Why Do Governments Target Protest Masks?
The galvanizing power of the ideology behind a protest mask is a palpable thing.
The First U.S.-China Trade Deal
The Treaty of Wanghia formalized the burgeoning ties between the two countries, opening the door to new commercial and cultural exchanges.
How Did Kashmir’s 72-Year-Old Conflict Begin?
The proposal to partition British India along religious lines was put forward as early as 1940. The resulting constitutional provision endured until 2019.
How the Great Pumpkin Became Great
The origins of Linus's pumpkin deity, who "rises out of the pumpkin patch and flies through the air and brings toys to all the children in the world."
A Roman Feast… of Death!
The banquet hall was painted black from ceiling to floor. By the pale flicker of grave lamps, the invited senators coud make out a row of tombstones.
Why MLK Believed Jazz Was the Perfect Soundtrack for Civil Rights
Jazz, King declared, was the ability to take the “hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph.”
Oscar Wilde’s Pamphlet: “Children in Prison and Other Cruelties of Prison Life”
Wilde's description is heart-wrenching, but that doesn't hold him back from the usual wit and drama that characterize his writing.
The Columbian Exchange Should Be Called The Columbian Extraction
Europeans were eager to absorb the starches and flavors pioneered by the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere.
Che Guevara
In 1964, 5 years after the end of the Cuban revolution, Che Guevara wrote for an academic journal. Read the Cuban leader in his own words.
Why Did Nixon Burn the China Hands?
Nixon targeted Foreign Service officers who served in China in the 1940s as communist sympathizers and "fellow travelers." Then he opened trade relations.