History

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

Et in Arcadia Ego
How did René Descartes produce "cheap lives"? John W. W. Zeiser on "A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things."
John W. W. ZeiserDec 26, 2017
- Economics and Finance
- History
The Pure Products of America Go Crazy: A Conversation with Kurt Andersen About “Fantasyland”
Scott Timberg interviews Kurt Andersen about his latest, “Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-year History.”
Scott TimbergDec 20, 2017
Where It Happened: Documenting the American Places We’d Like to Forget
A gorgeous photo album of America’s unvisited places of its troubled past.
Tom ZoellnerDec 18, 2017
Psychedelic Futures
A review of Don Lattin's "Changing Our Minds: Psychedelic Sacraments and the New Psychotherapy."
Doug MerlinoDec 15, 2017
- History
- Science & Technology
The Sense of Life in What Humans Create: Stephen Greenblatt on Adam and Eve
Scott Timberg interviews Stephen Greenblatt about his latest, “The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve.”
Scott TimbergDec 14, 2017
Reform Under the Fire of Radicalism
A new book about five icons of the 20th-century American left.
Tom GallagherDec 14, 2017
- History
- Politics
Reza Aslan’s Human God
Randy Rosenthal considers Reza Aslan's "God: A Human History," his history of the religious impulse.
Randy RosenthalDec 12, 2017
- History
- Religion
Anti-Fascism Beyond the Headlines: Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore Interviews Mark Bray
Mark Bray talks about the media response to his book “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook.”
Mattilda Bernstein SycamoreDec 11, 2017
- History
- Politics
Acquisition and Empire: On James Delbourgo’s “Collecting the World”
On the origins of the British Museum.
Suzanne FischerDec 10, 2017
A Lexicon of the Indigenous Body: Images of Autonomy and Desire
Natalie Diaz on the indigenous body in art.
Natalie DiazDec 8, 2017
How the Environment Topples Empires: On Kyle Harper’s “The Fate of Rome”
Ellie Robins outlines the lessons of “The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire” by Kyle Harper.
Ellie RobinsDec 7, 2017
- History
Flames and Famine: On Laura Engelstein and Anne Applebaum
“Russia in Flames” by Laura Engelstein, “Red Famine” by Anne Applebaum, and the legacies of the first communist state.
Douglas SmithNov 16, 2017
- Around the World
- History