Micro Mention "The Fall of Carthage"

Honestly, before I read this book by Adrian Goldsworthy, "The Fall of Carthage," I had no idea what the Punic Wars were or what Carthage was—but I did know a fair bit about the Roman Empire. So it was surprising to find out that Carthage was an early rival to the empire.

What I find so interesting about the Punic wars is that if a couple rolls of the die went a little different, Rome would have lost it all. Or maybe it would have been significantly reduced. What would history have been like if Carthage was the major power of antiquity instead? It's one of those unanswerable questions but still a fun one to ask.

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Micro Mention "Ancient Civilizations of North America"

"Ancient Civilizations of North America" by the great courses taught by Edwin Barnhart is eye-opening in how little indigenous peoples' culture makes it into the modern zeitgeist. People lived on this land for thousands of years before us, and no, they didn't all live in Tipis and hunt buffalo.

My favorite part of this course was learning about the complex cities that were built and ultimately lost in antiquity. Most ancient cities and ruins of the Americas were thought of as being exclusively in South America, but it isn't true. 

The depressing side of all this is, most of the evidence and artifacts of the ancient civilizations in the north were just obliterated by uncaring European peoples who were "settling" the land and "reeducating" the indigenous populace. So, it isn't that there weren't just as vital and interesting cultures and civilizations in North America as South America. It's just that their annihilation was far more complete in the continental United States, making the story of who they were far more patchy and remembered by smaller, and smaller groups of people living today.