Francis Drake’s departure from Plymouth Sound on November 15, 1577, was the kind of moment that felt suspended between myth and reality. To the people who watched the sparsely lit silhouettes of three small ships push away from the English coast, the sight held more questions than answers. Few knew the mission, fewer still understood …
The city of Nanjing moved like a living organism on the morning of December 13, 1937—a place where street vendors shouted over one another, students hurried to classes, and families prepared meals as though the world outside the city walls was not collapsing. But beneath this surface of everyday life, anxiety churned. For weeks, news …
