achieve victory by having their allies vote appropriately once the United Nations facility is established. Technology victories can be achieved by progressing through the technology tree to study space travel and constructing the parts required to launch a generation ship to Alpha Centauri. With culture elements in newer games, players can achieve a cultural victory by accumulating enough culture over other civilizations and building necessary structures to guide their civilization to a utopia-like state to claim this win. Finally, a player can achieve victory if they have the most points after a set number of turns have been reached; points are based on several factors including the size of the civilization, their progress towards technology and culture, and currency at hand.
To help newer players, the "Civilization" games include a number of artificial intelligence advisors that suggest which units, city improvements, and technology and cultures they should invest in based on the current state of the game.
The "Civilization" games can be played in a single-player mode, and both local and online multiplayer modes, along with a number of computer-controlled opponents. Some games provide a means to play asynchronously, where each player is given a set amount of time, such as within a day, to decide their actions and send results to a game server, when then determines the results of all actions and returns this information to players.
Related games.
Due to licensing disputes between Avalon Hill and MicroProse, the "Civilization: Call to Power" series was developed by Activision instead of MicroProse. However, the series was consolidated into the "Civilization" franchise when Hasbro purchased Avalon Hill and MicroProse, in 1999. Additional games, such as Freeciv and FreeCol, have taken inspiration from games within the "Civilization" franchise, but were developed by third parties unrelated to 2K Games or Firaxis.
In addition to computer games, several licensed board games inspired by the series have been developed. They include: ' (2002), ' (2006), ' (2010) and ' (2017).
Reception.
In 1996, "Next Generation" listed the series as number 4 on their "Top 100 Games of All Time", commenting that, "[Sid Meier's] goal was to give players the chance to play God. And he succeeded, admirably." In 1999, "Next Generation" listed "Civilization" and "Civilization II" as number 4 on their "Top 50 Games of All Time", commenting that, "The variables are so complex, it remains the deepest, most replayable strategy game ever designed."
Influence.
Although not the first such released game to have 4X gameplay elements, the "Civilization" series is considered to have introduced the defining elements of that genre, in particular the complexity of interlocking gameplay systems introduced in the first "Civilization" game.
The "Civilization" games, as well as other 4X games that follow their approach, are frequently associated with the "One More Turn syndrome", in which a player, nearing the end of a play session, might state they will end their game after "one more turn" but be compelled to play on for several more hours and lose track of time. This phenomenon is attributed to the core gameplay loop that provides players feedback on upcoming goals and rewards that they can obtain by playing additional turns while new goals and reward appear during the intervening turns.
Scottish science fiction and mainstream author Iain Banks has noted that he spent much time playing the game (appearing to refer to the first version) and that it was one of the inspirations for the concept of the 'Outside Context Problem' central to his "Excession" novel - the appearance of invaders or travelers who are so advanced that they are totally outside the society's frame of reference. In an interview, Banks specifically compares this to having a "Civilization" battleship arrive while the player is still using wooden sailing ships. One of the two viewpoint characters in his novel "Complicity" plays a fictional "Civilization"-like game, "Despot", compulsively.


Jan van Cleve (III)

Jan van Cleve (III) or Jan van Cleef (III) (6 January 1646 – 18 December 1716) was a Dutch-born Flemish painter who is known for his altarpieces, allegorical pictures and mythological scenes. He worked in Brussels at the beginning of his career and later moved to Ghent.
Life.
Van Cleve was born in Venlo in the duchy of Guelders. Displaying from an early age an interest and facility in art, he went to Brussels where he joined the workshop of the Flemish artist Luigi Primo who had worked for a long period of time in Italy. He is believed to have moved later to the workshop of Gaspard de Crayer. While there is no documentary evidence for such apprenticeship, the stylistic closeness of van Cleve to de Crayer supports this fact. Van Cleve also completed and copied a number of works of de Crayer. When de Crayer left Brussels for Ghent around 1664, van Cleve followed his master and established himself in Ghent where he resided for the rest of his life.
After de Crayer died, van Cleve was commissioned to complete his master de Crayer's unfinished works in various churches and to finish the cartoons for the tapestries ordered by the French king Louis XIV from the Antwerp tapestry workshops. He travelled to France to show his cartoons to the king in person. He remained for three months in Paris.
He worked in Ghent until his death at the age of 70.
Works.
Jan van Cleve painted altarpieces, allegorical pictures and mythological scenes. He was a prolific painter who was commissioned to produce many religious works for the churches and convents in Flanders and Brabant. His style was close to that of his master de Crayer. His best works are in the convent of the Black Nuns in Ghent and the town hall of Ghent.


Carel van Savoyen

Carel van Savoyen or Carel van Savoy (1620/21–1665) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and printmaker who was active in Antwerp and Amsterdam. He is mainly known for his history paintings and portraits but he also painted allegories and genre scenes.
Life.
The artist was born in Antwerp. He was the older brother of Philips van Savoy (or 'Philips van Savoyen') who was also a painter and later was active in Amsterdam.
He was registered in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke as a pupil of the history and portrait painter Jan Cossiers in 1634-35. He left for Italy where he stayed in Rome in the period from 1643 to 1645.
The artist was recorded in Amsterdam on 20 April 1649 when he marries Catharina Wandelman, the daughter of a wealthy Catholic merchant in Amsterdam. He stated at the time that he was 28 years of age. He became citizen (poorter) of Amsterdam on 1 September 1649.
He is known to have worked on two large paintings, both dated 1659, for churches in the Northern Netherlands. That Carel van Savoyen received the commission for these two altarpieces may have had something to do with the connections of his wife's wealthy Catholic family, which made him the brother-in-law of an Amsterdam priest. The prestige of Flemish art with the Amsterdam elite of the day may also have played a role.
One of his paintings representing "Venus and Adonis" was reportedly the subject of a poem by the Dutch poet Jan Vos. His work was also lavishly praised in Cornelis de Bie's 1662 book of artist biographies entitled Het Gulden Cabinet. This shows that his work was held in high esteem by other artists of his time. Subsequently it fell, however, into oblivion.
He remained active in Amsterdam until his death in 1665.
Work.
Carel van Savoyen's small extant oeuvre comprises only a dozen portraits and history pieces. He was known for his paintings of religious and mythological subjects as well as for his portraits. In the text underneath the selfportrait of Carel van Savoyen, which was included in Cornelis de Bie's Het Gulden Cabinet, the artist is described as being skilled at painting small figures, mainly of nude women.
Carel van Savoyen also painted genre scenes such as the composition (signed, formerly at Galerie Jan de Maere). This painting depicts an elegantly dressed man offering a flower to a lady sitting at a table in a garden with classical statues. An (oil on canvas, Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow), currently attributed by the museum to 'circle of Gillis van Tilborch' is likely also by the hand of Carel van Savoyen. In this painting the lady holding a music score and the man standing behind the harpsichord appear to be the same as the two figures depicted in the signed "An elegant couple courting in a formal garden".
A near-contemporary Amsterdam inventory also lists an allegory by his hand. An example of an allegorical painting by van Savoyen is the composition entitled (Signed and dated 1651, at Jean Moust).
During his period of activity in Antwerp van Savoyen followed the style of his master Jan Cossiers and of the important portrait painter Gonzales Coques. In Amsterdam his work became influenced by local artists such as Rembrandt and Gerard de Lairesse. His was engraved by Theodor Matham.
A painting by Carel van Savoyen of Jan de Doot holding a kidney stone in the shape of an egg hangs in the Portrait Collection of the Laboratory of Pathology, which is part of the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. The story behind the painting is that Jan de Doot, a Dutch blacksmith, reported to have performed a successful kidney stone removal on himself in 1651.
Carel van Savoyen works can be found in the Hessisches Landesmuseum in Darmstadt, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux, the Greek orthodox chapel in Leipzig and in the old Catholic church of Zaandam.


