History

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

“Not in Someone Else’s Footsteps”: Studying Literature from the Gulag
Lydia Roberts praises “Intellectual Life and Literature at Solovki 1923-1930: The Paris of the Northern Concentration Camps” by Andrea Gullotta.
Lydia RobertsMay 3, 2018
1,001 Days in Chicago: Tales of Violence in the City
Rachel Shteir looks at tales of violence in Chicago.
Rachel ShteirMay 2, 2018
Gates of Mind: Reflecting on Amy R. Bloch’s “Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise”
Historian Amy R. Bloch’s valuable “Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise” discloses a different kind of splendor, not the splendor of surface but of depth.
Ellen Handler SpitzMay 1, 2018
The After of Disaster in “The Great Quake”
Henry Fountain’s scientific interests are wide-ranging and resolutely anchored in the human.
Sally McGraneApr 28, 2018
- History
- Science & Technology
Sex Ed for Christians
A pair of new books challenge conventional assumptions about sex and Christianity.
John ComptonApr 23, 2018
Responding to an Emergency: On Lynn Hunt’s “History: Why it Matters”
Robert Zaretsky appreciates “History: Why it Matters,” a rallying cry for the discipline by Lynn Hunt.
Robert ZaretskyApr 23, 2018
- History
The Voices of Hayden White
Amy Elias reminds us of what we have lost with the passing of Hayden White, one of the great humanist minds of our time.
Amy J. EliasApr 22, 2018
- History
- Literary Criticism
The Dark Side of Nice
D. Berton Emerson on Carrie Tirado Bramen’s “American Niceness: A Cultural History”
D. Berton EmersonApr 22, 2018
- Cultural Studies
- History
Beast Mode
Colin Dickey on Peter Sahlins’s “1668: The Year of the Animal in France”
Colin DickeyApr 15, 2018
Navigating “The Epic City”
A multifarious portrait of a giant South Asian city.
Gary SinghApr 13, 2018
The Surprising Roots of Recent White Extremism
On Kathleen Belew's "Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America."
Joseph DardaApr 9, 2018
- History
- Politics
Inventing the Pogrom: Assigning Meaning to the Kishinev Massacre
How the word “pogrom” became one of the surprisingly few Russian words that have ever made it into English.
Jack MilesApr 9, 2018
- History
- Religion