History

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

Dark Night Rises: Ed Simon’s Alternative History of Pittsburgh
Phillip Maciak reviews Ed Simon's An Alternative History of Pittsburgh, a panoramic narrative of the city from Belt Publishing
Phillip MaciakJun 5, 2021
- History
Alchemy Under the Hood
Joe Stadolnik reviews Jennifer M. Rampling's history of alchemy, "The Experimental Fire: Inventing English Alchemy, 1300–1700."
Joe StadolnikMay 12, 2021
- History
The Cold War Industry: On Louis Menand’s “The Free World” and Anne Searcy’s “Ballet in the Cold War”
Harlow Robinson weighs “The Free World” by Louis Menand against “Ballet in the Cold War” by Anne Searcy.
Harlow RobinsonMay 7, 2021
- History
Epidemics in History: Of Vaccines and Saints
John H. Arnold argues that 14th-century voices can help us understand and respond to COVID-19.
John H. ArnoldMay 3, 2021
- History
Ayn Rand, Live from Los Angeles
From a movie set extra to a famous Red Scare crusader in Los Angeles.
Amelia PollardApr 22, 2021
- History
No Hedging: On Elizabeth Catte’s “Pure America”
Elizabeth Catte dusts off forgotten history in her newest book, “Pure America,” reviewed by Anna Aguiar Kosicki.
Anna Aguiar KosickiApr 10, 2021
- History
Those Were the Days
A new book chronicles the pathbreaking film, music, and television of 1974.
Robert Allen PapinchakApr 8, 2021
- History
A Look at Anthropodermic Bibliopegy: On Megan Rosenbloom’s “Dark Archives”
Megan Rosenbloom combines perspectives from history, science, and the rare book world to tell her strange and compelling story.
Christine JacobsonMar 30, 2021
- History
Preserving the Archive
An absorbing history of concerted attacks on knowledge, from book burning to bureaucratic neglect.
Peter B. KaufmanMar 28, 2021
- History
Where Gilded Ages Go to Die: Hollywood Returns to the 1930s and ’40s
A new essay by J. T. Price from the High/Low issue of the LARB Quarterly Journal, No. 29.
J. T. PriceMar 17, 2021
Fascism and Analogies — British and American, Past and Present
Priya Satia on how the fascism analogy may help reveal what fascism always owed to Americanness and to empire.
Priya SatiaMar 16, 2021
- History
Black Germans and the Politics of Diaspora: On Tiffany Florvil’s “Mobilizing Black Germany”
Samuel Clowes Huneke reviews Tiffany Florvil’s “Mobilizing Black Germany: Afro-German Women and the Making of a Transnational Movement.”
Samuel Clowes HunekeFeb 25, 2021