Search for the Lost City of Gold

Search For the Lost City of Gold is a 2003 documentary commissioned by The History Channel and Five (UK). It traces Tahir Shah's epic quest for the lost city of Paititi in the Madre de Dios jungle of Peru, to which the Incas fled from the Spanish in 1532. This journey and his TV-hour film also formed the basis for the book House of the Tiger King, as well as the cinematic feature film with the same name. The film was produced by Caravan Film and was directed by Swedish film director David Flamholc.
The History Channel summary: "In the 16th century, Spanish conquistadors swept through Peru in search of great golden treasure. But when they stormed the Incan stronghold of Vilcabamba in 1572, they found the city deserted, burned, and stripped of its wealth. Legend says that the Incas had retreated deep into the jungle and built another magnificent city in an inaccessible quarter of the cloud forest. For more than four centuries, explorers, adventurers, and archaeologists have searched for the gold and riches of the Incas. Now, we follow Tahir Shah, who teams up with Pancho, a Machiguenga warrior who claims that as a youth, he saw massive stone ruins deep in Peru's Madre de Dios jungle. Set against a backdrop of virgin jungle and cloud forest, we join with Shah as he searches for the greatest Lost City of the Americas and the Incan treasure."
This documentary is used as a teaching tool both in jungle leadership and, in the wider context of a corporate environment, in general leadership, problem-solving, and team building. Leading corporations use the documentary as a basis for both leadership seminars and team training.


Caligula (play)

Caligula is a play written by Albert Camus, begun in 1938 (the date of the first manuscript 1939) and published for the first time in May 1944 by Éditions Gallimard. The play was later the subject of numerous revisions. It was part of what the author called the "Cycle of the Absurd", with the novel "The Stranger" (1942) and the essay "The Myth of Sisyphus" (1942). A number of critics have reported the piece to be existentialist; however, Camus always denied belonging to this philosophy. Its plot revolves around the historical figure of Caligula, a Roman Emperor famed for his cruelty and seemingly insane behavior.
About.
The play shows Caligula, Roman Emperor, torn by the death of Drusilla, his sister and lover. In Camus' version of events, Caligula eventually deliberately manipulates his own assassination. (Historically, this event took place January 24, AD 41.)
Here is the theme of the play presented by the author himself (in the U.S. edition of "Theater" in 1957):
"Caligula, a relatively kind prince so far, realizes on the death of Drusilla, his sister and his mistress, that "men die and they are not happy." Therefore, obsessed by the quest for the Absolute and poisoned by contempt and horror, he tries to exercise, through murder and systematic perversion of all values, a freedom which he discovers in the end is no good. He rejects friendship and love, simple human solidarity, good and evil. He takes the word of those around him, he forces them to logic, he levels all around him by force of his refusal and by the rage of destruction which drives his passion for life.
But if his truth is to rebel against fate, his error is to deny men. One cannot destroy without destroying oneself. This is why Caligula depopulates the world around him and, true to his logic, makes arrangements to arm those who will eventually kill him. Caligula is the story of a superior suicide. It is the story of the most human and the most tragic of errors. Unfaithful to man, loyal to himself, Caligula consents to die for having understood that no one can save himself all alone and that one cannot be free in opposition to other men."
Versions of "Caligula".
The final version is the four-act version of 1944, first published jointly with "The Misunderstanding" then published alone in the same year. There is a three-act version of 1941, re-published in 1984, in the compilation "Cahiers Albert Camus". The changes between the versions show the effect of World War II on Camus. The play is the basis for the 2006 German-language opera of the same name by Glanert.


Tactical to Practical

Tactical to Practical with Hunter Ellis is a program that ran from 2003 to 2005 on The History Channel. Each episode documents ways in which technologies utilized by the civilian public were originally developed to serve military purposes. The show is hosted by Hunter Ellis.


Istorichesky Vestnik

Istorichesky Vestnik (, History Herald) was a Russian monthly historical and literary magazine published in Saint Petersburg in 1880-1917.
History.
The magazine was founded by the journalist and scholar Sergey Shubinsky and Alexey Suvorin (as publisher) with a view to "providing the reader, in the most lively and accessible form possible, with the full account of what happens in the historical science and literature both in Russia and in Europe." Part of the Russian history journals' 'triumvirate', alongside "Russky Arkhiv" and "Russkaya Starina", it differed from the other two in making accessibility and fine literary style its main priorities.
Among the prominent contributors to "Istorichesky Vestnik" were Russia's leading historians of the time Nikolai Kostomarov, Konstantin Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Egor Zamyslovsky, Alexander Brückner, Ivan Zabelin, Alexey Korsakov, Leonid Maykov and Rafail Zotov.
The historical belletrists Evgeny Salias De Tournemire, Daniil Mordovtsev, Grigory Danilevsky, Vsevolod Solovyov, Evgeny Karnovich, Pyotr Polevoy, Viktor Burenin, Nadezhda Merder (N. Severin), Rostislav Sementkovsky, as well as authors like Sergey Terpigorev, Pyotr Gnedich and Ieronim Yasinsky were regular contributors to "Istorichesky vestnik". Several stories and sketches by Nikolai Leskov which later came to be considered part of the Russian classics, also first appeared in this magazine.
"Istorichesky Vestnik" had unusually large obituary section, each entry amounting to a comprehensive survey of the deceased author's legacy. Using its position, the magazine managed even to publish Anatoly Faresov's obituary to Nikolai Chernyshevsky, the first time such tribute could be made to an author whose work had been officially banned and whose name was forbidden to be mentioned in the press at the time.
It had also extensive sections on the history of literature, archeology, geology and ethnography. Several important memoirs and diaries, by authors like Viktor Askochensky, Ksenofont Polevoy, Avdotya Panayeva, Vladimir Sollogub, Nikolai Ignatyev and Ilya Arsenyev, were published in "Istorichesky Vestnik".
Boris Glinsky succeeded Shubinsky as editor-in-chief in 1913, the year when the magazine's popularity reached its peak, with the circulation of 13 thousand. In all, 147 volumes came out, each comprising three monthly issues.
2012-present.
In 2012 the magazine was re-launched in Moscow, under the editorship of Anton Gorsky. Its first volume came out as "Issue No. 148"; as of 2014, nine more (Nos. 149-157) followed.


Carl Wurzinger

Carl Wurzinger (1 June 1817, Vienna - 16 March 1883, Vienna) was an Austrian history painter and a Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna.
Life and work.
His father was the caretaker for an estate. In 1832, at the age of fourteen, he became a student at the Academy of Fine Arts. He exhibited his first works in 1844. Three years later, he left Vienna to continue his education in Italy. He remained there for nine years.
Upon his return home in 1856, he became a Professor at the Academy; specializing in history painting. After that point, he concentrated almost exclusively on his teaching, rather than painting. His few works were meticulously done and historically accurate, but received very little critical attention. He was eventually appointed a Senior Professor.
He was named a Knight in the Austrian Order of Franz Joseph and the Bavarian Order of Saint Michael. He was also presented with the Order of St. Gregory the Great.
In 1910, a street in the Währing district of Vienna was named after him.


