James Blake Wiener

James Blake Wiener

James Blake Wiener is a world historian, Co-Founder of World History Encyclopedia, writer, and PR specialist, who has taught as a professor in Europe and North America.

Website: worldhistory.org

Swiss on the Titanic

James Blake Wiener 15.04.2024 Over a century after her dramatic demise, the Titanic lingers omnipresent in the human imagination. The stories of the Titanic’s Swiss staff and passengers are a rich kaleidoscope of a maritime disaster and an era on the precipice of tremendous change.
The Titanic leaving the harbor in Southampton.

The Protestants of Locarno

James Blake Wiener 06.02.2024 It’s often forgotten that Locarno was a hotspot of confessional strife. The Locarnese Protestants and their subsequent expulsion in 1555 precipitated significant comment and a high degree of interconfessional distrust among the Swiss Confederates.
Protestant families from Locarno fleeing across Lake Zurich, panel painting from the 17th century.

A Swiss Confederate propagandist

James Blake Wiener 11.01.2024 The life of Henry Hotze is largely unknown in Switzerland. Born in Zürich, Hotze emigrated to the United States. Later, he became the Confederacy's chief propagandist in Europe during the U.S. Civil War.
The troops of the Union (Northern states) fight against the Confederates (Southern states), Battle of Corinth, October 4, 1862, in the American Civil War.

The Ticinese and the Australian Gold Rush

James Blake Wiener 12.12.2023 In August 1854, Giovanni Antonio Palla from Cevio and Tommaso Pozzi from Coglio returned to Ticino after becoming wealthy through mining in the Australian state of Victoria. News of their arrival spread like a wildfire. Though few of the 2000 Ticinese in the Australian Gold Rush of the 1850s would be that lucky, they left a unique imprint upon the country.
Board game called ‘Race to the Gold Diggings’ around 1855.

Finding James Joyce in Zurich

James Blake Wiener 14.11.2023 James Joyce’s impact upon world literature is profound and he wrote a sizable portion of Ulysses in Zürich – a city that he enjoyed immensely and called home several times during his tumultuous life.
James Joyce at his favorite place in Zurich, the confluence of the Sihl and Limmat rivers, 1937.

Switzerland's role in deaf education

James Blake Wiener 19.09.2023 Around 400 years ago, scholars began to address the education of deaf people and developed sign language for the first time. Switzerland played an interesting, complex and perhaps outsized role in this process.
The French pioneer in deaf education, Abbé de l'Eppé, demonstrates the teaching of deaf children in front of the French King Louis XVI.

Matthäus Schiner: A Valaisan at the centre of power

James Blake Wiener 02.03.2023 From peasant’s son to almost Pope: Matthäus Schiner (c. 1465-1522), who came from the Upper Valais, was a decisive figure in European politics during the height of Swiss power in Europe. He remains controversial to this day.
Matthäus Schiner in a portrait from 1784. Background: Letter from Bishop Matthäus Schiner to the envoy in Rome, no date.

The Walser Migrations

James Blake Wiener 22.11.2022 The Walsers migrated outwards to settle and tame uncultivated pastures in the harsh high altitudes of the Alps between c. 1150-1450. This migration represents one of the last great movements of peoples during the Middle Ages, and the legacy of Walser resourcefulness still looms large in Swiss culture.
The former Walser settlement of Sapün, below Arosa GR.