By: Miranda Nesler, Editor
Welcome to a new year and an exciting new volume of The History Carnival!
Here at Performing Humanity, we're thrilled to continue the tradition of hosting in January, sharing with readers the best in history blogging from the previous month.
This year begins with concerns about human maladies -- physical and social.
At Contagions, pandemic diseases past and present took center stage; and the December post on "Expanding the Historical Plague Paradigm" asked readers to consider how diseases such as the Black Death might relate to contemporary concerns about anthrax or ebola.
Concerned with human physical interiority, Inside the Science Museum celebrated the 50th anniversary of Dorothy Hodgkin's Nobel Prize. The third female Nobel winner, Hodgkins was involved in developing X-ray techniques for determining the structures of biochemical substances. Her work built on and collaborated with advancements by such luminaries as Alan Turing and Alexander Fleming.
Taking attention toward human value and political conflicts of the past, Jason M. Kelly examined Anti-Slavery sentiment among Manchester textile workers responding to the American Civil War. In doing so, Kelly considers not only the workers' relationship to Abraham Lincoln and
their related correspondence, but the range of political, philosophical, and economic factors motivating the Manchester workers' preference of the Union over the Confederacy.
Over at The History Blog, historians announced the discovery of Morretto de Brescia's long-lost 16th century painting Faith, which was stolen by a priest over 70 years ago. The tale of intrigue reads like something out of a novel and is guaranteed to catch readers' imaginations.
Participating in the movements linked to "Hands up, Don't Shoot" and "Black Lives Matter," The Smithsonian provided a retrospective on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s contributions to Civil Rights; it further considers the work left to be done by future activists, given the "radical paradox" of King's commitment to non-violent protest.
And to end on a festive holiday note, The Quack Doctor amused us with amazing stories about the party tricks of the past. And you thought this last New Year's Eve was wild. Detonating Balls, anyone?
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Performing Humanity thanks The History Carnival for joining with us in collaboration, and we further thank all readers who nominated fantastic work from December 2014.
Interested in suggesting future collaborations for PH? Be sure to get in touch with our Editor.