Societal challenges meet historical precedents

1690 media was conceived from a desire to bring past experience to bear on modern problem solving. News analysis and policy discussion so often seem “orphaned.” Current challenges are approached as though they have no genealogy. They often do.

A significant, self-limiting intellectual challenge we often encounter is the assumption that we are better, smarter and all-around more advanced than our ancestors, as though Aristotle, Galileo, Blaise Pascal, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, or any other figure from history were less intelligent than us. Often, the simplest person in the smallest town can teach us a lesson about living and problem-solving.

The overarching mission of 1690 media is to explore how our ancestors wrestled with the same challenges we face. The stories we tell are exciting, infuriating, heart warming, heart breaking, sometimes confusing, but always full of insights.

Subscribe and join us for 1690’s inaugural article on December 8th and weekly thereafter.

J. Steven Bromwich, investigative journalist, criminal investigator, ethicist, historian