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
Interview Margaret Jacobs on After One Hundred Winters November 09, 2021 After One Hundred Winters confronts the harsh truth that the United States was founded on the violent dispossession of Indigenous people and asks what reconciliation might mean in light of this haunted history. Read More
Podcast Listen in: After One Hundred Winters November 01, 2021 After One Hundred Winters confronts the harsh truth that the United States was founded on the violent dispossession of Indigenous people and asks what reconciliation might mean in light of this haunted history. Read More
Essay A social democratic surprise: The results of the German elections October 12, 2021 The first election after Chancellor Angela Merkel’s retirement was eagerly awaited, since it would show the direction of Germany’s and Europe’s future. Read More
Interview Kyle Harper on Plagues upon the Earth October 06, 2021 Plagues upon the Earth is a monumental history of humans and their germs. Weaving together a grand narrative of global history with insights from cutting-edge genetics, Kyle Harper explains why humanity’s uniquely dangerous disease pool is rooted deep in our evolutionary past, and why its growth is accelerated by technological progress. Read More
Essay A look inside City of Dreams October 03, 2021 On April 10, 1962, amid ceremony and celebration, Dodger Stadium, major league baseball’s modern showpiece, opened in Los Angeles, California. Read More
Essay The fall of Kabul and the new decolonization September 28, 2021 The collapse of the Western-backed regime in Afghanistan in August 2021, and the subsequent images of the chaotic retreat of the American-led forces from Kabul Airport—grandiosely named after the former President of a now-defunct regime, Hamid Karzai—fits easily into the photo album of contemporary history. Read More
Essay The three ages of India’s democracy August 26, 2021 The comparative study of democracies has long since determined that this type of regime warrants qualification. While liberal democracy remains an ideal form, many “hybrids” that blend this archetype with other political genres have long existed. Read More
Interview Tonio Andrade on The Last Embassy July 12, 2021 George Macartney’s disastrous 1793 mission to China plays a central role in the prevailing narrative of modern Sino-European relations. Read More
Essay A look inside A World Divided June 28, 2021 Hoi An is a lovely Vietnamese town, one that managed to survive, largely unscathed, the wars that ravaged the country in the twentieth century. Read More
Essay The fall of Masada June 24, 2021 Two thousand years ago, 967 Jewish men, women, and children reportedly chose to take their own lives rather than suffer enslavement or death at the hands of the Roman army. Read More
Essay A look inside Eva Palmer Sikelianos June 15, 2021 I was myself introduced to Eva Palmer Sikelianos while leafing through books and magazines about Greece in my parents’ library in the 1960s and 1970s. Read More
Podcast Listen in: Eva Palmer Sikelianos June 08, 2021 Listen to an audio sample from Eva Palmer Sikelianos: A Life in Ruins, a new book about the American actor, director, composer, and weaver best known for reviving the Delphic Festivals. Read More
Interview By Design | An Infinite History June 04, 2021 Emma Rothschild’s An Infinite History is a history of infinite possibilities. The book traces the fortunes of a single family and its descendants across space and time, beginning with an ordinary, illiterate woman—Marie Aymard—in an ordinary, provincial part of France—Angoulême—in a time that was drifting towards political revolution and economic transformation. Read More
Essay From equal rights to full rights May 18, 2021 The Equal Rights Amendment, introduced in 1923, has resurfaced in 2021 after a long sleep. Whether it becomes part of the US Constitution is anyone’s guess, as is the practical effect of such a change given the conservative tilt of the Supreme Court. Read More
