One of the key thoughts about history as an educational discipline is the idea that humans, a species that puts so much focus on progress and improvement, could learn from the people and events of the past.
But the fact that we still have wars, plagues, and everything else that’s wrong with the world, reinforcing the another popular idea that history is cyclical, means we have learned very little. At least to an extent that it would be considered significant progress.
Still, the fact that these lessons land on deaf ears doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t continue to try. Incidentally, there is a subreddit called r/DragonUtopia that’s all about showing the interesting parts of history. I use 'interesting' loosely as the content that’s featured there lands somewhere on the spectrum between uneasy, raw, and uncut.
So, while you’re scrolling through our carefully curated list of the best posts the subreddit has to offer, give the various submissions an upvote, encourage discussion, and check out our exclusive interview with the person behind the subreddit, u/myrmekochoria.
#1 The Most Dangerous Animal In The World. Exhibition In The Bronx Zoo, 1960s
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#2 Senegalese Soldier Who Lost Both His Arms Writes A Letter With His New Prosthetic Limbs. At Vocational Rehabilitation School For Amputees, Paris 1918
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#3 Nurse From The "Red Cross" Writing Down Last Words Of Mortally Wounded Soldier, 1917
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#4 Activists Picketing Outside Of A Segregated Swimming Pool, Ohio 1960s
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#5 Viktor Yushchenko Before And After His Poisoning By Vladimir Putin In 2004. He And His Family Believe The Assassination Attempt Was Ordered By Moscow When He Attempted To Steer Ukraine To Closer Integration With Europe
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#6 Theodore Roosevelt's Diary The Day His Wife And Mother Died, 1884
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#7 American World War I Veterans At A Reunion In 1978
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#8 Queen Genepil The Last Queen Consort Of Mongolia. Killed During Stalinist Purges In 1938
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#9 An East German Guard Throws A Ball Back To A Child Playing On The West German Side Of The Berlin Wall. 1962
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#10 Man In A Bar (Saturday Night) In Craigville, Minnesota 1937
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#11 President George W. Bush Is Interrupted By Chief Of Staff Andrew Card While Reading To Schoolchildren In Sarasota, Florida, On September 11th, 2001
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#12 Salvador Dalí Poster For Us Army In Campaign Against Venereal Diseases, 1942
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#13 End Of Prohibition, 1933
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#14 Paris Air Show, September 1909
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#15 Manhattan, 1931
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#16 Robert E. Peary, An Inuit Man Warms Up His Wife’s Feet In Greenland, 1890s
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#17 Abandoned Presidents' Heads In A Rural Virginia Field
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#18 Star Wars Poster In Tokyo, 1978
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#19 A Worker Paints The Golden Gate Bridge, 1956
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#20 The Charred Remains Of The Apollo 1 Cabin Interior. Three Astronauts Died In It: Gus Grissom, Ed White And Roger Chaffee
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#21 Greaser Takes A Break From Working On His Car, Brooklyn 1950s
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#22 Stock Exchange Trader At The End Of The Day On Black Monday, Toronto 1987
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#23 Men Outside The Bar Called “The Squirrel”, Sweden, Stockholm, 1895
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#24 Joaquin Phoenix In 1996
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#25 The Effects Of A Daisy Cutter Bomb, The Bomb Was Designed To Clear An Area For The Helicopter To Land
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#26 An Orthodox Priest In A Deerskin Gizhiga, Russia, 1901
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#27 Bobby Kennedy Taking A Lunch Break At The Bluefield Drive-In, 1960
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#28 Each Day At The End Of The Shift, The Miners Would Have To Go Through The X-Ray Machine For Inspection. Some Miners Would Swallow Diamonds, Even Hide Them In Self-Inflicted Incisions In Their Legs, South Africa 1954
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#29 A Freshly Painted M4 Sherman Tank In An Infrared Lamp Tunnel ,which Is Designed To Cut The Drying Time Of The Paint From 24 Hours To 4 Minutes
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#30 Men Constructing Chicago Sewers, 1912
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#31 Martha Cooper, Man Smoking Cigarette And Reading Comics While Being Tattooed, Tokyo, Japan, 1970
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#32 Tourists Atop The Great Pyramid, 1938
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#33 Swedish Pilots Tanking Saab 105 On The Gas Station, 1980
Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
#34 A Commuter Reads The New York Post’s Rundown Of Black Monday Stock Market Crash, 1987
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Image credits: r/DragonUtopia