Adolf Ziegler

Adolf Ziegler (16 October 1892 in Bremen – 18 September 1959 in Varnhalt, today Baden-Baden) was a German painter and politician. He was tasked by the Nazi Party to oversee the purging of what the Party described as "degenerate art", by most of the German modern artists. He was Hitler's favourite painter.
Life.
Born to an architect father and a family of architects on his mother's side, Ziegler was always surrounded by artists. He studied at the Weimar Academy from 1910 under master of technique Max Doerner at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich. However, the First World War interrupted his studies when he signed up to become a front-line officer.
After the war, he settled in Munich and continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich in 1919, where he attended classes by art nouveau artist Angelo Jank. He ultimately achieved the position of professor at the Munich Academy in 1933, when the Nazis came to power. His works fitted the Nazi ideal of "racially pure" art, and, as the President of the Reich Chamber for the Visual Arts, he was entrusted with the task of eliminating avant-garde styles. This he did by expelling Expressionist artists such as Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Writing to Rottluff, he forbade him from any artistic activity "professional or amateur".
Already a member of the Nazi Party in the early 1920s, he met Hitler in 1925 and became one of his advisors in artistic matters. Hitler commissioned Ziegler to paint a memoriam portrait of his niece, Geli Raubal, who had committed suicide. In 1937 he painted the "Judgement of Paris", which Hitler personally acquired some time later, hanging it in his residence at Munich—Hitler later also hung Ziegler's "The Four Elements" at a residence in Munich. It became an overnight sensation through frequent reproduction. This painting was much liked, judging by the enormous numbers of postcards and reproductions of it sold. The Nazi celebrations of the human figure without conflict or suffering were immensely popular. By this time, Ziegler had become the foremost official painter of the Third Reich and was awarded the Golden Party Badge, in recognition for outstanding service to the Nazi Party or State.
Not much is known about his early works except that his early style exhibited modernist forms. Exiled museum director noted in the late thirties that Ziegler was
in former times a modern painter and a zealous admirer of the works of Franz Marc.…His transmutation proceeded by slow degrees.…before he took this position, he was one of the most extreme modern painters, but one of inferior rank.
There are no examples of such early works. He gave up the modern style for a representational and realistic style in the 1920s, during which time he had increased contact with Hitler. Ziegler exhibited eleven canvases at the Great German Art Exhibitions at the House of German Art between 1937 and 1943. A technically accomplished painter, Ziegler was known for mainly floral compositions, genre paintings, allegorical paintings inspired by Greek mythology, portraits, and numerous female nudes. His static, pseudo-classical nudes depicted ideal Aryan figures. In an interview with American playwright Barrie Stavis, Ziegler explained that a painting of a beautiful nude German woman encourages the ideal of a perfect body and gives German men the incentive to have many German children. However, the artistic ‘naturalism’ of the racially pure figures left nothing to the imagination, earning him the disparaging nickname of ‘Meister des Deutschen Schamhaares' ("Master of German Pubic Hair").
Role in the Degenerate Art Exhibition.
Ziegler occupied several important administrative positions during the Third Reich. He was appointed Senator of the Fine Arts at the Reich Chamber of Culture in 1935. Propaganda Minister Goebbels later appointed him to the Presidential Council, then vice-president of the Reich Chamber of Art. Finally, on December 1, 1936, he succeeded architect Eugen Hönig as president of the Chamber of Art, which then had 45,000 members. Ziegler's replacement of Hönig as president was a clear signal of the Reich's growing distaste for nonconformity in the arts.
Ziegler served as the president of the Prussian Academy of Arts in 1937.
Ziegler headed a five-man commission that toured state collections in numerous cities, hastily seizing works they deemed degenerate. The works were then rushed to Munich for installation in the narrow rooms of the Hofgarten arcade for display, including some 16,000 examples of expressionist, abstract, cubist and surrealist works of art. The paintings of such "degenerate" artists, including the works of Max Beckmann and Emil Nolde, were confiscated on Ziegler's orders as head of the sluice commission. Ziegler managed to organize the Degenerate Art Exhibition in Munich in less than two weeks. On July 19, 1937, he opened the exhibition and condemned those museum directors from whose collections the works came and their tolerance of the decadent art. However, his name must not be confused with that of Hans Severus Ziegler, who organized in May 1938 the Entartete Musik or Degenerate music exhibition in Düsseldorf.
During the Second World War, Ziegler was temporarily sent to a prison camp after he publicly expressed doubts about the viability of Hitler's campaign. When Hitler was notified of Ziegler's “defeatist” attitude, he ordered his arrest. Ziegler was arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp for six weeks. However, Hitler personally ordered that he be released from Dachau and be allowed to retire.
Because his paintings were so closely associated with Nazism, Ziegler was unable to successfully revive his career as an artist after the war. He repeatedly petitioned for reappointment to the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich from 1955 to 1958, but was denied because the Academy determined that he initially received the position due to Hitler's personal appointment. There were some reports that Ziegler exhibited works in 1955 at the Ben Uri Gallery in London, but the gallery's records indicate the artist was an “Adolf Zeigler,” a Jewish painter from London, not the German Ziegler. He also wrote a response to Paul Ortwin Rave's first-hand accounts of the Entartete Kunst exhibition in Munich, arguing with Rave's assertions, but experts like Rave were not ready to analyze his standpoint objectively at that time. Unable to revive his career, Ziegler lived quietly in the village of Varnhalt near Baden-Baden for the last years of his life. He died in September 1959, at the age of sixty-six.


Call to Power II

Call to Power II is a PC turn-based strategy game released by Activision as a sequel to "", which itself was named after the "Civilization" series by Sid Meier; this game could not have "Civilization" in its title because the license to the "Civilization" name was lost.
In October 2003, Activision released the source code, enabling the Apolyton gaming community to debug, improve, and add new features. After being unavailable for a long time, the game was re-released in the digital distribution on GOG.com in 2010.
Differences from Civilization: Call to Power.
"Call to Power II" had a number of differences from the previous "Call to Power". Chiefly, the first game was criticized for its user interface, which prompted a redesign for the sequel.
"Call to Power II" also included several gameplay differences. Maximum army size was increased, some balance adjustments were made to avoid the balance problems from the original "Call to Power", and the economic system in "Call to Power II" was reworked so that controlling good terrain became more profitable. Another difference is that the player can receive bonuses for certain achievements, if they are the first to perform the action (recapturing a city, sailing around the world, etc.).
The diplomacy model in "Call to Power II" was improved, with more agreements available for negotiation. Players could, for example, ask the AI controlled civilizations to stop researching some technology, or to reduce their nuclear weapons arsenal.
Space colonization and the space layer were removed from "Call to Power II", along with the "Alien Life Project" victory condition. This was replaced by a new victory condition which requires the player to cover most of the planet's territory with Gaia sensors and build the Gaia controller wonder, winning the game.
Mods.
One significant feature of "Call to Power II" is its support for mods. A large number of game rules are stored in text files, along with many AI scripts. Even more importantly, "Call to Power II" had a fully documented scripting language called SLIC, with a C-like syntax, through which many things about the game could be tweaked. The game came with 3 mods (Classical/Medieval, original Default and Samurai/Mythical Creatures). The sole released patch for "Call to Power II" enhanced the functionality of SLIC, allowing creation of mods that change the game play significantly. The game's community created many mods, with the primary goals of fixing the AI and balance issues that were in the original game. Later, new game play features were incorporated through mods as well. These mods allowed the community to enjoy the game more, as they fixed at least some of the worst problems in "Call to Power II".
Community support.
Source code release.
After Activision ceased to support "Call to Power II", the Apolyton Civilization Site became the de facto support center for the game, being the only active online community of this game and offering help with technical problems. That site is also largely where the modding efforts occurred.
At one point, the members of the Apolyton site contacted Activision and asked them to release the source code to "Call to Power II". After several months of negotiation, Activision agreed and the source code was released in October 2003 exclusively to the Apolyton Civilization Site to allow the community to support the game themselves with community patches. There were limitations to how the source code might be used; for example, no commercial use of anything created with the source base was allowed.
Currently, the source code project is accessible through a Subversion server. Through Apolyton, those wishing to view the source code or wish to modify the code can find the SVN server forum at the Apolyton link below for more information.
The community produced several patches over the years, the last version being rev.1111 from June 2011. However, as of September 2, 2013, the unofficial patches are not meant to be used with the later GOG.com release of the game, without further tweaking.
Critical reception.
John Lee reviewed the PC version of the game for "Next Generation", rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "Yogi Berra said it best: 'It's like deja vu all over again."
"Call to Power II" received mixed reviews. GameSpot awarded 7.2 out of 10, highlighting the improved interface, animations and sound, and the game's replay value. Criticisms included the lack of feedback during diplomacy, lack of tactical control during combat, the shift from city micromanagement to army micromanagement, and weak AI.


Furst Gabriel or Last Days of the Pirita Monastery

Furst Gabriel or Last Days of the Pirita Monastery () is an Estonian historical novelle by Eduard Bornhöhe.
This historical story, first published in 1893, is the last of Eduard Bornhöhe's historical novelles, as in 1893, the Russian Empire's censorship prohibited publication of historical novelles, fearing it might cause too strong patriotic feelings in provincial regions.
The story is set during a Livonian War era peasant uprising. A central plot device is a Catholic nunnery dedicated to St. Brigitta (see Pirita monastery). The monastery's medieval buildings are currently in ruins and considered a museum; however, the organisational structure was restored after end of Soviet occupation.
While other major historical novelles by Eduard Bornhöhe have been included in lists of mandatory reading by Soviet authorities, this book was usually considered too long for that, and thus, it's mostly known through its extremely popular 1969 movie adaptation, "Viimne reliikvia" (Estonian for "The last relic") directed by Grigori Kromanov and adapted by Arvo Valton.


