History

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

Press Versus Privacy: Does the Right to Be Left Alone Override the Public’s Right to Know?
On "Newsworthy: The Supreme Court Battle Over Privacy and Press Freedom."
Stephen RohdeJan 15, 2018
- History
- Law
The Hasidic Question
On "Hasidism: A New History," recently released by Princeton University Press.
George ProchnikJan 14, 2018
- History
- Religion
Is Government a Protection Racket? How Wheat and Taxes Built the Ancient States
The foundation of the state isn’t warfare; it’s actually the tribute that a strongman would demand from your garden.
Antonio GilmanJan 6, 2018
“Locked Out of Time”: A Conversation with Deanne Stillman
Deanne Stillman talks about the lives of Western icons we thought we knew.
Heather Scott PartingtonJan 5, 2018
- History
High Hitler
Hitler and the Nazis were taking methamphetamine and opiates. But their biggest drug was still the ideology.
Anthony MostromJan 3, 2018
- History
Framing 1966: Jon Savage on the Year the 1960s Exploded
Scott Timberg takes a spin through “1966: The Year the Decade Exploded” by Jon Savage.
Scott TimbergJan 1, 2018
- History
- Music
From Conflict to Dialogue and All the Way Back
Peter Harrison considers Yves Gingras's "Science and Religion: An Impossible Dialogue."
Peter HarrisonDec 27, 2017
Stealing Memories: On Anders Rydell’s “The Book Thieves”
Ashley Valanzola is captivated by “The Book Thieves: The Nazi Looting of Europe’s Libraries and the Race to Return a Literary Inheritance” by Anders Rydell.
Ashley ValanzolaDec 26, 2017
- Around the World
- History
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