18th century… Bandits and Robbers of India 9 Feb 20199 Feb 2019 By Stephen Basdeo During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the British East India Company established a number of fortified trading settlements—“factories”—in various parts of the Indian subcontinent. The trading company…
18th century… The Meaning of ‘Mafia’ 19 Oct 201819 Oct 2018 By Stephen Basdeo The early 1860s in Italy was a decade of hope. King Victor Emmanuel II of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia had, with Giuseppe Garibaldi’s help, unified the whole…
19th Century… Outlaws vs. Vampires 22 Jun 2018 By Stephen Basdeo Vampires first appeared in English popular culture with the publication of Robert Southey’s epic narrative poem Thalaba the Destroyer (1801). Thalaba’s bride, Oneiza, dies on their wedding…
Ancient History… Dimas and Gestas: Bandits Crucified with Christ 13 Jun 2018 By Stephen Basdeo Banditry and outlawry always flourish whenever and wherever the state is weak and/or unwilling to enforce its laws. Medieval England is a prime example of this, and…
11th Century… The Virgin and the Outlaw 5 Jun 2018 By Stephen Basdeo In modern popular culture, heroes often possess some supernatural powers, or at other times they are so skilled at what they do that their superiority often appears…
17th century… “Robin Hood’s Rescue of the Three Squires” and the Political Economy of Banditry 30 Mar 2018 Many Robin Hood ballads were printed as broadsides during the seventeenth century. The majority of them depict Robin Hood as a rather inept outlaw who, every time he stops somebody,…