Goat Song

Goat Song (1967) is a novel by Frank Yerby describing ancient Sparta and the Peloponnesian War with Athens.
Plot summary.
Ariston, a Spartan youth undergoing the full extreme of Spartan training, is the hero cursed and blessed by a matchless beauty that was the Hellenic ideal. Wounded during training, he is wrongly accused of carnal relations with his mother. His fellow soldiers regard him as bad luck who the gods have cursed, and refuse to fight alongside him. In battle against the Athenians, when his fellow Hoplites surrender, Aristion refuses and charges the enemy hoping to die. Captured and sold into slavery, he realises that Athens is a centre for culture and knowledge, things denied him during his harsh upbringing. Adopted by a wealthy Athenian knight, he studies under Socrates and learns the art of armour making, becoming a rich man. He earns his freedom and fortune only to face Sparta as an Athenian warrior, outfitting ships and showing reckless bravery in order to impress the Athenians and become one of them. Fighting to achieve Athenian citizenship, it is foretold that if he gains the thing he most desires, he will lose the thing he loves the most. It is only after many years of heartache, battles and death, when he meets the slave girl Cleothera, that he realises that in order to marry her, he must give up his dream of becoming an Athenian citizen. Which will win?
The title, a literal Greek etymology of the word 'tragedy', refers to advice given to Ariston as a desirable young man by a much older mentor: "So dance to the goat song while you can; hark to the panpipes in the hills. Put vine leaves in your hair; drink deeply. Clasp in hot embrace fair youths and maids."


The Manhunter

The Manhunter is an American crime drama that was part of CBS' lineup for the 1974–1975 television season. The series was produced by Quinn Martin and starred Ken Howard as Dave Barret, a 1930s-era private investigator from Idaho.
Synopsis.
The series' premise has Dave going from his parents' farm in Idaho to other parts of the Western and North Central United States to solve crimes, after the death of his best friend during a bank robbery. Using a car which is well stocked with weapons, he hunts down men who were wanted by the law. The series also starred Hilary Thompson as Dave's sister Lizabeth Barret, Ford Rainey as his father, James, Claudia Bryar as his mother, Mary and Robert J. Hogan as Sheriff Paul Tate.
Among the series' guest stars were Michael Constantine, Joan Van Ark, Denver Pyle, Tom Skerritt, Leslie Nielsen, Sam Elliott, Dabney Coleman, Paul Carr, a pre-"Star Wars" Mark Hamill, Linda Marsh, Parley Baer, a pre-"The Simpsons" Jo Ann Harris and Barbara Rhoades. Already known for his portrayal of Thomas Jefferson in "1776", Howard would later become famous playing the main character on "The White Shadow".
"The Manhunter" pilot episode was shown on February 26, 1974. It was then picked up as a regular series by CBS, with its first regular episode being shown 8 months later on September 11, 1974. Although being ranked 19th for the week that it premiered, the series was cancelled by CBS because of stiff competition from ABC's "Get Christie Love!" and NBC's "Petrocelli" with its last regular episode being shown on March 5, 1975. Reruns of the series were then shown until April.


Shootout!

Shootout! was a documentary series featured on The History Channel and ran for two seasons from 2005 to 2006. It depicts actual firefights between United States military personnel and other combatants. There are also occasional episodes dedicated to police or S.W.A.T. team firefights, as well as Wild West shootouts. It also now has a feature of downloading and playing a first-person shooter, developed by Kuma Reality Games, detailing some of the battles. The battles include skirmishes from World War II, the Vietnam War, and the ongoing War on Terror in Afghanistan and during the 2003-2011 Iraq War. Season 1 was produced for The History Channel by Greystone Communications and Season 2 was produced by Flight 33 Productions. The series was created by Dolores Gavin (History Channel) and Louis Tarantino.
Season 2 Episodes.
Produced by Flight 33 Productions, the production team included Executive Producers Louis Tarantino and Douglas Cohen, Producers Samuel K. Dolan, Brian Thompson and Tony Long.
Video game.
WWII\Vietnam is a free episodic first person shooter computer game developed by Kuma Reality Games. It is based on the show's World War II and Vietnam War episodes.


