The History of Humour
October 4, 2019
Terry Eagleton— Perhaps the single most contradictory political phenomenon of the modern world is nationalism, which ranges from the Nazi death camps to a principled resistance to imperial power. In… READ MORE
Category: History
Sparta and Athens: From Peace to War
September 25, 2019
Paul A. Rahe— In his now neglected masterpiece Marlborough: His Life and Times, Winston Churchill once hazarded the following observation: Battles are the principal milestones in secular history. Modern opinion… READ MORE
The Gospel of Matthew: Within and Without Judaism
September 16, 2019
John Kampen— Matthew is usually regarded as the “most Jewish gospel” since it bears evidence of more direct and more informed interaction with texts, concepts, and institutions usually identified with… READ MORE
It’s Not About Religion
September 13, 2019
Kathleen M. Sands— Recently, the Supreme Court decided about the forty foot “Peace Cross” that’s stood for nearly a century in Bladensburg, Maryland. For the American Legion, the Cross… READ MORE
From House Telegraphs to Mobile Phones
September 10, 2019
Lee Jackson— In December 1858, Punch, the satirical magazine, imagined the next stage in the nineteenth century information revolution: the “house telegraph.” With such a device, one could be both… READ MORE
Understanding Literacy
September 9, 2019
Beth Barton Schweiger— The power of literacy’s hold on the modern imagination cannot easily be measured. One way to begin to comprehend it is to pose a question: who is… READ MORE
A Century of Moscow’s Meddling in US Politics
August 23, 2019
David Brandenberger— Allegations of Russian dirty tricks in the 2016 US presidential campaign often treat the issue of interference as if it were a historic, unprecedented transgression. But although the… READ MORE
The Past and Present of Print
August 16, 2019
Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen— Does Tim Berners-Lee regret inventing the internet? At the time, the internet was trumpeted, like any step forward in information culture, as a liberating… READ MORE
Democratic Socialist Ideas and Social Democratic Realities
August 15, 2019
Gary Dorrien— Democratic socialism, an idea with a rich history in European politics and a slight history in U.S. American politics, is surging today in the U.S. partly because America… READ MORE
Remembering (and Forgetting) Epidemics
August 9, 2019
Kevin Siena— Every year my undergraduates are surprised to learn that 50-100 million people died a century ago during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918–20. We can probably thank the… READ MORE
From 9/11 to 9/11: The Widening of the Atlantic