![A Chelsea Pensioner, wearing a sprig of orange blossom [?] in his buttonhole, sipping a dish of tea. Engraving by J. Jenkins after M. W. Sharp, 1840](https://daily.jstor.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/consuming_the_empire_alt_1050x700-600x400.jpg)
Consuming the Empire
Sugar, tea, and tobacco tied British daily life to empire, turning global exploitation into ordinary habits of consumption.
How Cold War “Orphans” Sang Their Way into American Hearts
Touring choirs helped cast Korean children as ideal adoptees—and Americans as benevolent saviors.
When Mao’s Mango Mania Took Over China
A fleeting cult built around a mango exposes the logic, and illogic, of Mao’s personality cult.
The Congo Crisis and the Rise of a Pan-African Musical Politics
How Patrice Lumumba’s assassination reshaped Black internationalism—and pushed musicians toward a new kind of activism.
The Explorer Who Faked His Way Through the Hajj
Englishman Richard Burton wore several disguises, ranging from merchant to doctor to pilgrim in the holy city of Mecca.
Laura Secord’s Walk
In 1813, Laura Secord walked 20 miles through enemy territory to warn British troops of an American attack, changing the course of the War of 1812.
Memory’s Role in Chile’s Democratic Rebirth
In post-Pinochet Chile, public memory became a pathway to accountability.
In Pursuit of Peace, Ancient Athens Created a Goddess
In the aftermath of the Peloponnesian War, Athenians worshipped Eirene. Her cult reflects the political role of religion in Ancient Greece.
When the Dust Settles in Colonial Manchurian Writing
Takagi Kyōzō makes heavy use of natural imagery to decry the miserable status of the settler colonist population in Japanese-occupied Manchuria.
The Committed Officers of Argentina’s Dirty War
The viciousness of Argentina’s Dirty War resulted not only from orders from above but from ideological buy-in at the ground level.