Jan de Herdt

Jan de Herdt, in Italy also called Il fiammingo (Antwerp, c. 1620 – between 1686 and 1690) was a Flemish painter and draughtsman. After training in Antwerp, he spent his entire career abroad, first in Northern Italy and later in Vienna and other cities in central Europe. He was mainly a portrait artist but also painted genre scenes as well as religious, mythological and allegorical subjects. He was part of a network of Flemish and Dutch painters working for the court, aristocracy and ecclesiastical institutions of central Europe.
Life.
Details about the life of Jan de Herdt are sketchy. He is believed to have been born in Antwerp around 1620. It is not clear who was his master. He is not recorded with any of the contemporary painters as a pupil. It is therefore possible that he studied with Rubens or Jordaens, two artists who as court artists were exempted from the requirement to register their pupils with the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke. There exists no documentary evidence for such apprenticeship. It is also possible that he was trained outside of Antwerp. He was admitted as a master in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in the guild year 1646–47. On 18 October 1648 he joined the 'Sodaliteit van de Bejaerde Jongmans' (Sodality of the Unmarried Men of Age), a fraternity for bachelors established by the Jesuit order.
He left Flanders and is subsequently recorded in Northern Italy, where he is documented in Lovere in 1657 as working on an altarpiece for the local church of St George. The large painting depicting is still in situ. He was recorded in Bergamo in 1658 where he painted the for the Santa Maria Maggiore Church, which is still in situ. He is documented in Brescia in 1660–1661. In this location he resided long enough to train the painter Angelo Everardi, who was likely of Flemish descent and was known as il Fiammenghino. Although there is no documentary evidence for this, it is likely that he was also active in Mantua for a while. The artistic direction of the Ducal Court in Mantua had been for decades in the hands of Flemish artists, first Daniel van den Dyck and later Frans Geffels. Geffels was also from Antwerp and had become a member of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke a year earlier than de Herdt. He had then left to work in Italy while also working for periods in, and maintaining links, with Vienna, where both artists are believed to have arrived in the early 1660s. It is likely that the artists knew each other as they both contributed to a collaborative book published in Vienna, the "Historia di Leopoldo Cesare".
Jan de Herdt followed in the footsteps of many of his compatriots of the previous generation who sought a career in Central Europe. The Southern Netherlands had developed a close bond with the Imperial court in Vienna as its Spanish rulers were connected with it through dynastic links. The governors of the Southern Netherlands were often members of the Austrian Imperial family. They occasionally took artists from Flanders back with them when they returned to Vienna after being called back from their post. This was the case with Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, who brought artists such as Jan Anton van der Baren, Franciscus van der Steen and Nikolaus van Hoy back with him to Vienna.
Jan de Herdt's brother had preceded him as he was working in Vienna as a goldsmith to the court and may have been instrumental in introducing Jan to the court in Vienna. While he is believed to have arrived in Vienna around 1660, Jan is first documented in Vienna on 8 January 1662. On that date he signed his name in the ecclesiastical registers of the Schottenkirche (Scottish church) in Vienna as he together with the Flemish engraver Franciscus van der Steen acted as a witnesses at the wedding of the Dutch artist Hans de Jode. Jan de Herdt later collaborated with van der Steen on a series of aristocratic portraits for the publication "Historia di Lepoldo Cesare". Frans Geffels also contributed to this publication. In Vienna, de Herdt painted portraits of courtiers as well as history paintings for their chateaux and palaces. He appears in the business records of Forchondt, a family business of art dealers from Antwerp who served clients throughout Europe and had a branch in Vienna. The son of the founder of the family business trained as a goldsmith with Jan's brother in Vienna. The records of the Forchondt firm show that in 1671 Prince Schwarzenberg bought a painting on the subject of "Armida and Rinaldo", which was likely the by de Herdt (now in the former Augustinian monastery in Brno).
Jan may have been active in Jaroměřice nad Rokytnou (now in the Czech Republic) from the beginning of 1666 to January 1667. From 1666 to 1668 de Herdt worked in Brno. He is recorded in Prague in 1680 where he had accompanied the court when it fled Vienna due to an outbreak of the plague. He was in Třebíč from 1880 to 1881 and, in this last year, also in Znojmo. In 1684 he executed two works for patrons in Prague but these were possibly created elsewhere. The last report of his presence in Jaroměřice nad Rokytnou dates back to 1686. After 1686 there is no more news of the artist.
The exact time and place of his death are not known. There are no records about him after 1686. It is believed he died sometime between 1686 and 1690 in Central Europe.
Work.
Jan de Herdt was a versatile painter who painted portraits, stories from the bible, history paintings and genre scenes. He signed the vast majority of his works with the most widespread variant of his name J. D. Herdt. The most apparent influences on his work are Antwerp's leading painters Anthony van Dyck, Rubens, Jordaens and Caspar de Crayer. The style of de Herdt's portraits shows the influence of the van Dyckian portrait model. This influence is also recognisable in his series of paintings recounting stories from Torquato Tasso's 'Gerusalemme Liberata' such as the .
Jan de Herdt also was aware of trends in Central European painting. This is shown in his (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium). De Herdt's family portrait likely includes a self-portrait in the young man on the left who holds a watch in his left hand and points with his right hand to the floor. Alternatively, this may be a portrait of his nephew. Given the similarities between the two works, de Herdt's family portrait may indicate that he had seen the (National Gallery Prague) painted by the Czech portrait painter Karel Škréta in 1653. This was one of the first group portraits of this kind in Central Europe. In 1669 Tobias Pock painted a in which he depicted himself in a manner that is almost identical to the one used by Jan de Herdt in his family portrait. Pock may have known de Herdt's family portrait. Jan de Herdt along with the above-mentioned artists created an entirely new visual language in Central Europe through this type of communicative group portrait.
Jan de Herdt collaborated on the publication "Historia di Leopoldo Cesare" written by Galeazzo Gualdo Priorato and published in Vienna by the Flemish publisher from Antwerp Johann Baptist Hacque. The first and second volumes of the book were published in 1670 and a third one in 1674. The first volume described the political and military successes of Emperor Leopold I between 1656 and 1670. It was mainly illustrated with prints made by Flemish and Dutch printmakers after designs by other Netherlandish artists as well as artists from Germany and Italy. The illustrations mainly depict portraits of European monarchs and important aristocrats, castle scenes, battle scenes, maps and ceremonies. Apart from Jan de Herdt, the Dutch and Flemish artists who contributed to the work were Frans Geffels, Cornelis Meyssens, Franciscus van der Steen, Gerard Bouttats, Adriaen van Bloemen, Sebastian van Dryweghen and Jacob Toorenvliet. German artists Moritz Lang, Johann Martin Lerch and Johann Holst and Italians Il Bianchi, Marco Boschini and Leonardus Hen.t Venetiis also contributed.
Jan de Herdt contributed at least six designs for portraits: Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski, Duke Ferdinand Dietrichstein, Count Jean-Louis Raduit de Souches, Count Raimund Montecuccoli, Count Jan Rottal and Count Nicholas Zrinsky. The prints designed by de Herdt in this publication have been used as the basis for attributing paintings to de Herdt. For instance, the (Royal Castle, Warsaw) was attributed in this manner. De Herdt is also the author of a series of portraits of members of the Waldstein family.
The works de Herdt created in Italy are all found in Lombardy. In 1920 the artist's signature was discovered on the altarpiece of the high altar of the Church of Saint Maurice in Breno in Lombardy, northern Italy. The altarpiece depicts "Saint Maurice kneeling before the Virgin and Child." There was a "Portrait of St. Elizabeth" (now lost) in the Church of St. Francis of Assisi in Brescia. There is an altarpiece depicting the "Virgin in the clouds with Saints Anthony of Padua and Valentine", signed J. De Herdt F. in situ at the Church of San Giovanni Decollato in Desenzano del Garda. Another painting by de Herdt in Lombardy is an altarpiece of preserved in the Church of Saint Georges in Lovere. This work is remarkable for its large size (785 cm high and 500 cm wide) and the movement of the large crowd depicted in it.


The Nest of the Sparrowhawk

The Nest of the Sparrowhawk: "A Romance of the XVIIth Century" was written by Baroness Orczy, author of "The Scarlet Pimpernel", in 1909.
Plot summary.
Set in puritan Kent in 1657, the story focuses on the intrigues of Sir Marmaduke de Chevasse "as stiff a Roundhead as ever upheld my Lord Protector and his Puritanic government", who is determined to secure the vast fortunes of his lovely ward, Lady Sue, for himself.
Sue presents a girlish figure; she is young, alert and vigorous. The charm of her own youth and freshness even means she looks dainty and graceful in clothes that disfigure her elders. She enjoys the adulation which her appearance guarantees, laughing and chattering with the women and teasing the men.
She does of course have plenty of admirers, including young Richard Lambert who worships her with protective reverence.
Sir Marmaduke who has plans to woo and win Lady Sue disguised as the exiled French Prince of Orléans, resents this faithful espionage and lays a plot to lure young Lambert to a gaming-house in London. Richard knows that gambling is an illicit pastime and that he is breaking the law, but is compelled to take his seat at the table by his employer.
Richard is then duped into taking part in a brawl and is summarily arrested leaving the way open for Marmaduke to carry out his cowardly deception and he soon tricks Sue into marrying him.
Sir Marmaduke persuades his widowed sister-in-law to abet him in this plot, in which she unwittingly disgraces one of her long lost sons and finds the other murdered by the villain.
Though set in a completely different kind of background, the plot has some resemblance with the Sherlock Holmes story "A Case of Identity".


Big Trouble (Lukas book)

Big Trouble: A Murder in a Small Western Town Sets Off a Struggle for the Soul of America is a 1997 non-fiction book by J. Anthony Lukas, published by Simon & Schuster. The book discusses the assassination of Frank Steunenberg in 1905 and the resulting trial.
Background.
As part of his research Lukas used historical documents with the total number of pages numbering in the thousands.
Lukas committed suicide while in the process of finishing the last revision. Clyde Haberman of "The New York Times" reported that "several friends" stated he felt severe depression, with his agent Amanda Urban stating that Lukas believed the book was inadequate, even though Urban felt this was not the case.
Contents.
The book, with about 875 pages, discusses private detective organizations like the Pinkertons who worked against organized labor as well as the livelihood of Steunenberg.
Dan Nailen of the "Moscow-Pullman Daily News" described the murder trial as the work's "centerpiece" and that other stories have "incredible detail and research".
Reception.
It was a finalist for the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for History.
Richard Lingeman in "The New York Times" wrote that the author "excavated a stratum of American history, tracing the fault line of class that sundered society in another time, and persists in our own." Lingeman stated that the ending portion is "more problematic" compared to the rest of the book due to presenting "tenuous" evidence that William D. Haywood had committed the crime.
Nailen wrote that the book had "richly detailed history" and highlighted "Lukas' ability to act as detective and editor in putting the tale together in an accurate and compelling way." Nailen also stated that the "best and worst part" of the work is the author having an "obsession with telling the whole story". "Kirkus Reviews" wrote that the book was "a fitting epitaph for" the deceased author and that it is "Provocative, maddening, deeply disturbing", but that there is "excessive detail" due to a lack of a "coherent story line".


