Detail from a French print from 1793that uses the Liberty Cap as a motif of the First Republic.

The Rise and Fall of the Liberty Cap

What happened to the revolutionary headgear that symbolized freedom from enslavement? Meet the sectional politics of the early republic.
Mariel Refugees

How Gay Marielitos Changed Immigration

In 1980, the policy of denying entry into the US based on homosexuality ran smack into anticommunism.
Six Children Killed in Regensburg, from Bavaria Sancta: The Life and Martyrdom of Holy Men and Women (Vol. III)

On the Origins of the Blood Libel

The ultimate conspiracy theory may be the charge of Jews killing Christian children.
Portrait of Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo

The Women (Real and Imagined) Resisting Caudillos

In Latin America and the Caribbean, women's groups have acted to oppose military dictatorships. In fiction, their roles are rarely that of protagonist.
Friedrich Schlegel

What Does It Mean To Be German?

A German scholar's work on India, meant to foster European unity, instead may have sown the seed of nationalism.
Women form a human chain to carry bricks used in the reconstruction of Dresden, March 1946

Did Allied Bombs Destroy German Morale?

With men mostly absent, women and children dominated a small city called Darmstadt. Then "fire night" came.
An illustration of strawberries

Strawberries and British Identity Forever

Even though they occupied much of South Asia, British civil servants and their wives wanted a taste of home. Strawberries, for instance.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) wears a traditional Afghani burqa while giving a speech in support of Afghan women's rights and American involvement against Taliban in the United States House of Representatives, October 16, 2001

A War of Liberation for Afghan Women?

The Taliban's gender-based repression was part of the US argument for invading Afghanistan.
A disappearing Roman emperor with a lictor (left) and nobleman (right)

Latin Literature’s Problem with Invisibility

Ancient Romans saw the rituals of professional sorcerers as foreign and suspicious. But how else were you supposed to become invisible?
Walter Rubusana

How Walter Rubusana Paved the Way for Nelson Mandela

Rubusana was the first Black politician elected to office in colonial South Africa.