History

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

Marx: The Fourth Boom
Devin Thomas O’Shea pores over Andrew Hartman’s “Karl Marx in America.”
Devin Thomas O’SheaMay 27
- Politics
- History
Trumpian “Common Sense” and the History of IQ Tests
In the eighth essay of the Legacies of Eugenics series, Pepper Stetler explores the troubling history of IQ tests and special education.
Pepper StetlerMay 8
You Have Nothing to Lose but Your Chains: A May Day Reading List
In celebration of May Day, LARB probes the archives for illuminating essays and interviews on the history of workers, their rights, and the challenges they face for their futures.
May 1
- History
- Politics
The World of Yesterday, Today
Tim Brinkhof considers the relevance of Stefan Zweig’s 1942 autobiography for our own authoritarian times.
Tim BrinkhofApr 29
- History
- Politics
Premodern Chinese Literature Can Be Trendy Too
Maddalena Poli explores the new series from Oxford University Press, Hsu-Tang Library of Classical Chinese Literature.
Maddalena PoliApr 27
- History
The Isaiah of the Butterflies
In this new installment of an ongoing series, LARB founder Tom Lutz reflects on the “King of the Greenwich Village Bohemians,” Maxwell Bodenheim, and the significance of the year 1925.
Tom LutzApr 25
- Literary Criticism
- History
The Dialectic Lurking Behind the Brutality
Ieva Jusionyte digs into Greg Grandin’s “America, América: A New History of the New World.”
Ieva JusionyteApr 23
- History
Gulf of América
Esther Allen reviews Greg Grandin’s “America, América: A New History of the New World.”
Esther AllenApr 23
- History
Disturbers of the Peace
Jeffrey C. Isaac sees modern American parallels in Benjamin Nathan's book about Soviet dissidents.
Jeffrey C. IsaacApr 4
- History
- Politics
Recovering the Forgotten Past of Black Legal Lives
Ajay K. Mehrotra reviews Dylan C. Penningroth’s “Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights.”
Ajay K. MehrotraApr 3
- Law
- History
Jesus in the Fun House
Nick Owchar reviews Elaine Pagels’s “Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus.”
Nick OwcharApr 2
- Religion
- History
It’s All Greek and yet Frighteningly Comprehensible.
Robert Zaretsky and Michael Barnes consider Thucydides’s “History of the Peloponnesian War.”
Robert Zaretsky, Michael BarnesMar 23
- History
- Philosophy & Religion