Augustin-Louis Belle

Augustin-Louis Belle (1757, Paris - 12 January 1841, Paris) was a French history painter in the Classical style. He also created some portraits.
Family.
He came from a long line of painters; including his father Clément Belle, grandfather Alexis Simon Belle and great-grandfather, Jean-Baptiste Belle (before 1642-1703).
Rome.
He was awarded second prize in the Prix de Rome of 1783 for his "Parable of the Prodigal Son". However, after he went to Rome, he was unable to enter the Academy of France due to lack of space. It was not until 1785 that he was given room and board, courtesy of his relative, the engraver Charles-Nicolas Cochin, who exerted his influence to get him in. At the time, this was kept secret. For some unknown reason, his lodgings were searched during the affair involving Count Cagliostro. He left Rome shortly thereafter, in 1790.
While there, he sent home only one painting; "Tobias Giving Sight to His Father" (1788).
Return to France.
Upon returning to France, he exhibited the "Marriage of Ruth and Boaz" in 1791. He was appointed director of the Gobelins Manufactory in 1793. As one of his first acts, he gathered together tapestries that contained Royal coats-of-arms and other symbols of the Monarchy and burned them at the , in what he considered to be a show of support for the Revolution. He was also able to negotiate and come to terms with the workers at the Manufactory who had gone on strike to protest being paid in assignats.
When the position of Director was abolished, he resumed painting; specializing in subjects from antiquity. In 1806, he became Chief Inspector at the Manufactory, succeeding his father, who had held the position since 1755. He remained there for only ten years, however, resigning in 1816 during the early years of the Bourbon Restoration. After that time, he apparently retired from painting.


The Destructive War

The Destructive War: William Tecumseh Sherman, Stonewall Jackson, and the Americans is a book written by Charles Royster. The book was published in 1993 by Vintage Books. "The Destructive War" details the lives of William Tecumseh Sherman and Stonewall Jackson and their respective roles in the American Civil War. Through these dual biographies, Royster explores the meaning of patriotism in the face of war and bloodshed.
Awards.
1992 Bancroft Prize
1992 Charles S. Sydnor Award
1992 Lincoln Prize
Reception.
"One of the most original and stimulating books on the Civil War in many years."
"An illuminating interpretation."
"Royster’s intriguing analyses fill every page with new information and offer a fresh interpretation of our bloodiest conflict…exhaustively researched, artistically written, brilliantly argued."
"A fascinating history of the ideas held by the people who fought the war…fresh, intriguing, philosophical."
"Royster’s intriguing analyses fill every page with new information and offer a fresh interpretation of our bloodiest conflict…exhaustively researched, artistically written, brilliantly argued."


Eroii de la Rovine

Eroii de la Rovine ("The Heroes of Rovine") is a one-act opera composed by Nicolae Bretan. The libretto is by Bretan, based on the poem "Scrisoarea III" (Letter III) by Mihai Eminescu, inspired by the Battle of Rovine between Wallachia and the Ottoman Empire. The piece received its world premiere on 24 January 1935 at the Romanian Opera, Cluj, where it was revived in 1987.
Instrumentation.
The opera is scored as follows:
Synopsis.
Mircea the Old's rule over Moldavia is threatened by the Ottoman sultan Baiazid. Peace negotiations are fruitless: the sultan demands total surrender and Mircea vows to fight to the death. In the next scene, the chorus describes the ensuing battle, Mircea's victory, and the heroism of Mihail, Mircea's son. The opera ends as Mihail writes a letter to his wife, detailing the army's triumph and promising to return home.


Death on the Nile (video game)


Henry VIII (play)

