he starts with world war i and takes us through the recent financial crash showing how democracies and american democracy in tickler much from crisis to crisis muddling along, but somehow surviving and outlasting enemies and even thriving. now for the last look. this month marks william shakespeare s 450th birthday and people around the world are celebrating from stratfordians to syrians. yes, syrians. 100 syrian children performed an adaptation of king lear in one of the largest refugee camps located in jordan. the camp is home to over 100,000 syrian refugees over half of whom are under the age of 18. many of the children are not educated and have not read or seen any of shakespeare s work