History

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

The Past Is Now: On Amin Samman’s “History in Financial Times”
John Macintosh charts "History in Financial Times," the new book by Amin Samman.
John MacintoshDec 9, 2020
The Original Sin: On Barnes Carr’s “The Lenin Plot” and Jonathan Schneer’s “The Lockhart Plot”
Douglas Smith investigates two recent books on foreign intervention in the Russian Civil War.
Douglas SmithDec 7, 2020
The Ghosts of Cambridge
Alex Langstaff reviews Jill Lepore’s “If Then” about the Cold War origins of computational data mining and its seedy alliance with behavioral psychology.
Alex LangstaffDec 7, 2020
Performance Anxiety: How Cold War Men’s Adventure Magazines Shaped Soldiers’ (Mis)Understandings of the Vietnam War
Cheap magazine stories may have fueled the way we fought the Vietnam War.
Nicholas UtzigDec 5, 2020
6 Hörlgasse
Sharing spectral moments in Vienna and Los Angeles with Freud, Thomas Mann, and Marjorie Perloff.
Anthony RendonDec 5, 2020
Almost Home
The rebel flag, monuments to the Lost Cause, and beyond: the artifacts of white supremacy are part of the landscape of Atlanta.
Pete CandlerDec 3, 2020
Another Holy Land
Michael Scott Moore reviews D. J. Waldie's new book, "Becoming Los Angeles: Myth, Memory, and a Sense of Place."
Michael Scott MooreDec 3, 2020
- History
- Memoir & Essay
Horton! Thou Should Be Living in This Hour: On Matt Sandler’s “The Black Romantic Revolution: Abolitionist Poets at the End of Slavery”
Derik Smith reviews Matt Sandler’s latest work, “The Black Romantic Revolution.”
Derik SmithDec 1, 2020
The Beheading of Rhodes in Cape Town
Nadia Davids reflects on the sawed-away bust of Cecil Rhodes in light of confrontations with memorials both in Cape Town and across the world.
Nadia DavidsDec 1, 2020
Peak Brain: The Metaphors of Neuroscience
Henry Cowles describes how our technologies anchor our metaphors, which in turn anchor how we think about the brain — and ourselves.
Henry M. CowlesNov 30, 2020
- History
- Science & Technology
Free Yet Flawed: On Sherry L. Smith’s “Bohemians West”
Elaine Elinson reviews “Bohemians West: Free Love, Family and Radicals in Twentieth Century America,” the new dual biography by Sherry L. Smith.
Elaine ElinsonNov 28, 2020
Henry Wallace and the Road Not Taken
The Democrats’ turn away from New Deal economic radicalism toward corporate soft power began in 1944 with the dumping of an influential vice president.
Sammy FeldblumNov 27, 2020
- History
- Politics