Henry VIII is a collaborative history play, written by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher, based on the life of Henry VIII. An alternative title, , is recorded in contemporary documents, with the title not appearing until the play's publication in the First Folio of 1623. Stylistic evidence indicates that individual scenes were written by either Shakespeare or his collaborator and successor, John Fletcher. It is also somewhat characteristic of the late romances in its structure. It is noted for having more stage directions than any of Shakespeare's other plays.
During a performance of "Henry VIII" at the Globe Theatre in 1613, a cannon shot employed for special effects ignited the theatre's thatched roof (and the beams), burning the original Globe building to the ground.
Characters.
"At the Legatine Court"
"At Bullen's coronation"
"At Elizabeth's christening"
Synopsis.
The play opens with a Prologue (by a figure otherwise unidentified), who stresses that the audience will see a serious play, and appeals to the audience members: "The first and happiest hearers of the town," to "Be sad, as we would make ye."
Act I opens with a conversation between the Dukes of Norfolk and Buckingham and Lord Abergavenny. Their speeches express their mutual resentment over the ruthless power and overweening pride of Cardinal Wolsey. Wolsey passes over the stage with his attendants, and expresses his own hostility toward Buckingham. Later Buckingham is arrested on treason charges—Wolsey's doing.
The play's second scene introduces King Henry VIII, and shows his reliance on Wolsey as his favourite. Queen Katherine enters to protest about Wolsey's abuse of the tax system for his own purposes; Wolsey defends himself, but when the King revokes the Cardinal's measures, Wolsey spreads a rumour that he himself is responsible for the King's action. Katherine also challenges the arrest of Buckingham, but Wolsey defends the arrest by producing the Duke's Surveyor, the primary accuser. After hearing the Surveyor, the King orders Buckingham's trial to occur.
At a banquet thrown by Wolsey, the King and his attendants enter in disguise as masquers. The King dances with Anne Bullen.
Two anonymous Gentlemen open Act II, one giving the other an account of Buckingham's treason trial. Buckingham himself enters in custody after his conviction, and makes his farewells to his followers and to the public. After his exit, the two Gentlemen talk about court gossip, especially Wolsey's hostility toward Katherine. The next scene shows Wolsey beginning to move against the Queen, while the nobles Norfolk and Suffolk look on critically. Wolsey introduces Cardinal Campeius and Gardiner to the King; Campeius has come to serve as a judge in the trial Wolsey is arranging for Katherine.
Anne Bullen is shown conversing with the Old Lady who is her attendant. Anne expresses her sympathy at the Queen's troubles; but then the Lord Chamberlain enters to inform her that the King has made her Marchioness of Pembroke. Once the Lord Chamberlain leaves, the Old Lady jokes about Anne's sudden advancement in the King's favour.
A lavishly-staged trial scene (Act II Scene 4) portrays Katherine's hearing before the King and his courtiers. Katherine reproaches Wolsey for his machinations against her, and refuses to stay for the proceedings. But the King defends Wolsey, and states that it was his own doubts about the legitimacy of their marriage that led to the trial. Campeius protests that the hearing cannot continue in the Queen's absence, and the King grudgingly adjourns the proceeding. (Act III) Wolsey and Campeius confront Katherine among her ladies-in-waiting; Katherine makes an emotional protest about her treatment.
Norfolk, Suffolk, Surrey, and the Lord Chamberlain are shown (Act III Scene 2) plotting against Wolsey. A packet of Wolsey's letters to the Pope have been re-directed to the King; the letters show that Wolsey is playing a double game, opposing Henry's planned divorce from Katherine to the Pope while supporting it to the King. The King shows Wolsey his displeasure, and Wolsey for the first time realises that he has lost Henry's favour. The noblemen mock Wolsey, and the Cardinal sends his follower Cromwell away so that Cromwell will not be brought down in Wolsey's fall from grace.
The two Gentlemen return in Act IV to observe and comment upon the lavish procession for Anne Bullen's coronation as Queen, which passes over the stage in their presence. Afterward they are joined by a third Gentleman, who updates them on more court gossip – the rise of Thomas Cromwell in royal favour, and plots against Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury. (Scene 2) Katherine is shown ill; is told of Wolsey's death; has a vision of dancing spirits. Caputius visits her. Katherine expresses her continuing loyalty to the King, despite the divorce, and wishes the new queen well.
Act V. The King summons a nervous Cranmer to his presence, and expresses his support; later, when Cranmer is shown disrespect by the King's Council, Henry reproves them and displays his favour of the churchman. Anne Bullen gives birth to a daughter, the future Queen Elizabeth. In the play's closing scenes, the Porter and his Man complain about trying to control the massive and enthusiastic crowds that attend the infant Elizabeth's christening; another lush procession is followed by a prediction of the glories of the new born princess's future reign and that of her successor. The Epilogue, acknowledging that the play is unlikely to please everyone, asks nonetheless for the audience's approval.
Sources.
As usual in his history plays, Shakespeare relied primarily on Raphael Holinshed's "Chronicles" to achieve his dramatic ends and to accommodate official sensitivities over the materials involved. Shakespeare not only telescoped events that occurred over a span of two decades, but jumbled their actual order. The play implies, without stating it directly, that the treason charges against the Duke of Buckingham were false and trumped up; and it maintains a comparable ambiguity about other sensitive issues. The disgrace and beheading of Anne Boleyn (here spelled "Bullen") is carefully avoided, and no indication of the succeeding four wives of Henry VIII can be found in the play. However, Catherine of Aragon's plea to Henry before the Legatine Court seems to have been taken straight from historical record.
Date.
Most modern scholars date "Henry VIII" to 1613, the year in which the Globe Theatre burned down during one of the play's earliest known performances. One contemporary report states that the play was new at the time of the fire, having "been acted not passing 2 or 3 times before".
Despite this evidence, there has been much debate about the date of the work. Nicholas Rowe in 1709 wrote that the play must date from after the death of Elizabeth in 1603 because its "E[u]logy upon Q. Elizabeth, and her Successor K. James, in the latter end of his Henry VIII, is a Proof of that Play's being written after the Accession of the latter of those two Princes to the Crown of England". Rowe was writing before the discovery of the document on the 1613 fire, which was first published by the 18th century scholar Thomas Tyrwhitt and seemed to confirm his view.
However, several 18th- and 19th-century scholars, including Samuel Johnson, Lewis Theobald, George Steevens, Edmond Malone, and James Halliwell-Phillipps, dated the play's composition to before 1603. Malone suggested that the brief passage in praise of James was probably added for a performance during his reign but that the extended glorification of Elizabeth implies that it was intended for her ears. James "hated her memory", so such praise was not likely to have been written under him. Malone mistook the 12 Feb 1604 Stationer's Register entry of "the Enterlude of K. Henry VIII" (Samuel Rowley's "When You See Me You Know Me", 1605) as Shakespeare's play, and he argued that the reference to the newness of the play in 1613 derived from the fact that it had been expanded with a new prologue and epilogue, perhaps written by Ben Jonson. In fact, Shakespeare's play was first registered on 8 November 1623, along with 15 other previously unpublished works, in preparation for the publication of the 1623 "First Folio". Halliwell-Phillipps also took the view that the play performed in 1613 was an altogether different work.
These views are no longer held by most modern scholars. Plays offering positive portrayals of major Tudor figures like Henry VIII ("When You See Me You Know Me") and Queen Elizabeth ("If You Know Not Me, You Know Nobody" by Thomas Heywood, 1605) were in fact performed, published, and re-published throughout the Stuart era. Since the play is now generally believed to be one of Shakespeare's collaborations with John Fletcher, the 1613 date is consistent with other such collaborations.
Authorship.
The play was published as the work of Shakespeare, and was accepted as such by scholars until 1850, when the possibility of collaboration with John Fletcher was first raised by James Spedding, an expert on Francis Bacon. Fletcher was the writer who replaced Shakespeare as the principal playwright of the King's Men. He is known to have collaborated with Shakespeare on other plays, but there is no contemporary evidence of it for this play; the evidence lies in the style of the verse, which in some scenes appears closer to Fletcher's typical style than Shakespeare's. It is also not known whether Fletcher's involvement can be characterised as collaboration or revision, though the apparent division of scenes between the writers strongly suggests the former.
Spedding and other early commentators relied on a range of distinctive features in Fletcher's style and language preferences, which they saw in the Shakespearean play. For the next century the question of dual authorship was controversial, with more evidence accumulating in favour of the collaborative hypothesis. In 1966, Erdman and Fogel could write that "today a majority of scholars accept the theory of Fletcher's partial authorship, though a sturdy minority deny it."
An influential stylistic or stylometric study was undertaken by Cyrus Hoy, who in 1962 divided the play between Shakespeare and Fletcher based on their distinctive word choices, for example Fletcher's uses of "ye" for "you" and "'em" for "them". In the mid-nineteenth century, James Spedding had proposed a similar division based on the use of eleven-syllable lines; he arrived at the same conclusions Hoy would reach a century later. The Spedding-Hoy division is generally accepted, although subsequent studies have questioned some of its details.
The most common delineation of the two poets' shares in the play is this:
Performance.
"Henry VIII" is believed to have been first performed as part of the ceremonies celebrating the marriage of Princess Elizabeth in 1612–1613, although the first recorded performance was on 29 June 1613. The performance is especially noteworthy because of the fire that destroyed the Globe Theatre during the performance, as described in several contemporary documents. These confirm that the fire took place on that date. One often reported tradition associated with the play involves John Downes, promptor of the Duke of York's Company from 1662 to 1706. In his "Roscius Anglicanus" (1708), Downes claims that the role of Henry VIII in this play was originally performed by John Lowin, who "had his instructions from Mr. Shakespeare himself."
Fifteen years to the day after the fire, on 29 June 1628, The King's Men performed the play again at the Globe. The performance was witnessed by George Villiers, the contemporary Duke of Buckingham (no relation to or descendant of the Duke of Buckingham portrayed in the play), who left half-way through, once the play's Duke of Buckingham was executed. (A month later, Villiers was assassinated.)
During the Restoration era, Sir William Davenant staged a production, starring Thomas Betterton, that was seen by Pepys. Thomas Betterton played Henry in 1664, and Colley Cibber revived it frequently in the 1720s. Subsequent stagings of the play by David Garrick, Charles Kean, Henry Irving (who chose to play Wolsey, the villain and perhaps the showier role of the play, in 1888, with Ellen Terry as the noble Katherine of Aragon). The longest Broadway run the play has had is Herbert Beerbohm Tree's 1916 production in which Lyn Harding played Henry and Tree played Wolsey, running 63 performances. Tree's production was notable for its elaborate exploitation of the play's pageantry, typical of the expensive and spectacular staging of the era. The production subsequently toured, with Sydney Greenstreet taking over the title role.
Modern revivals.
The play's popularity has waned in the mid twentieth century, although Charles Laughton played Henry at Sadler's Wells Theatre in 1933 and Margaret Webster directed it as the inaugural production of her American Repertory Company on Broadway in 1946 with Walter Hampden as Wolsey and Eva Le Gallienne as Katherine. John Gielgud played Wolsey, Harry Andrews the king and Edith Evans Katharine at Stratford in 1959.
Another notable production was the first at the reconstructed Shakespeare's Globe from 15 May to 21 August 2010, as part of the theatre's first season of Shakespeare's history plays, with cannon fire at the same point as the 1613 production and a cast including Dominic Rowan as Henry, Miranda Raison as Anne, Ian McNeice as Wolsey and Kate Duchêne as Katherine (with Raison also playing Anne in the same season's "Anne Boleyn"). It was staged at the Folger Shakespeare Theatre (Washington, D.C.) from 12 October until 28 November 2010; this production added a puppeter-narrator, played by Louis Butelli, named for Henry VIII's jester, Will Sommers, as well as the character of Mary I, played by Megan Steigerwald. A remount of that production also played at Alabama Shakespeare Festival in 2012.
In July 2013, the Hudson Shakespeare Company of New Jersey mounted a production as part of their annual Shakespeare in the Parks series. While director Jon Ciccarelli set the production in the Tudor period, he adapted the script to provide a more modern spin to the wives by fleshing out the role of Anne Bullen and stressing the plight of Queen Katherine of Aragon. Katherine (Noelle Fair) spoke the play's prologue and Anne (Emily Ludolph) spoke the epilogue, having the wives bookend the play. In the original play text, Anne is presented as a passive, almost divine figure that great events happen around and she and Katherine never meet. Here, she was given more lines, some usually spoken by a gentleman commenting on the Buckingham execution to give the character more of a presence in the show. The production also introduced several dumb shows, set to period music, showing the development of Henry and Anne's relationship and his distancing from Katherine. Anne was made one of Katherine's waiting women that led to a minor but tense stand off scene as a song usually given to a minor character was sung by Anne in front of the enraged Queen Katherine.
In 2019 the play was done in repertory at the Studio Theatre at Canada's Stratford Festival, for only the fourth time in its history. Renowned Canadian actress Martha Henry was chosen to direct. In preparation for directing a play with which she was unfamiliar, she began to read up on the king and his times, declaring "Alison Weir was my bible".
The cast included Jonathan Goad as Henry VIII, Rod Beattie as Cardinal Wolsey, Irene Poole as Queen Katherine and Alexandra Lainfiesta as Anne Boleyn. As with the production mentioned above from the Hudson Shakespeare Company, Henry's production also emphasised the roles of the two queens, giving them more agency and insight into to their characters, as well as including a brief scene where a glowering Katherine stands behind Anne as she sings a song. The production was filmed by Cineplex for broadcast in theatres;
it has also aired on CBC in Canada and can be viewed through the CBC Gem website and app.


