nerd blog

Happy birthday, Frantz Fanon! (July 20, 1925)

One of the most enduring and influential anti-colonial theorists of all time, Frantz Fanon became acquainted with racist colonial violence growing up on the French Caribbean colony of Martinique. During World War II, Fanon enlisted with the Free French forces, and experienced further racism from Europeans during his time fighting fascists on the continent. After the war, he studied psychiatry as his political consciousness continued to grow, and in 1952 he published Black Skin, White Masks, which discussed the psychological impact of colonialism on Black people. He worked as a psychiatrist in Algeria for a time before deciding that he could no longer support the French colonial project in Africa and defected to join Algeria's National Liberation Front in its struggle for freedom. He continued to put out a number of influential texts, including his last and most famous, The Wretched of the Earth. In poor health, Fanon died in 1961 at the tragically young age of 36, but his legacy is outsized for his age, having influenced a bevy of revolutionary figures, including Che Guevara, Malcom X, Kwame Ture, and Huey P. Newton.

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Drought reveals hidden formal gardens at Chatsworth House

Known as ‘The Great Parterre’, the elaborate ornamental garden was created around 1699 for the 1st Duke of Devonshire to complement the newly completed South Front of Chatsworth House. Measuring approximately 473 feet by 227 feet, the formal arrangement of flower beds, gravel paths and intricate swirling patterns reflected the grand garden style that dominated late 17th-century Europe. The historic layout was removed around 1730 during a redesign commissioned by the 3rd Duke of Devonshire, when the parterre was covered over and replaced with a new landscape design. This summer’s exceptionally hot and dry conditions have temporarily brought the lost garden back into view. The contrast has appeared because the grass covering the former flower beds and pathways has shallower root systems than the surrounding areas, causing it to dry out and brown more rapidly during periods of intense heat and drought. The resulting crop marks have revealed the intricate geometry of the original garden beneath the lawn.