Podcast The World the Plague Made November 15, 2022 In 1346, a catastrophic plague beset Europe and its neighbours. The Black Death was a human tragedy that abruptly halved entire populations and caused untold suffering, but it also brought about a cultural and economic renewal on a scale never before witnessed. Read More
Essay Prague’s infinite shades of gray November 10, 2022 Interwar Prague was an avant-garde hotbed, but the first exhibition of Czech art to take place at New York’s Museum of Modern Art was not devoted to Czech modernism. Read More
Essay Capitalism: The word and the thing October 12, 2022 Capitalism is a word used variously to describe an economic and social system, a modern form of political power, a dynamic mode of production, a stage in a world-historical process running from feudalism to communism, a western object of ideological allegiance, a durable form of inequality or, more simply, a thing. Read More
Essay When rules don’t rule July 21, 2022 Rules: there are so many of them, and all so very various. Rules for where to place that third fork in a formal table setting, rules for when to clap at concerts, rules for deciding who has the right of way at an intersection, rules for how to play games, rules for declaring taxable income, rules for how to greet friends—a firm handshake (Germany), alternating pecks on the cheek (France), a bow and clasped hands (India), or a hug (the U.S.). Read More
Essay Why Europe? Y. Pestis July 18, 2022 During the Middle Ages, two formidable species pervaded West Eurasia: homo sapiens (humans) and rattus rattus (black rats). The two disliked each other, but literally lived in each other’s homes. In 1345, the Black Death reached them. Read More
Essay The complex origins, development, and meanings of human rights June 14, 2022 In 2015, a young girl and her father crossed into the United States from the border with Mexico. Astrid and Arturo, K’iche’ Indians from Guatemala, were fleeing the systematic discrimination and violence their people have suffered for decades. Read More
Interview Book Club Pick: The Golden Rhinoceros June 08, 2022 From the birth of Islam in the seventh century to the voyages of European exploration in the fifteenth, Africa was at the center of a vibrant exchange of goods and ideas. Read More
Interview Bénédicte Savoy on Africa’s Struggle for its Art May 09, 2022 For decades, African nations have fought for the return of countless works of art stolen during the colonial era and placed in Western museums. In Africa’s Struggle for Its Art, Bénédicte Savoy brings to light this largely unknown but deeply important history. Read More
Podcast Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe May 09, 2022 At the end of the fourth century, as the power of Rome faded and Constantinople became the seat of empire, a new capital city was rising in the West. Here, in Ravenna on the coast of Italy, Arian Goths and Catholic Romans competed to produce an unrivaled concentration of buildings and astonishing mosaics. Read More
Essay Fortune’s knave April 11, 2022 In the spring of 1924, Stalin’s nemesis and rival, Lev Trotsky, told the “Old Bolshevik” Vladimir Smirnov, “Stalin will become the dictator of the USSR.” “Stalin?” Smirnov reacted. “But he is a mediocrity, a colorless non-entity.” Read More
Interview Robert K. Durkee on The New Princeton Companion April 05, 2022 The New Princeton Companion, edited by Robert K. Durkee, former vice president and secretary of Princeton University, is both a compendium and a chronicle of one of America’s finest institutions of higher learning. Read More
Interview Michael Brenner on In Hitler’s Munich March 28, 2022 In the aftermath of Germany’s defeat in World War I and the failed November Revolution of 1918–19, the conservative government of Bavaria identified Jews with left-wing radicalism. Read More
Essay Madison’s balancing act March 22, 2022 The further the American Revolution recedes into history, the easier it is to miss just how close the United States of America came to being a divided collection of competing colonies under the punishing heel of an angry Britain. Read More
Reading List A playlist for Waterloo Sunrise March 07, 2022 There are cultural moments that implant themselves in our shared consciousness, impacting how we discuss or recall those times. If someone were to mention the early aughts, for example, chances are we could all point to an event, a celebrity, a song that represents the entire era, not just for one person, but for us all. Read More
Video PUP Speaks: Kyle Harper on a germ’s-eye view of history November 30, 2021 In the immortal words of the rock band The Doors, people are strange. From nature’s perspective, human beings are highly unusual. Plagues upon the Earth PUP Speaks author Kyle Harper shows how humans became the irresistible hosts of so many diseases, and how it has shaped us as a species. Read More