Life and Nothing But

Life and Nothing But () is a 1989 French film directed by Bertrand Tavernier. It was inspired by the novel by Albanian writer Ismail Kadare titled "The General of the Dead Army".
Synopsis.
Set in October 1920, it tells the story of Major Delaplane, a man whose job is to find the identities of unknown dead soldiers after World War I. He encounters two women looking for their lost men: Irène, an aristocrat, and Alice, a country girl. The movie is a sensitive examination of the deep psychological scars left behind by the war, clear of sentiment yet with delicately nuanced irony.
Awards.
The film was nominated for numerous awards. It won the "BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language". It was also nominated for 11 "César Awards", winning for Best Actor ("Philippe Noiret") and Best Music.


Confederates in the Attic

Confederates in the Attic (1998) is a work of non-fiction by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tony Horwitz. Horwitz explores his deep interest in the American Civil War and investigates the ties in the United States among citizens to a war that ended more than 130 years previously. He reports on attitudes on the Civil War and how it is discussed and taught, as well as attitudes about race.
Among the experiences Horwitz has in the book:
When published, "Confederates in the Attic" became a bestseller in the United States. "The New York Times" described it as intellectually honest and humorous, saying Horwitz seemed uncomfortable placed between two sides, seeking peace between the factions.
Toward the end of the chapter on Alberta Martin, Horwitz claims that Martin's Confederate husband was a deserter. In response, in 1998 the Southern Legal Resource Center sued Horwitz on Martin's behalf, with encouragement from the Sons of Confederate Veterans. It noted that two other William Martins were on the rolls of the same company as Alberta's husband. In addition, the SLRC claimed that Horwitz had ridiculed her in his book.
In 2000 the University of North Carolina's Chapel Hill campus added "Confederates in the Attic" to its freshman reading list.


A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote

"A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote" is a special reunion episode of the television series "The West Wing". The episode was a recreation of the season 3 episode "Hartsfield's Landing", shot at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, California. It was released on October 15, 2020, on HBO Max.
Production.
In August 2020, it was announced that cast members Martin Sheen, Rob Lowe, Dulé Hill, Allison Janney, Richard Schiff, Bradley Whitford and Janel Moloney would reprise their roles for a stage version of the episode "Hartsfield's Landing". The episode was intended to raise awareness and support for "When We All Vote", a nonprofit organization founded by Michelle Obama, Lin-Manuel Miranda and others to increase participation in United States elections. Production began in early October 2020 at Los Angeles' Orpheum Theatre and the episode was released on October 15 on HBO Max. On October 27, 2020, HBO Max made the special viewable for free to non-subscribers until the end of 2020.
The role of Leo McGarry was performed by Sterling K. Brown; John Spencer, who had originally played the role, died in 2005. Emily Procter read the stage directions, a choice Ben Travers from "IndieWire" found "odd", but speculated her background as a guest actress playing a Republican (Ainsley Hayes) could be a factor. "A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote" includes special material written by Aaron Sorkin and Eli Attie and was directed by Thomas Schlamme, and music was performed by "The West Wing" composer W. G. Snuffy Walden and The Avett Brothers.
Act breaks.
The act breaks within the show featured several guest appearances to encourage voter turnout in the 2020 United States elections. Co-founder of "When We All Vote" Michelle Obama appeared in the first act break, rallying general voter turnout and asking for voters to tell their friends and family to vote. The tone of the act breaks were then set by Rob Lowe and Allison Janney, who said the priorities were to "clear up some confusion, provide some information, and who knows, possibly some inspiration."
Dulé Hill and Elisabeth Moss encouraged people between the ages of 18–24 (a demographic that has a low voter turnout) to vote, arguing that their future and prosperity depended on the outcome of the election. Moss played Zoey Bartlet on the show but the character did not make an appearance in the episode.
Samuel L. Jackson also made an appearance, emphasizing that Americans should be better than some of the rhetoric being used at the time, such as antiscience attitudes during the COVID-19 pandemic and prejudice towards African-Americans. While he conceded that "The West Wing" is an "unattainable TV fantasy", Jackson questioned why this had to be the case and added that American politics should still be above hate. Jackson argued at the end that voting in that election was a way to show opposition to this hate.
Bradley Whitford talked about the logistics of voting with Marlee Matlin, who played Joey Lucas on the show (her character did not make an appearance in the episode). To "clarify misconceptions about voting", they expressed that while the process may seem confusing, or open to fraud, that voting should be easy and that there are ways to get questions about voting answered.
Co-founder of "When We All Vote" Lin-Manuel Miranda, after a sketch with Janel Moloney contrasting "The West Wing" with "Hamilton: An American Musical" (which was written by Miranda), assured the audience that though the process of counting votes may take time due to the high number of absentee ballots in the election, the process was fair and open and that it did not mean widespread electoral fraud was taking place.
Former president Bill Clinton reminded the public of the steps taken by various administrations (including his) to protect voting rights in the United States, but argued that the "Shelby County v. Holder" decision that partially struck down the Voting Rights Act of 1965 let states and counties suppress voter turnout, particularly through mail-in ballots. He used this to encourage the public to vote regardless, reasoning that "if your vote really doesn't matter, why are people so very hard working so hard to make sure you don't cast it? Because it does matter– there's real power in your vote. The power to make our union more perfect."
Dulé Hill and Sterling K. Brown, both African-American actors, argued that African-Americans in particular need to increase their voter turnout, musing that "even at the height of Black Lives Matter, too many young black men think elections don't matter." They said that even though there were numerous institutions acting to keep black people from voting, they told the viewers "Don't listen to those who are dying for you to sit on your hands."
Reaction.
Reception of the episode was generally positive. Brian Lowry, writing for CNN, characterized the special as to "approximate the experience of watching a stage play, only with a best-seat-in-the-house view," including "shooting the performers from behind and revealing the rows and rows of empty seats," what Lowry considered "a poignant reminder of what's been lost on the theatrical front since the pandemic began."
Patrick Gomez of "The A.V. Club" wrote that "the special always stays on the right side of being a Very Special Episode" and gave it a grade of "A-".
Ben Travers from "IndieWire" considers the episode "a reimagining of a strong television episode", and said that "the new version of "Hartsfield's Landing" plays out beautifully."
Daniel Fienberg of "The Hollywood Reporter"s summary read "[a] solid recreation of a solid episode for a solid cause".


Dionysios Tsokos

Dionysios Tsokos (Greek: Διονύσιος Τσόκος; c. 1814/1820 in Zakynthos – 1862 in Athens) was a Greek painter; one of the first to gain recognition in the post-Ottoman period. He is mostly known for portraits and historical scenes which combine elements from the Heptanese School with Italian styles.
Biography.
His parents came from Epirus. He took his first painting lessons from Nikolaos Kantounis. who was living in exile on a small island near Cephalonia. Kantounis not only taught him to paint, but infused him with nationalistic feelings as well.
His activities over the next few years are unclear, but by 1844, he was in Venice, attending classes taught by Ludovico Lipparini, who first suggested that Tsokos concentrate on portraits and history painting. In 1845, he had his first public exhibition at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia.
He returned to Greece in 1847, settling in Athens, where he created a series of popular paintings related to the War of Independence and the years immediately after. From 1850 to 1860, he was commissioned to paint portraits of many prominent personalities, including professors at the University of Athens. In 1856, he was appointed professor of design and painting at the "Arsakeio", a school operated by the "Society for Education". That same year, he held a major exhibition of his portraits at the Athens School of Fine Arts.
He died under mysterious circumstances in 1862, the year that King Otto was overthrown. At the time, he was working on a commission to produce portraits of heroes from the War of Independence. The finished portraits are in the National Gallery. The unfinished sketches are in the collection of the Benaki Museum.