History

"Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history." — George Bernard Shaw

The Land of Dreamers
How a multiethnic neighborhood east of downtown Los Angeles signifies democracy.
Helen CabreraJul 19, 2021
- History
Mistresses of Subterfuge: On Judy Batalion’s “The Light of Days”
Puloma Mukherjee reviews Judy Batalion’s “The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos.”
Puloma MukherjeeJul 17, 2021
- History
“For Freedom, for Fairness”: A Conversation with Judy Batalion
Shani R. Friedman talks to Judy Batalion about the forgotten heroines of the Holocaust.
Shani R. FriedmanJul 17, 2021
- History
Archival Futures: The Archive as a Place and the Place of the Archive
Rethinking the research archive in an age of pandemics and digitization.
Sarath PillaiJul 16, 2021
- History
The Quiet Mysticism of Almanacs
Jess McHugh celebrates the “wonderfully freeing randomness” of the almanac.
Jess McHughJul 11, 2021
- History
Billy Wilder Longs for American Kitsch
Billy Wilder imagined America in writing before he ever set foot in Hollywood.
Parker RichardsJul 10, 2021
- History
The Thief Cannot Prescribe: On Barnaby Phillips’s “Loot: Britain and the Benin Bronzes”
What does art stolen from Africa say about continuing Western attitudes toward the continent?
Nii Ayikwei ParkesJul 7, 2021
- History
The WPA Guides as a Literary School
An engaging history of the nation’s most unlikely travel series.
Tom ZoellnerJul 4, 2021
- History
Our Commerce and Our Freedom, or Why I’m Leaving (for) New York
Events in a city as grand and grotesque as New York owe less to individual actors than to intractable tides.
Travis DiehlJun 25, 2021
- History
How Schemers Built a State
Mark Massaro reviews Jason Vuic’s “The Swamp Peddlers: How Lot Sellers, Land Scammers, and Retirees Built Modern Florida and Transformed the American Dream.”
Mark MassaroJun 21, 2021
- History
When Pop History Bombs: A Response to Malcolm Gladwell’s Love Letter to American Air Power
A grossly simplified view of the United States bombing campaign over Japan in World War II favors dramatic personalities over the reality.
Cary Karacas, David FedmanJun 12, 2021
- History
The Fallacy of Religious Freedom: On Spencer W. McBride’s “Joseph Smith for President”
When the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith ran for president, he wasn’t seeking further glory but a policy change in religious liberty.
Tamarra KemsleyJun 11, 2021
- History