History

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

A Grim Purgatory: On Greg Jenner’s History of Celebrity
Aida Amoako considers celebrity through Greg Jenner’s history of fame, “Dead Famous: An Unexpected History of Celebrity from Bronze Age to Silver Screen.”
Aida AmoakoOct 21, 2020
- Cultural Studies
- History
Evolution Wars: The Saga Continues
Jessica Riskin offers a revisionist history of evolutionary biology.
Jessica RiskinOct 20, 2020
- History
- Science & Technology
Exercising Religion and Taming Faction
Lael Weinberger reviews "Beyond Belief, Beyond Conscience: The Radical Significance of the Free Exercise of Religion" by Jack N. Rakove.
Lael WeinbergerOct 18, 2020
German Pigs and the Autocrats Who Loved Them
“Communist Pigs” advances the swine history of Germany, taking readers to the era of authoritarian rule in the GDR.
Natalie KochOct 15, 2020
Slavery’s End: On Tom Zoellner’s “Island on Fire”
A history of Sharpe’s Rebellion in Jamaica and its role in the abolition of British slavery.
Charmaine McKenzieOct 13, 2020
Transcending Gravity: The View from Postcolonial Dhaka to Colonies in Space
Reviewing Fred Scharmen’s “Space Settlements,” historian of technology Asif Siddiqi describes how modernist architects have engaged with utopias in space.
Asif SiddiqiOct 12, 2020
- History
- Science & Technology
“Wright-Gate” and Newt’s Ruthless Playbook
The story of how an ethical tussle in Congress during the early 1990s broke American politics for decades.
Amelia PollardOct 9, 2020
- History
- Politics
The Best Bad Things: On Gary Noy’s “Hellacious California!”
A history of Old California has some blind spots but still adds to the conversation about the meaning of the Golden State.
Helen CabreraOct 9, 2020
- History
A Cohort of One’s Own
Frances Lazare considers the friendships and fights of "The Equivalents" by Maggie Doherty and "No Modernism Without Lesbians" by Diana Souhami.
Frances LazareOct 9, 2020
Truths Too Terrible: On Arthur Schnitzler and Franz Kafka
LARB presents an excerpt from Adam Kirsch’s “The Blessing and the Curse: The Jewish People and Their Books in the Twentieth Century.”
Adam KirschOct 8, 2020
Charisma: Now You’ve Got It, Now You Don’t
A rich and rewarding study of political leadership in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Robert ZaretskyOct 6, 2020
- History
- Politics
What Makes “A People’s History”?
Hannah Zeavin examines the critical possibilities of the “people’s history.”
Hannah ZeavinOct 6, 2020